There is little doubt that we are going to end up with more and more species on a limited entry system. While the Guide/ outfitters may support this, it isn't necessarily their fault. It is the fault of wildlife biologists who are in bed with other special interest groups whose desire is to reduce game populations. In this region of the East Kootenays, the elk population has been reduced by well over 70%. This was not done by guided non-residents but by BC resident hunters. Moose population on the upper Flathead has been decimated. This was not done by guided non-residents but by resident hunters who took advantage of an open season and increased access.
I will probably not live long enough to see the elk come back and it really annoys me.
As far as the first nations/aboriginal/indian impact is concerned, there is little question that in some areas they are the worst game hogs we have but they have plenty of help and many are BCWF members.
It is astounding to me that such a huge province with such a valuable resource can have screwed it up so badly in such a short time but in too many cases a look in the mirror shows the root problem. GD
Great insight there Greydog .Hopefully hunters like CanuckShooter + other BCWF members will be able to look at the big picture on what's going on out there hills and not place the blame on the GOABC for the shortage of big game .
I don�t think that anyone is blaming the GOABC for being the only problem, but they are certainly part of the problem. As you and others have stated the game populations are way down, so the GOABC getting a bigger slice, much more than any other state or province, is a big problem. The pie has been reduced and the GOABC wants a bigger slice of that smaller pie. This is the current fight, let�s as resident hunters win this one first, and then get our act together and start solving the other problems that face us. If we don�t, no resident hunter is going to be hunting. We need to get political.
