Hunters call for transparency after recent changes to caribou and moose harvest rules
CBC
Several hunters are speaking out against the provincial government's recent changes to reduce caribou and moose hunting in northern British Columbia.
Hunting regulations are reviewed by the provincial government every two years and the move to cut the number of recreational and commercial caribou and moose hunters in B.C.'s northwest were announced on May 10. However, some hunters say it's not clear why the changes were made.
"I'm not enamoured by the [regulations], to put it lightly," said Richard Wale, a recreational hunter in Salmon Arm, about 110 kilometres east of Kamloops. "I really don't think they're going to address the issue that they need to address."
But Peter Lee, a spokesperson for the provincial Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Ministry, defended the move. The changes aim to support sustainable hunting now and for the long term, he said in an email to CBC News.
"Regulations for moose and caribou in the Northwest support advancing reconciliation through deeper collaboration, weaving of Indigenous knowledge and science to achieve shared objectives, and working together with hunters and the community," he said.
Under the most recent regulations, B.C. converted open-season caribou hunting zones in Skeena, in the province's northwest, and Omineca, in the central interior, to limited-entry hunting zones. It also made similar changes for moose in several parts of the province, including in the Okanagan, in the southern interior, and Skeena regions.
Limited-entry zones require hunters to enter a lottery for the rights to operate in each region.
Adam Ford, a wildlife restoration researcher at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus, said the zones are one tool the provincial government can use to reduce the number of hunters in an area.
"They restrict how many boots are going to hit the ground in a hunting season," he said. "They can't affect how many people actually want to go hunting, even if they were successful in that lottery. Nor can they really affect how successful those individual hunters are."
Jesse Zeman, executive director of B.C. Wildlife Federation, a non-profit conservation organization, said hunters aren't the reason moose and caribou populations are dwindling.
"Our membership is incensed," Zeman said. "The province is not supporting British Columbians who go out and enjoy nature sustainably. To us, that is the very opposite approach of what should be going on."
He said the province based the decision on consultations instead of science, and that many stakeholders spoke out against the regulations.
The ministry's Lee said the province does incorporate harvest surveys, data from western science and Indigenous knowledge into its hunting regulations.
UBC's Ford said people are looking for transparency.
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