Don' t even get me started on this issue!
When I saw the headline in Saturday' s paper I pretty much had the same reaction as you Otis.
" Oh great, there goes the moose and elk hunting." Pretty soon there aren' t going to be any moose or elk on any crown land if this unregulated harvest is allowed to continue. Now it' s just going to get worse.
I was recently talking to a moose biologist here in Manitoba about the the heavy toll ticks were taking on the moose population in the Western part of the province. He was telling me how they will likely be decreasing tags and changing hunting zones from general to draw only in order to control the number of moose taken in those zones. I asked him about the Native hunting and do they try to do anything to get them to limit their harvest. He just rolled his eyes and said' Well, we try to educate them but.... and then he shrugged his shoulders gave me a " you know the deal" look.
In other words, we take steps to conserve the populations but you still get truck loads of natives filling reefer trailers with whatever they can get.
When we were in the Turtle Mountain area of the province hunting last year. The early moose season during the rut is a archery only season. This area is designated trails only. This area used to be the highest density moose population in the Province. Sure the ticks have been a problem but when you have natives taking 5 moose out for every one by a licensed hunter. A local CO gave me that figure as well. How is that going to last?
Not only is the moose population in danger but they drive their quads all over the place tearing everything up and not bothering with the trails which we as licensed hunters are only allowed to use if we need to get an animal out.
It' s pretty ironic when you are walking down a trail while bowhunting and a native with a rifle burns by on a quad.
One Metis in the paper this weekend was asked about the effect on the game populations and he said it would not harm them because what is the point of having the treaty rights if there was no game to hunt. Yeah right! You can see it happening already.
I say if they want unlimited hunting rights let them hunt like they did when the treaties were signed! On horseback with bow and arrow! Or maybe blackpowder. No 4X4' S, no quads, no high power, scoped rifles, and no high beams!