Alberta somewhat legalized grizzly hunting

[Bigjay73]

And of course the antis are losing their minds.

Canada: grizzly bear hunting quietly reinstated in Alberta

Conservationists say it’s a ‘slap in the face’ to those who are trying to save the threatened species

www.theguardian.com

 

[SaskHunter]

“No one was consulted in this decision – not the biologists, not the independent conservation groups, not the First Nations. Were the government’s own scientists consulted?"

Hunters:

 

[Dubz337]

It's quite the landmark decision. Needed though. When they initially stopped the grizzly hunt here in 2006, they used population data from one specific part of the province (Waterton Park) to skew the numbers to make grizzlies appear as a threatened species. Ever since then, human-bear interactions, livestock predation, and seeing bears in places they used to not exist in has skyrocketed. In Alberta, the main highway is the 2, which runs north-south through basically the middle of the province. It used to be unheard of to see a grizzly east of the 2. There have been plenty of documented sightings in the past five years or so. They still claim that there is only 900-1200 bears in the province, including ones in national parks. I can tell you that this number is not even close to the actual population, if you take into account what people out in the field are seeing, and what some biologists not on the anti-train believe. When I hear from friends about how they can't go after black bear an hour away from Edmonton, a city four hours away from the mountains, without grizzlies taking over their bait, there's a problem, and a much bigger population than they say.

The basic gist of it is they will identify problem bears, aka ones that have had too many negative encounters with people, or ones that have been proven to take livestock, or ones that have moved into zones where there's a high risk of an encounter. Hunters will have entered into a draw system, someone gets picked, called by F&W and have 24 hours to respond, if they don't then they go on down the line to the next person drawn. Seems like a great idea to me, instead of wasting government resources, which equals tax dollars from the citizens, to take out problem grizzlies, they are letting hunters do it for free. Also, this should reduce negative encounters with humans, as the bears will start seeing people as something to be avoided. They don't now, and this has led to tragedies such as the couple and their dog that were killed and partially eaten in their tent in Banff last year. There were much less bear attacks when the hunt was still going on pre-2006. Also should help ungulate populations in the province, as grizzlies do a number to calves/fawns when they are being dropped in the spring.

I have no interest in hunting grizzly, due to my own personal beliefs and also my Metis heritage that I'm immensely proud of, but I do think they are a species that need to be managed, and this is a good step in that direction. The antis, including one particularly vocal one named Kevin Van Tighem, are gonna cry about it and nothing will change that. But letting bleeding heart idiots with no idea how actual conservation and management works dictate law through incensing the public with lies and half truths is what led to the current mess in the first place. I am happy the direction has been changed, at least partially.

Its not going to make everyone happy. Landowners will piss and moan that they should just be allowed to deal with the bears themselves. Hunters who had high priority prior to the '06 ban will piss and moan about how they should get first dibs in the new system. Antis will say some sort of wacko BS. But trying it out is better than what has been happening for twenty years, which is landowners gut shooting grizzlies so they crawl off and die horrible deaths off their properties. But hard to blame them when a bear comes in and kills twenty of their sheep at a time, which happened recently.

Also included in this is the same system to deal with elk foraging destroying crops, which is interesting.

 

[Bigjay73]

Thanks for the in the mix perspective

 

[Forkyfinder]

Wish MT could do this.