Game Management: A Numbers Game

The Economist, a popular financial journal reports: “Data; the worlds most valuable resource”. Like many similar truisms, “You can’t manage what you aren’t measuring, and if you aren’t measuring, you aren’t managing”. They are as pertinent to Game Managers as to Pension Fund Managers.

A Game Harvest Statement is released by Statistisk Centralbyra, Statistics Norway during the third week of March every year. It is an annual reporting to hunters that was started in 1876. Data are provided by hunters, required within two weeks of season end for compilation and statistical comparison. It is done for all species and presented in the Agriculture, Forestry, Hunting and Fishing section. Tables summarizing the sex and age composition of species harvested over the decades are also included for all counties. Non-hunting mortalities are also reported. It is the envy of hunters and game managers everywhere.

The following Tables for Moose and Red deer harvests reflect an increasing abundance in their populations arising mid 20th century. It results from a game management strategy of selective harvests based on sex and age quotas that improve population structure: maintaining a cow to bull ratio of approximately 2:1; increasing the mean age of cows, and producing more prime bulls. 

Clear-cutting, was implemented as a forest harvest practice that created abundant shrub-food supplies, an important factor in establishing the large moose populations. Predation was not a limiting factor as wolves and brown bears were nearly eliminated. These factors have been explained by J. Lykke, ALCES VOL. 41: 9-24 (2005) as a Production-Harvest Model for moose populations. Refer to the abstract for an overview.

Table 06036, Moose felled, 1889-1890 to 2010-2122

• 1961-62 to 1974-75 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 7,899 per year.

• 1975-76 to 1978-79 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 12,513 per year

• 1981-82 to 1990-91 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 24,899 per year

• 1991-92 to 2020-21 seasons , the mean (average) felled was 31,910 per year

Consistently high harvests have been achieved for four decades and are stabilizing as land owners, game and forest-users and governments have accommodated their respective interests. The moose population c.1900 was estimated at 5,000, mostly in the eastern part of the country.   

Table 06037, Red deer felled, 1889-1890 to 2021-202

• 1961-62 to 1969-70 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 2,662 per year

• 1971-71 to 1979-80 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 4,864 per year

• 1981-82 to 1989-90 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 9,851 per year

• 1991-92 to 1999-20 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 19,104 per year

• 2001-02 to 2009-10 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 31,437 per year

• 2011-12 to 2020-21 seasons, the mean (average) felled was 41,354 per year

  Results are equally impressive; achieved using management strategies similar to those for moose. The Red deer population c.1900 was estimated in low hundreds, consisting six small groups in the southwest coastal region. 

Annually high Roe deer harvests have also been achieved over the past four decades; 25,000 to 34,000 respectively. Roe deer c.1900 were extinct in Norway. 

Table 06060, Registered mortality of large carnivores from 1846 to 2020 are records of Brown bears, Wolves, Lynx and Wolverines harvested annually. 

Mean Number of Bears and Wolves Harvested Annually; data from Table 06060 

Year            Bears  Wolves         

1846-1855   235      225 

1856-1865   209      161

1866-1875   142       42

1876-1885   124       40

1886-1895    72        40

1896-1905    40        58

1906-1915    20        38

1916-1925    4          22   

1996-2005    3.8       4.7

2006- 2015   11.3     9.5

2016-2020     8      25.6

Predator control was introduced to protect livestock. Bounties were paid to subsidize costs of the culling activity. From 1846 to 1916 bear and wolf populations were significantly reduced. Culling continued for another 80 years and effectively eradicated the predators. In 1995 the European Union demanded that member countries restore their predator populations. Predictably they began to recover but in 2016, dissatisfied Norwegian farmers and hunting dog owners challenged the EU authority and in 2022 the government restored a cull including one in the wolf protection zone where a limit of only two pairs of adults will be allowed. Elsewhere the cull will be determined by local committees comprised of farmers and hunters. 

Continuous records of game harvests in Norway have existed longer than Canada has been a country and are readily available. The records also include cervid mortalities attributed mainly to railroad and vehicle traffic. Consistently high cervid harvest rates of 20 and 30 per cent per year reflect abundant populations that have provided plenty of meat (venison) and great hunting for almost half a century. The recreational and economic benefits of this bounty continue. 

The area of British Columbia is two and a half times greater than Norway and compares physiographically across most regions; is yet unable to yield comparable cervid populations and harvests. Arguably, the greater diversity of BC wildlife; four species of large predators, black bears, cougars, bobcats and coyotes and ungulates that include thinhorn and bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mule and white-tailed deer, elk and bison is a factor, but the main reason Norway surpasses BC in producing and maintaining game populations is cultural. Numbers in the rows and columns are the data that explain their success; comparable numbers for BC are unavailable, and haven’t been for 22 years.

