Proposed changes to BC’s Hunting and Trapping Regulations for 2024-26, are putting more restrictions on hunters and seem designed to remove resident hunters from the landscape, according to the BC Wildlife Federation.
“Political optics, backroom dealing and emotion are replacing sound data and science-based wildlife management,” said Steve Hamilton, Conservation, Hunting, Angling and Firearms Policy & Engagement Coordinator with the BCWF. “That means fewer and fewer resident hunters will be permitted on the land for fewer and fewer days.”
BC already allows for fewer hunters per square kilometre than Alberta, whose hunter density is roughly double BC’s. Less resident hunters means less revenue for wildlife management. Hunting allows hunters to provide food for their families, manage wildlife populations, and add to the government’s coffers through hunting tags and license fees.
Revenues have declined by 75 percent since 1993, with only a fraction of hunting tags and license fees being dedicated to wildlife management, Hamilton said.
“These restrictions come at a time when funding for wildlife management is at an historic low in British Columbia as a proportion of the provincial budget for renewable resource management,” he said. “The province is not managing our natural assets responsibly.”
If wildlife management was handed over to a multi-stakeholder group, including First Nations and non-government organizations such as BCWF, Hamilton believes that would insulate wildlife funding and decision making from political considerations, for the benefit of all.
Like Hamilton, Peace River North MLA Dan Davies is concerned that these proposed changes are not based on science, serve only to erode hunters’ rights and are not what’s in the best interests of British Columbians.
“It’s a slow attack on people who live in our rural and remote communities in the North. We live up here because we want access to that, that’s why we live up in the North. We want to be connected to our land. This is just another whittling away of that,” Davies said.
Among the changes Hamilton and Davies are concerned about, are the proposals in area 7B to replace General Open Seasons for full curl Bighorn Mountain Sheep with Limited Entry Hunting in MU 7-19, and for full curl Thinhorn Ran Mountain Sheep with LEH in MUs 7-36, 7-42, 7-43, 7-50 to 7-52, 7-54 and 7-57.
“Science doesn’t justify limiting these opportunities,” Hamilton said.
The province also proposes removing antler restrictions on LEH for Bull Moose in MUs 7-19 to 7-22, 7-31 to 7-35, 7-44 to 7-49, 7-55, 7-56 and 7-58 in Region 7B.
“BC has more resources, more big game animals than any of our neighbours, but opportunities are constantly being rolled back, and there’s no good science-backed reason for it,” said Hamilton.
“Hunters are not the reason for declines in wildlife populations,” he said. “That’s the result of years of mismanagement and social politics.”
The province is accepting feedback on the proposed changes to the Hunting and Trapping Regulations, until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 22. The BCWF urges hunters to read the proposed changes and follow the links to provide feedback and comment on the changes. You will need a BCeID to participate.
“Further restrictions based on political popularity are not required, nor are they welcome,” the BCWF said in a statement on their website. “We have 40 years of policy and procedure in place to ensure that harvests are sustainable, and that wildlife is supported and conserved.”
“We need to be focused on protecting endangered species, restoring wildlife wherever possible and using sound data to guide harvest regulations.”