Sheep Changes Coming
- Thread starter sheephunter
- Start date
Oh sorry...virtually no controlled burning happening in sheep range. A bit in the Blackstone and one in Willmore. I suspect we are just approaching maximum carrying capacity across much of the range. Smaller horns and low lamb survival could be indicators. The government seems to believe we are at carrying capacity in much range as is evident by ewe hunts....I'd tend to agree. As unpopular as it would likely be and most likely wouldn't understand the rationale but killing more ewes may be a good thing in the short term but improving range is critical in the long term. Yes, Banff seems a bit more aggressive with their burning than the province is.
From an evolutionary biology standpoint it seems that selecting trophy quality full curl rams will result in there being an evolutionary advantage to never going full curl. I would agree that a more liberal policy towards non trophy sheeps and ewes would be a good thing. I think the idea that environmental revitalization is more important than stricter regulation needs to be recognized in all alberta game and fish management strategies.
The whole genetic argument falls apart for a number of reasons but primarily because a large number of the breeding rams don't leave the safety of the National or provincial parks until well after hunting season has ended. There is a constant supply of unhunted genetics being introduced to the herd. In a closed population it may be believable but not when there is a huge supply of new rams on rutting slopes every year.
That`s an interesting argument, it seems very plausible. The issue appears to be that we are selecting sheep in certain ranges, even if new sheep do come from the park every year it is still deletrious to be a full curl outside of specific (albeit large) ranges, ultimately this is still bad for trophy quality imo.
RE ewe and non trophy hunts; do you think this is sustainable in the bow valley kananaskis area? I would consider it a good opportunity, but for people in the urban centers and foothills who cannot day hunt the area for other species the tags might not be such a hot sale. Not many guys would be up for a hunting camp to shoot an ewe and possibly an elk if they drew...
RE ewe and non trophy hunts; do you think this is sustainable in the bow valley kananaskis area? I would consider it a good opportunity, but for people in the urban centers and foothills who cannot day hunt the area for other species the tags might not be such a hot sale. Not many guys would be up for a hunting camp to shoot an ewe and possibly an elk if they drew...
All ewe hunting is very controlled by limited entry draw with most areas taking several years to draw. It is a very hot commodity other than in a few of the very remote northern WMUs. It's primarily a day hunt opportunity in Kananaskis area. It's only a couple hour drive from over a million people.
Why don't all that replied to this thread that want this stopped actually do something about it cause no group involved in agmag is going to stand up and fight. Remember that srd works for Albertans to manage our herds. They are not the ones that should be telling us what they are doing with out ACTUAL proof of a problem. I for one am sick of the crap that has been going on. AFGA and a few others have done NOTHING for us as a whole except for getting all the whiners more tags cause they want to slaughter our herds over cwd and other bs reasons. Our sheep are not as doomed as they are leading on. I seen 24 rams this year. I had a great chance at the sheep that was later shot with the ministers tag but just never happened as I ran out of time and had to get to work in the morning. The 2 rams that were with him were both well passed full curl. The rest of the sheep were all good looking rams that were mostly not legal but the 7 that were. Those 7 were all broomed and were barely legal because of that so I let them all walk. The last week I saw one more that was bigger. So again why are they trying to change stuff other than to manage hunters like always.
Start a petition or even better lets all as a group go to the courts and stop the miss management of our wildlife. This is the start and our mule deer and elk are next.
Start a petition or even better lets all as a group go to the courts and stop the miss management of our wildlife. This is the start and our mule deer and elk are next.
I'd say several of the AGMAG groups, AFGA, WSFAB and APOS included are fighting very hard against this. Nothing wrong with writing letters and starting petitions either but you may want to find out what these groups are doing and offer them your support as well. They are the key to ensuring proper management of our bighorn sheep. Slagging them really accomplishes nothing. They lead the charge in 2013 and are again in 2015.
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Post them up. No I didn't as I don't support anything AFGA stands for. Alberta Needs a new group to represent Alberta residents that actually care what all residents think. The law suite that was threatened to srd should actually happen as they are pushing stuff even though there is no facts to back up any change they are saying is going to happen.
Already posted above.
AFGA release a statement that they are opposed to any regulation changes without proper scientific proof that a change is required.
WSFAB is against the Full Curl regulation, but posted up some alternative possible solutions in a ppt on their website including a draw and closing the season for acouple years.
In fairness to them, those were not their possible solutions but just a generic list of ideas that have been floating around the sheep hunting community and they were posted strictly as information for discussion at the Reno meeting and not as possible solutions put forward by WSFAB. Basically WSFAB gathered up a ton of information from various groups and individuals and threw it all out for discussion. Their official position as I understand it is the same as that of AFGA.
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I'm aware of that, but it's interesting that Full Curl isn't even given a consideration in these possible solutions. Meanwhile they offer several that severly limit resident hunter opportunity.
Apparently you are not aware of it...they offered nothing. It was strictly informational. I'm certain most people understood that full curl was one of the options as it's what's the entire meeting was about. Funny that no one north of Lethbridge seems confused.