Ken Sumanik, May 27, 2022   

Selective Harvest Management of a Norwegian Moose Population by Jon Lykke, 2005

This is a keystone study that BC Game Managers have ignored as they do not reference this work in any of theirs. In 1997 when asked by Dr. Ian McTaggart Cowan to show Jon Lykke, a Norwegian moose management biologist and graduate student some of BC’s best moose habitat, I obliged by inviting him on a flight over the lower Finlay River area of the Rocky Mountain Trench prior to it being flooded the following year. On a direct flight over the shallow water of Ospika Swamp in mid-June, 1967, we counted 181 moose. They were cows with calves in a safe haven away from wolves and bears when calves are most vulnerable. He commented enthusiastically on seeing his first moose refugium. He also explained a successful forest-moose management program in central Norway that had been in use for over a decade and the remarkable results that were achieved.

The essential elements of the program are as follows:

-Abundant shrub food supplies created by clear-cutting as a major timber harvest practice.

-The almost total absence of predation by wolves and brown bearsHarvesting younger animals;

-70% of the harvest were calves, one and two and a half year olds, the remainder a 30% mix of older bulls and cows.

-Access also an important factor in effectively distributing hunters throughout the management area.

This method of moose management was also applied throughout Fenno-scandanavia with outstanding results. For example, in 1982 Swedish hunters harvested 174,000 moose. Over populations of moose were a serious threat to forest crops by browsing economically important coniferous species. Presently moose populations and harvests are much lower but remain very high by NA standards. This abundance was threatened in 1995 by EU bureaucrats insisting that wolf and brown bear populations in member countries return to pre-determined numbers. It was also resisted by moose hunters as a strong hunting tradition persists across Fenno-scandanavia. Recently, the Norwegian government announced a heavy wolf cull beginning this winter 2021-22 to protect livestock and valuable hunting dogs from being killed by wolves during the hunting season. The cull in the Wolf Protection Zone will limit the surviving population to no more than three pairs and wolves outside the zone will also be culled heavily. Sweden and Finland are also taking strong measures to reduce their wolf populations.

-Ken Sumanik, RPBio, MSc(Zool)

link to the study below:

moose Selective Harvest Management of a Norwegian Moose Population; Jon Lykke, 2005

The Kootenay Wildlife Heritage Fund

Hello Conservation partners, 

We apologize for the lack of activity on our social media and website. I’m sure as many of you know our organization has been going through some changes after losing our founder/president, Carmen Purdy. Carmen was an incredible person, his dedication to his family, friends, wildlife in the Kootenays and his church had no boundaries and he is sorely missed by this organization, his friends, family and the wildlife conservation community in the Kootenays. 

Carmen founded the Kootenay Wildlife Heritage Fund 40 years ago and dedicated many hours to making sure this fund was used to help wildlife populations who pay their way in the Kootenays, in other words, our big game resources. Over the years the KWHF has been instrumental in the acquisition of 28,000 plus acres of conservation properties throughout the East and West Kootenays. We have also helped maintain and enhance those properties by putting dollars on the ground as well as organizing many volunteer hours. 

The board assembled a meeting and we have officially elected Lucas Purdy as the new president. Lucas is a life long resident in the Kootenays and looks foreword to carrying on Carmen’s legacy and the KWHF, of course that is not possible without our board of directors and generous supporters.

Yours in conservation,

The Kootenay Wildlife Heritage Fund

Ponderations Continued: How Bad?

Written by: Ken Sumanik

Paper Continued from: https://www.kwhf.ca/news-events/the-big-bad-wolf-how-big-and-how-bad

“What Happened to Our Big Game” was the topic of the KWH Symposium April 13, 2019. The question is yet to be answered. This information is presented as a reminder.

The great days of elk and moose hunting in the western States and Provinces is only a memory. During the 1950s in the southern Alberta Foothills it was common to see a 100 mule deer or more in a day of hunting and as many elk but my personal best was about 1000 in a single herd. Wolves were scarce or almost non existent as the government had poisoned canids, because of a rabies outbreak. Moose were very abundant in central and northern BC, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, attributable in part to wolf control measures in the region. Following the end of areal baiting in 1964, wolf populations recovered quickly and moose populations began their decline. Food supply was not a limiting factor.

Wolves were eradicated in the US by the mid 1950s. Grizzly bears were also culled but a remnant population survived in YNP. Ungulates proliferated and their food supplies became a limiting factor for many populations. This required some feeding during severe winter conditions to ensure survival. When Canadian wolves were transplanted into YNP in 1995, they decimated elk and moose populations in the park. Surplus wolves dispersed onto the adjacent private lands where livestock were convenient prey.

