Bruton and Clyde Hunters…

Bruton and Clyde Hunters Association

Environmental Registry of Ontario
Proposed changes to moose management as part of the Moose Management Review

Please accept this document as part of the public consultation process which is to be submitted before September 26, 2019 to the Environmental Registry of Ontario regarding the Proposed Changes to moose management as part of the moose management review.
I submit this as a concerned moose hunter and also as a member of the Bruton and Clyde Hunters Association (BCHA). The BCHA is an organization made up of 65 regulated hunt camps within the geographic boundaries of Algonquin Provincial Park in Bruton and Clyde Township.
Background:
Prior to 1960 many of the current hunting camps in Bruton and Clyde Townships were on Crown Land leases and hunting had taken place there for generations. When the government of the day passed legislation to add these two townships to Algonquin Park assurances were accepted into law that hunting, logging, and trapping would be permitted in perpetuity under some stringent guidelines. Permanent camps were destroyed and camp zones were released on a first come first serve basis at the Department of Lands and Forest Branch Office in Lindsay Ontario on a selected day. Hunters lined up to claim zones and at the time about seventy-five camp zones were distributed to primarily the camps who previously hunted in the respective areas. Strict reporting of hunting success and camp membership was worded into the legislation and failing to report resulted in the loss of your zone and the privilege of hunting that zone. As a result, we currently have 65 camps active in Bruton (40) and Clyde (25) losing about 10 over the past 58 years. Our association was organized in the 1970’s by several key leaders who saw the benefit of joining together as one voice to work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Parks to ensure a positive hunting experience while maintaining park values in this multi-use provincial park. Some of these leaders still sit on our executive board and others hunt their zones each year and along with the other members of our association take pride in being stewards of the Park. Legislation has changed with the times and the Game and Fish Act evolved into the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and the Algonquin Park Extension Act has been rescinded into the a Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act. Section 15. (2) of this act replaces wording in the previous act and legislates our hunting activities in Algonquin Park.
In the past 50 years, being a part of Algonquin, our membership has provided valuable information to the MNR and with over a half century of data this is immensely valuable. In light of the fact that the state of the natural resources we enjoy is a major interest to our members, it is a testimony to how sensible resource management works. As a group we have strived to work with the Ministry to deal with changes in the eco-system and social needs and on the whole this is working well.
Question and Concerns:
With the proposed changes published by the MNRF and the BGMAC several questions or concerns have been raised on the effect of these changes on our operations as they pertain to moose hunting activities in the future. We are very aware that we operate under different rules than other hunters and camps in the province but would like clarification on what the proposed changes will have on our current status. I will try to list these questions and concerns in point form to make it a simple as possible.
1/ How would the proposed expanded bow season be implemented on the first week of October when we have restricted access to our regulated hunt camp zones until the 7 days prior to the opening of the gun season for moose?
2/ Expanding the bow tag opportunities would reduce the gun tag opportunities and if camps are not allowed access our organization would be disadvantaged
3/ Our camp rosters must be submitted with our annual application and we are permitted 12 members per camp. By reducing groups permitted to hunt for individual tags down to 10 or even 8 this would limit our camp members from hunting even if we were fortunate enough to draw a tag.
4/ By instituting a bull tag, a cow/calf tag and a calf tag draw this could see many of our established camps be eliminated from any moose hunting opportunities from their camps as the guaranteed draw and calf hunt system now in place would not exist.
5/ The proposed system of waiting to see who receives a tag then joining that group to party hunt would be very difficult with the rules and regulations we currently operate under. Currently we must hunt from our approved camp site so if a member of an adjacent camp received a tag and members of our camp was chosen to join the hunt for that tag the current rules could not be followed.
6/ Would the application for three different choices be based on different tag types (bull, cow/calf and calf) in the same WMU or specifically different WMU’s?