Hunters in British Columbia,
An Endangered Species
by Jorgen V. Jensen
P.Eng. North Vancouver, B.C. Canada

I read the article in the July 2005 IWMC Newsletter. Yes, the number of hunters in BC has declined substantially over the last few decades. However, the article did not mention the real cause to this decline. The gun registry, the cost of guns, the public fear of guns, the increase in the small human population in this huge area etc. have had little or no impact on the decline. Hunters are common sense people. When the hunting opportunities decline, the hunters do not go hunting. During the last three to five decades, our wildlife managers have done little or nothing to ensure sustainability in our wild resources. Predator control has been completely neglected, causing the ungulate populations to be decimated in several areas of BC.

The BC hunting statistics clearly show this trend together with the decline in the number of hunters. The harvest of ungulates has declined while the hunters are still putting the same effort into taking a deer, indicating that the number of hunters decline with the decline in numbers of ungulates.

We are told that wildlife management in BC is based on science. The question is, "what kind of science?" The anti-hunting and animals right organizations seem to be in full control of our politicians and many of the bureaucrats and biologists responsible for wildlife management.

Our Grizzly Bear team has been counting bears for the last decade. We now have 17,000 bears compared to 13,000 a few years ago. The previous NDP government closed the hunting due to pressure from the antis. The following Liberal government opened the hunting again and introduced Limit Entry Hunting (LEH) in a few areas. All politic. With an increasing bear population, LEH is not necessary. Another important question is: Do we have habitat enough for a Grizzly Bear population that big when we at the same time have an estimated 160,000 Black Bears and several thousand Wolves and cougars? I do not think so. BC is swamped by predators. The survival rate for young ungulates in the spring is very low, in some areas possibly below 20%, the main cause of herd decimation in a few decades.

It is interesting to note that when a group of biologists is studying a predator, the animal becomes their pet. If it is increasing in number, they are very proud, if it is declining, it is bad. To look at the overall picture is not possible. Therefore, we hear the statement: "It is not acceptable to kill an animal of one species to the benefit of an animal of another species, and it is completely unacceptable to kill just one predator so that the hunter should get more ungulates to kill". It appears to me that our wildlife management is in fact based on "politicized junk science". This is what we BC hunters are contributing $8.5 million per year!

On Vancouver Island, because of no predator control for the last three to four decades, the mule deer population has been reduced from about 250,000 down to about 50,000. The hunting statistics show a similar decline in the harvest. Mr. MacDonald did not mention this, although he would know. No, as a previous president of BCWF, he has to be politically correct.

In another area in BC, in the mountains east of Williams Lake, a mountain caribou herd has been decimated to a few hundred due to wolf predation. We are now told by the experts that the wolf has come to the area because of the moose in the area. So, in order to reduce the number of wolves, we should now kill all moose, and the wolf will go somewhere else. This is Scientific Wildlife Management in BC.

It is interesting to note that on some of the Gulf Islands where there are no predators, the deer population is escalating and increased hunting pressure has to be implemented in order to avoid too much damage to farmers crop and residential gardens. No predators equals lots of deer. A sustainable number of predators would be an advantage for everybody.

British Columbia has some of the most fantastic wilderness areas on the North American Continent. BC covers an area equal to Washington, Oregon and California states together, and our human population is less than 5 million. We have all of the wildlife species from the Grizzly bear and down. So why are we working so hard on destroying the whole thing? Unfortunately, we do not yet have a strong BC Hunters association to demand proper wildlife management procedures. The hunters always believed that the BCWF was looking after their interests. However, lately, the president of the Federation stated in a newsletter "the Federation is doing absolutely nothing to the benefit of the hunters". A very true statement. I guess that the federation wants to be politically correct and, therefore, wants to avoid the discussion of proper wildlife management.

I believe that if the BC Resident Hunters do not organize very soon, wildlife and hunting in BC will be destroyed within a few decades. If we leave our wildlife to itself, it will self destruct. In order to avoid this, we will have to implement proper wildlife management, which will restore sustainability in our wild resources.