Wolves dispersed from Kootenay National Park into the East Kootenay (EK) in the early 1990s and the decrease in the elk and moose populations began. By the beginning of the third millennium wolf predation became the major limiting factor. The ignorance of predation generally but wolf predation specifically in regulating ungulate populations is profound, drawing strong invective from those whose livelihoods were affected or threatened, particularly livestock owners and big game dependent people in ID, MT, WY and the EK.

Wolf predation combined with the annual elk harvest in the EK is remarkably similar asthe Lolo elk population collapse in ID as described by George Pauly and predicted by the late Dr. Tom Bergerud. A summary of five seasons of wolf culling in the Lolo Zone follows:

Source: https://youtu.be/eqpr0xoTp9E?t=539

The elk population decline began prior to 2000 and continued even with the removal of 48 wolves over a five-year period, 2009-2014

Source: https://youtu.be/eqpr0xoTp9E?t=250

This wolf reproductive rate as presented in this graph in explains why removing 48 wolves from the Lolo Zone was ineffectual.

Source: https://youtu.be/eqpr0xoTp9E?t=692

An elk population will not increase even with removing 70 per cent of a wolf population!

Source: https://youtu.be/eqpr0xoTp9E?t=799

The collapse of the Lolo elk herd took approximately 20 years, and it will take the same time or more for recovery provided an effective wolf control program is implemented.

Source: https://idahoforwildlife.com/index.php/research-data/idaho-elk-harvest-graphs-and-data

The 20-fold decrease in Elk harvest confirms the elk population collapse in Lolo Units 10 and 12. This is a classic Predator Pit as described by Dr. Tom Bergerud and Dr. Valerius Geist, a top-down population regulation factor similar to the one resulting in the near demise of caribou across Northern Canada. The impact of wolf and grizzly bear predation on moose and caribou in Alaska is devastating. It is a Predator Pit euphemistically referred to as a game population in a state of Low-Density Dynamic Equilibrium (LDDE).

Rocky Mountain Trench Spring Elk Carry-Over Count Summary - 1971-1983, 1996 - 2002

Data By: William J Warkentin

Calves per 100 adult cows are consistent at 37 per cent indicating a stable population from 1978 to 2002. These data are essential for managing a game population, and any recorded later than 2002 are presently unavailable. Wolf predation is presumed to have become a serious threat thereafter.

Game management information in BC is readily available but words are substituted for actual numbers so it is no longer possible to measure real changes in Game populations.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/bxne4ujj

Source: https://hctf.ca/

A Strategy to Help Restore Moose Populations in BC Restoration has been underway for five years now but data to measure actual progress in the recovery is unavailable. Numbers are available from the HCTF but are not the kind required to manage a game population.

Game Harvest results for moose and red deer in Norway, 2020-2021 are beyond belief as are those for roe deer and wild reindeer. The hunting tradition is alive and well in Norway.

See following links:

https://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/elgjakt

https://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/hjortejakt

https://www.ssb.no/en/jord-skog-jakt-og-fiskeri/statistikker/hjortavg

The combination of an abundant food supply created by timber harvesting, an almost complete absence of wolves and brown bears and a harvest of more younger animals than older ones, at a ratio of approximately 60:40 results in these outstanding harvests. Similar moose management is also practiced in Newfoundland. Both exemplify a bottom-up food related population regulation factor. It also applies in Quebec on Anticosti Island and in Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island.

The dream of a more inclusive Wildlife Management agency has become a nightmare...a Rabbit Hole "Through the Looking Glass" experience the inventors might wish to have avoided. Centuries of history and experience of wolf predation on livestock and wild ungulates was passed off as oldish and outdated, replaced by more modern sophisticated knowledge and sophistry!

BC hunters demand explanations for the game management practices that have failed to sustain their game populations, and what is being done to be done to restore them.

KEHA Spikes Youth Turkey Derby

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to give you a heads up that the Kootenay Elk Hunting Association Spikes Youth Turkey Derby has kicked off! It runs from April 15-May 15. Turkey Derby is open to BC resident youth hunters aged 10-17. There is no fee and lots of great prizes!

The Kootenay Elk Hunting Association has had great success through their KEHA Spikes Youth program getting the public involved and educated with our favourite past time Hunting and the great outdoors. They have educated countless first time hunting families on the ethics, conservation and education. This program is proving to be making a positive impact in the household of our communities.

These families the KEHA are referring to are completely new to the hunting world and are being educated and given the resources and information to fully understand the current battle the hunting world is in.

