No moose?
Here it is, straight from the horses mouth (BC Wildlife Federation.)
Nass moose hunt placed under limits
Terrace Standard
August 29, 2007
Moose hunting is being cut back in and around the Nass Valley to restore a population that is estimated to have dropped from 1,200 to 600 animals over the past five years.
The goal is to have a bulls-only hunt of 70 animals, down from 225 bulls, cows and calves in previous years, says provincial environment ministry wildlife technician George Schultz.
In effect, the general open season has been closed immediately.
The decision was based on a moose count survey this past winter and made by a committee of provincial and Nisga’a representatives set up to administer wildlife issues as a result of the 2000 Nisga’a land claims treaty.
Protecting cows and calves will give the moose population a chance to increase in size, Schultz said.
The Nisga’a will get 46 of the 70 bulls, according to a formula set out in the treaty.
But things get complicated in determining how the remaining 24 bulls are to be parceled out, said Schultz.
The Gitanyow and Gitxsan are neighbours of the Nisga’a to the east and hunt in some of the area where numbers are to be cut back.
Unlike the Nisga’a who have a quota based on their treaty, the Gitanyow and Gitxsan don’t have treaties, relying in this case on their constitutional right to hunt for food. That constitutional right does not establish numbers.
“They can take what they feel they need to meet their traditional needs,” said Schultz. “We’ll be meeting with them to make them aware of the situation and to point out what others are doing.”
On average, Schultz estimates the Gitanyow and Gitxsan take enough moose each year to use up the 24 bull total to reach the 70 mark.
But he expects more than 70 bulls could be shot this year because of a specific environment ministry policy.
“The policy from our deputy minister is that we don’t want to exclude any single user group. The objective is not to close [the hunt],” said Schultz.
To meet that objective, the decision was made to keep the limited entry hunt for resident and non-resident hunters. That’s because the limited entry hunt is easier to manage than an open season one.
Although the wildlife officials did keep the limited entry hunt, they reduced the number of permits to the absolute minimum they could by regulation. The hope is to keep the potential number of kills down as much as possible.
“The anticipated hunt is about 10,” said Schultz of the intended result.
“No one’s happy with any of this. But we’re playing the hand we’ve been dealt with at the moment,” Schultz continued.
Wildlife officials are asking for a regulation change for next year so they can reduce the number of limited entry hunt permits to the absolute minimum, ideally ending up with just one bull moose shot in each of the management areas in question. “That’s the intended result. To reduce the hunt to the absolute minimum short of closing the hunt to the resident/non-resident category altogether,” said Schultz.
No one’s quite sure why the moose population has dropped by as much as half since the first count, conducted under the auspices of the Nisga’a treaty, and done in 2001.
“The survey found there was good calf to cow ratios, so that’s not an issue,” said Schultz. “For some reason, something has happened to the numbers of cows.”
Schultz did say the numbers used by the wildlife committee are based on mathematical models and could vary but that there’s no disputing the trend.
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BCWF ALERT
John B Holdstock
BC Wildlife Federation
Kelowna, BC
jbholdstock@shawcable.com
https://totalrecoil.wordpress.com/