More information about the contest and prizes can be found on the KEHA facebook page or on their website at www.keha.ca

The End of Evidence-Based Wildlife Management, By Ken Sumanik

Dear Readers,

After a decade of relative obscurity, the Spotted Owl (SO) re-wilding issue has been revived by provincial and federal government bureaucrats. Actually, it arose over three decades ago in the U.S. Pacific northwest states and resulted in a moratorium on logging that was blamed for destruction of the old growth forest environment, deemed essential to SO survival. Severe economic hardship on forest workers and their communities, resulted as logging and processing mills were closed across the region. However, SO populations have yet to recover. A similar response in BC was equally ineffective in restoring SO populations.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office (OFWO) information exposes the fallibility of scientists who assumed that logging older mature timber was the primary cause of the SO population decrease. However, when competition and displacement by Barred Owls (BOs) was determined to be the major threat, they chose to cull them. Despite culling of 3,135 Bos, the SO populations have not increased. The scientists were wrong, very wrong. Equally wrong, were the politicians who enacted the moratorium on logging. 

SOs barely qualify as BC residents, whereas BOs inhabit over one half of the province, and the northern halves of both Washington and Oregon states, where the species overlap. SOs are not found in northern Idaho and Montana.

For information on the ecology and range of Spotted and Barred owls, visit the Audubon website (https://www.audubon.org/). Additionally, the website app is free. 

The BCWF program is certain to impose additional constraints on an already overly constrained forest industry that is essential to the economic well-being of local communities in south western BC without increasing SO populations. The recent article in the Vancouver Sun, is a Canadian Press reprint to ensure national coverage of a uniquely BC issue; similar to the Vancouver Island Marmot salvation effort a decade ago. Presently, the propagation of spotted owls, like the previous Vancouver Island Marmot restoration effort, is another desperate attempt at re-wilding; raising animals in captivity for release into former environments to restore their populations. An additional funding of two million dollars for the SO recovery program even with a culling of BOs is certain to fail, based on previous results. The economic survival of the bureaucrats is at least temporarily assured.

Habitat losses and alterations are the same rationale used by scientists in BC to explain threats to wildlife, particularly game populations and are a convenient excuse for explaining reductions in their numbers. Despite the millions of dollars being spent on purchasing and re-wilding Mountain caribou habitats, population restoration and recovery has not occurred. Predation by wolves is the main cause of the decrease in caribou populations in BC and other provinces except the island of Newfoundland. Grizzlies and black bears are also significant predators. Additionally, cougars were also identified as a factor in reducing several southern BC Mountain caribou herds. Presently, the BC government has implemented a Primary Predator Reduction Program (PPRP) in the western Chilcotin region, to increase caribou survival. Perversely, it has included a moose population reduction program by increasing the harvest of adult cows within and adjacent to the area where wolves are being culled. Moose, being the major wolf prey species, are deemed to draw wolves near enough to the caribou that are the easier prey, hence moose numbers must also be reduced in order to increase caribou survival.

Habitat Protection is the primary objective of maintaining wildlife populations in BC. This being affirmed during the mid-1970s when the Habitat Protection Division of the Ministry of the Environment was established. This resulted in a complete change in philosophy and policy; from production and use, to protection and essentially non-use. Believing that animal populations are self-regulating, the government has assigned Nature as the right and proper custodian of fish and wildlife in BC. In 1981, the BC Habitat Conservation Foundation (BCHCF) established a Trust Fund (BHCTF) with monies derived from licensed purchased by fish and game users. To date, over $181 million has been contributed by the users, and 2400 projects have been completed. However, the deplorable state of game populations is positive proof that money spent of game habitat has been a complete failure. 

The "Serengeti of the North" that described the great East Kootenay moose, elk, deer and bighorn sheep populations of the 1970-90s that hunters expected to be maintained with their HCTF contributions are only a memory. Stoically or stupidly, they continue their contributions to the fund, but if the results of the past 40 years are any indication, they would be well advised to buy lottery tickets instead. 

Visit the BCHCTF website for 2020 budget approved projects. https://hctf.ca/ 

Regards,

Ken Sumanik

https://www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/articles.cfm?id=149489616

Become a Conservation Partner

The Kootenay Wildlife Heritage Fund is happy to announce our Conservation Partner program, donate today to join! Thank you for your continued support.

Hunting Does or Does Not Change Grizzly Bear Behaviour...

Read what GB scientist Clayton Lamb has to say about learning to live with Grizzly Bears.

Then read what two men who have studied wildlife for many decades have to say about keeping the bears away from people.

This is important because when we get a change of government in BC, there will be a debate about bringing back a GB hunt. One argument against a hunt will be that hunting does not change bear behaviour. That argument is being made today in Wyoming where they are debating a GB hunt. Dr. Geist is certain that hunting keeps bears away. Ray Demarchi, life long wildlife biologist, makes an important comment about a North American experiment with bears and us as the guinea pigs.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7158409/grizzly-bear-adapting-okanagan/

B.C.’s iconic grizzly bear adapting to coexist with people in the Okanagan

The Okanagan Valley is home to many species, including grizzly bears.

“They’re there, there’s no question,” said Clayton Lamb, a wildlife scientist at the University of British Columbia.

“Not in the valley bottom proper, but right on the edge, right where the trees end and grass starts, there are bears right there,” Lamb told Global News.

If anyone should know just how many grizzly bears are living in the Okanagan, it’s Clayton Lamb.

Lamb is a post-doctoral fellow at UBC Okanagan’s campus, where his PhD work focused on ursus arcto horribillis — the grizzly bear.

Lamb’s research shows that  the population of grizzlies in the Okanagan is on the rise.

In a 2015 study of the Granby grizzly bear population located just east of the Big White area,  Lamb found an increase in density of grizzly bears, and that those bears are moving west towards the Okanagan.

“They are moving their way in and the Okanagan is going to be a very challenging place to coexist with grizzly bears,” Lamb said.

The fact that grizzlies are in the Okanagan, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering the name Kelowna is derived from an Okanagan language term ‘Kim-ach-touch’ meaning brown bear.

Over time ‘Kim-ach-touch’ became Kelowna, meaning grizzly bear.

Lamb has just helped publish another study on grizzly bears in B.C., and how exactly they are coexisting with people.

‘It really came from a genuine place of curiosity in some ways. I mean, I live right in the middle of bear country,” said Lamb.

Lamb resides in Fernie, B.C., a town that has it fair share of conflicts with bears, both black and grizzlies.

For the study, Lamb reviewed more than 40 years of grizzly bear data.

“Following animals with collars, knowing how they survive, where they live, how many cubs they have,” explained Lamb.

The result, said Lamb, was a ‘big picture view’ of what was happening all across B.C. in terms of the grizzly bear’s status.

What Lamb found was that grizzlies are adapting their behaviour in order avoid conflict and survive next to or among human populations.

“The adults were using the landscape more and at night, so we say that they were going more nocturnal,” Lamb said.

“That really allows them to co-exist with people, in that they temporally space away, we go to bed and they come out.”

However, it takes time for grizzly bears to learn these lessons.

“We found that young bears survived very poorly,” said Lamb, who added that adult bears living next to human populations survived almost as well as adult bears in the wilderness.

Large area of Kananaskis Country closed after bear ‘made contact with hiker’

The study’s other main finding was that in order for grizzly bear populations to survive, the population needed immigrant bears to sustain itself, because becoming nocturnal isn’t enough for a grizzly to stay alive near humans.

“These kind of groups of bears near people, they cannot produce enough cubs to sustain themselves,” Lamb said.

“Even though that nocturnality is helping them, it’s still not enough,”.

Lamb says in order for grizzlies to coexist with people, another large carnivore has to adapt its behaviour as well: Man.

“We need to make some changes,” Lamb said of living with grizzlies, “we still have a ways to go.”

Valerius Geist

Jul 11, 2020, 3:18 PM (2 days ago)

In the presence of armed humans, grizzly bears vanish from sight and do become nocturnal. Ask Ralph Ritcey how many grizzly bears were killed in Wells Gray Park! The claim that hunting does not affect bears is rubbish, typical of the now malignant environmental movement and their trolls on facebook and twitter. Bears are clever and sensitive and highly frightened at being stalked or opposed firmly.. When that is missing because people are frightened of protected bears, then bears sense it and become pushy. In national parks that lead to wardens killing them. Consequently, number one and two hotspots for killing grizzly bears on the north American continent is Lake Louise and Banff Townsite in Banff National Park. That's in the refereed literature! I worked in Banff and was on excellent footing with wardens. They insured safety for visitors!

Cheers, Val Geist

RAY DEMARCHI:

The Pacific  Northwest, including   Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and British Columbia   is undergoing a huge international  experiment in whether or not hunting grizzly bears makes them more wary of humans and  therefore less likely to conflict with human interests. 

There are many factors at work that confound this experiment including increasing GB numbers, expansion of human settlements into areas occupied by GBs, the innate inclination of female GBs to defend their young and of adult GBs to defend their kills.There is a belief among some GB protectionists that since Coastal GBs have access to salmon that they are well fed compared to Interior GBs and therefore less likely to act aggressively towards people. This myth discounts the basic defensive instincts of this large predator as some recent negative GB-human interactions have shown.The premise that I operated on over more than three decades in helping to develop and initiate hunting seasons and management  plans for GBs in the Kootenay Region as well as over the rest of the  province was that properly regulated hunting benefits both people and bears. Unfortunately the research in BC thus far has been polarized into either showing that hunting has not harmed the GB population (McLellan, Hamilton and Eastman) or that it has (various GB protectionist including biologists at UVic). The impact of hunting GBs on people and the benefits to GBs has hardly been examined objectively and has become increasingly political and emotional. In the meantime, I walk with trepidation (and a can of bear spray) in the wildlands of B.C. as  this unwise experiment unfolds. 
RayD

COYOTES EAT THOUSANDS OF DEER FAWNS EVERY YEAR

Dr. Vince Crichton, known affectionately as “Doc Moose”, is a world expert on moose. He has a life time of experience in the field and his observations are pure gold. The KWHF is happy Vince is our friend. He teaches us all the time!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Vince Crichton 
Date: Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 9:39 AM
Subject: Coyotes

Val mentioned coyotes in email just a short while back. Trappers here in the open area of MB annually take a large number – in 100s.    But here is an interesting observation  A friend of mine who farms a little west of Wpg had a coyote den on his property abut 2 years back  so set up a trail cam near the den  IN space of 31 days the adults brought back to the den site 19 deer fawns

Cheers  

Vince

Dr. Vince Crichton

Certified Wildlife Biologist

President: V. Crichton Enterprises Ltd 

DBA: Telonics Canada 

1046 McIvor Ave.

Winnipeg Manitoba Canada R2G 2J9

Telonics website: www.telonics.com

Grizzly Bears: To Hunt or Not To Hunt?

These two news reports show us, first, what the argument will be in BC when and if any provincial government considers a GB hunt - the nub of the argument is — “so what if there are more bears, there are lots of ways to keep people safe without hunting the bears…” The second article shows how GB’s in western N.A. are reclaiming territory that bears have been absent from for decades. It proves the population is growing steadily, which some might assume would lead to hunts. But hold on. GB ‘s will continue to expand their population and range and the anti hunters are already working on an argument (starting in Wyoming where the government is considering a hunt) with a plan to bring that argument north of the 49th if a BC government ever entertains a GB hunt. So those of us that believe we should hunt GB’s should be sharpening our arguments and our refutation of their argument.

Now read these two short articles to get the context.

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/zack-strong/help-us-tell-wyoming-not-hunt-or-bait-grizzly-bears

https://apnews.com/b40d39f9c106820fbee333ec2deb386b

Thanks to Dr Charles Kay for the heads up!

How Does Newfoundland Sustain So Many Moose While Harvesting So Many?

Comments from Ken Sumanik, hunter, wildlife biologist…

Monday, June 1, 2020
Subject: Why Newfoundland Is Turning Its Moose Into Bologna - Gastro Obscura

“We hunt “for food, social and ceremonial purposes” and enjoy sharing the meat with others unable to hunt. It defines us as a cultural group of hunter-gatherers whose inherent behaviour is passed on from generation to generation. Wonderful times spent in the field and around a campfire relating the events of every successful result that is proudly hung on “the meat pole” is our means of making memories. The size, shape and numbers of antler points on the bucks and bulls is always the subject of discussion, and many antlers are often retained for preparation and placement where they serve as reminders of the experience. Unfortunately most politicians, particularly urban ones and their constituents have never had a hunting experience and lack the empathy and understanding of the social and economic importance of hunting and the need for managing our Game Species in perpetuity. This alienation has divided us and is reflected in the deplorable state of ungulate populations across the province. Game management that ensures the production and perpetuation the animals we hunt and trap no longer exists. The former abundance of moose, elk, deer populations is only a memory for older hunters and Game Mangers and the disappearance of caribou continues despite desperate efforts to prevent their demise. On the Island of Newfoundland, moose and caribou hunting continues unabashedly, where a moose license, one for every two animals is a provincial standard where 20,000 are killed every autumn, and caribou are still abundant enough to allow a generous harvest. The hunting culture is alive and thriving in the province at the other end of the country, where moose meat is available to others as Bologna. Such a wonderful means of sharing...made possible by hunter-gatherers that would be worth doing in BC, if only the moose, elk, deer and caribou were sufficiently abundant. 

Ken         

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moose-hunting-in-newfoundland

Why Newfoundland Is Turning Its Moose Into Bologna

And salami. And pepperoni.

Woman Injured by Bison at Yellowknife But Fails to Take Personal Responsibility

https://apple.news/A05ZXrV6nQsOmvPOyr4q0fA

And comments from readers:

RE: Fox News: Woman injured by bison at Yellowstone National Park on second day after reopening

Jim Beers

Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC.  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands.  He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC.  He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

“LIES

I would expect they (the buffalo) have become even more aggressive and unpredictable after some spring weeks having the place all to themselves and getting used to coming and going where the general public thinks their tax dollars entitle themselves to be. 

All in all just another symptom of the modern ignorance about wild animals being ignored on one hand (the tourist disregarded warnings) and on the other we are told to accept lies like, (“free-roaming buffalo herds we are introducing at various locations are perfectly compatible in settled rural landscapes and communities, perfectly safe for humans, and cost-free once they create – (the illusion of) - a ‘balanced’ ecosystem”).  “Balanced” in this case being an ever-changing concept as defined by the bureaucracy for a bevy of hidden agendas. This is but one example of what the irrational and self-serving  bureaucrats and politicians actually foist on us in order to get more emoluments, votes and fame - and that the mostly-urban public gladly and blindly accepts to please family members, the teachers they had in grade school and to assuage the vague emotions of guilt they feel for creating a technology world at the expense of a “natural world’ that they fantasize.

It is the sort of thing that I believe must be addressed head-on but the traits that served me well as a law officer have not proven as useful as a soldier fighting to defend rural communities and people in this war duplicitously called “ecosystem management”.  It is not a confrontation based on “science”.  It is the same confrontation men have faced for centuries: the confrontation about who will rule and what our laws, rights and values will be.  

The federal bureaucrats feeding this political drivel that now run our “conservation/ecosystem advocacy” bureaucracies were slipped in based on lies (“We never stole millions from state wildlife funds to catch and release wolves despite Congressional refusal to authorize it” and “”I hunt and fish and support wildlife management from trapping and habitat management like logging and grazing to predator control” and the biggest of all “I support property rights, the 2nd Amendment and the welfare of Rural America and Americans”.) 

I am reminded of something my grandmother told me as that wee boy she cared for during WW II, “You can watch a thief, but you can’t a liar”.  Boy was she right.”

Ken Sumanik, retired biologist who worked in the field all over B.C.:

May 23, 2020

“Deceit, delusion, derangement...any one or all of these conditions apply in explaining the events you have described so well, but unfortuntely are not abating as quickly as they should. It is more than ironic that we are huddled and isolating oursleves from a pathogen hoping that a vaccine is developed before more of us are subjected to the horrors of population self-regulation, a notion that is readily acceptable by anti-vaxers. They compare with ecosystem restorationists who insist that predation on wild and domestic ungulates must prevail to allow both prey and predators, wolves, cougars, bears and coyotes, to regulate their populations. This "Balance of Nature" is an ideal, and like any dream, is unattainable. The sooner predators and viruses are controlled the better off we will all be.”

Caribou in Ilgachuz Disappearing Because Wolves Are Eating Them

‘Critically low’ caribou population prompts wolf cull in the Chilcotin

Itcha-Ilgachuz herd numbers down to 385, from 2,800 in 2003

Monica Lamb-Yorski

The BC Government is moving forward with a predator control plan in an effort to save the Itcha-Ilgachuz mountain ranges’ rapidly declining caribou herd. (Public domain photo)

The provincial government is moving forward next month with plans to remove about 90 wolves in the Itcha-Ilgachuz mountain ranges in an effort to save the area’s dwindling caribou herd.

Read more: Wolf cull being eyed for threatened Itcha-Ilgachuz caribou herd west of Williams Lake

Today approximately 385 caribou remain in the area, a decline from 2,800 in 2003, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development noted.

“Wolves are caribou’s principal predator in B.C. and high wolf numbers are associated with declining caribou populations,” the spokesperson stated. “It is clearly the case for the Chilcotin/Itcha-Ilgachuz caribou herd which has reached a critically low population.”

In addition to the cull, other recovery actions including habitat protection, habitat restoration and maternal penning may be implemented.

“Based on five years of research on wolf management in the central group, we know that wolf populations can rebound quickly. It is imperative to implement a predator control plan to ensure the last remaining caribou in the Itcha-Ilgachuz have a chance to survive.”

Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett supports the wolf cull.

“The Itcha-Ilgachuz herd are living in an isolated area, hard to get to,” Barnett said. “I’ve talked to many people who know something about wolves who say it is the right thing to do, so let’s hope it does what it is intended to do and we protect what caribou are left.”

She criticized the ministry for not having public meetings about the caribou recovery plan.

“The more people that understand why this is being done the better. We’ve asked for meetings throughout the region.”

So far the ministry confirmed it has consulted with local government and Indigenous communities on caribou recovery planning.

In 2019, the licensed hunt for caribou was closed in Management Unit 5-12 to protect the Itcha-Ilgachuz herd.

Residents living in the remote area say they have notice a rapid increase in wolf numbers, and a sharp decline in caribou numbers in recent years.

The wolf cull is expected to be carried out by helicopter.

Aerial removal is the favoured method for wolf culls as it is considered the most effective and humane, according to an August 2019 letter penned by ministry staff.

Read more: Wolf kill working in B.C. caribou recovery, ministry study shows

Trudeau Begins Process of Disarming Canadians

PM Trudeau begins the process of disarming Canadians

May 2, 2020

By Andrea Widburg

Over 13 deadly hours on April 18 and 19, Gabriel Wortman disguised himself as a Canadian Mountie and went to sixteen different locations in and around Portapique, Canada, where he killed 22 people and injured three others.  For the killings, Wortman used a handgun and long guns, all of which he obtained illegally.

On Friday, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau punished all Canadians for Wortman's act by reclassifying about 1,500 hitherto legal firearms as "prohibited."  By using reclassification, Trudeau was able to circumvent legislation.

According to the CBC, the ban is effective immediately and blocks all licensed gun-owners from selling, transporting, importing, or using their newly banned weapons.  There will be a two-year amnesty for unloading the guns through a "fair compensation" buy-back program (AKA a confiscation program).

Trudeau is banning any semi-automatic that can hold a magazine, which would seem to include shotguns, for the CBC says that "there are 105,000 firearms currently classified as 'restricted' that will now be classified as 'prohibited.'"  The CBC includes a list of those guns that are primarily targeted:

M16, AR-10, AR-15 rifles and M4 carbineRuger Mini-14 rifleUS Rifle M14Vz58 rifle and CZ858 rifleRobinson Armament XCR rifleCZ Scorpion EVO 3 carbine and pistolBeretta Cx4 Storm carbineSIG Sauer SIG MCX and SIG Sauer SIG MPX carbines and pistolsSwiss Arms Classic Green and Four Seasons series rifles

Trudeau isn't stopping with long guns, either.  He wants to get rid of handguns, too.  Bill Blair, the Canadian public safety minister, "promised Friday to enact legislation down the line to give municipalities the power to ban these firearms [handguns]."

The ban isn't only a blow to gun-owners.  It also strips the livelihood from gun dealers:

Banning weapons with "modern design" is an arbitrary and useless distinction, similar to banning Gore-Tex to make hikers wear wool jackets, said Alison de Groot, the managing director at the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association.

Although businesses are still doing the math, de Groot said the government's move will strand somewhere between $200 to $300 million worth of pre-paid merchandise in stores, at a time when small businesses are already getting hammered by the COVID-19 crisis.

[snip]

"The breadth of it was unbelievable to us," said de Groot. "So for our business owners, here's the situation: we just got hit in the head with a baseball bat."

From the depth of his ignorance, Trudeau informed hunters, "You don't need an AR-15 to bring down a deer."  That may be true, if you don't mind the possibility of the deer dying a slow, agonizing death, but you might need an AR-15 to bring down someone hopped up on drugs or insanity.  Even assuming that your first shot manages to hit the target, it may take several more shots to stop an attack.

What Trudeau has done, during a disruptive pandemic, is to leave law-abiding citizens helpless.  Anyone who goes to the store today is experiencing a first in modern Western life: shortages.  Shortages breed instability, and instability breeds violence.  Americans have responded by buying guns; Justin Trudeau has responded by leaving his people vulnerable to looters and other violent criminals.

Leftists, with their limited ability to see beyond the obvious, focus only on the relative few who die because of gun crimes.  They are incapable of seeing those who live because of gun protection.  According to a 2013 study that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered, "[d]efensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence":

Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.

If the police had used an Alert Ready in Portapique to warn people about Wortman, and if the people sheltering had owned guns, Wortman's rampage might have been terminated early.  That's water under the bridge.  Going forward, we know with certainty that if someone in Canada goes on another shooting spree, Canadians will be sitting ducks.

Trudeau has also ensured that Canadians no longer have recourse against a tyrannical government.  Those gleeful citizens who support this executive order disarming them forget that, in any country, at any time, the biggest killer is a government going after its own disarmed citizens.  It was by disarming citizens that the Nazis, the Soviets, the Chinese communists, the Khmer Rouge, and all the other mass murderers were able to engage in the mass slaughter of their own people.

This will not end well.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/pm_trudeau_begins_the_process_of_disarming_canadians.html

Wolves are just being wolves but humans, indignenous or otherwise, have never not managed wolf numbers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-wolf-cull-plan-approved-1.5499853?fbclid=IwAR3m-55IW8BjygWInNxLDUJcLDY-l3kHCax13ewjVXNlqYHwoKA3P5Gv7So