Calf Harvest Controls…

Calf Harvest Controls proposed for 2020

I applaud the proposed changes in moose regulations for calf harvest controls in WMUs 37, 40, 41, 42 and 47. Given moose population sustainability concerns for adjacent WMUs 35, 36, 38 and 39 these 4 WMUs should also be included for calf harvest controls. Comparing the 2019 moose population estimates with the lower moose population objective range for these four WMUs indicates that WMU 36 is 38% below its lower range, WMUs 35 & 38 are 26% below their lower ranges and WMU 39 is 15% below its lower range; calf recruitment estimates have also been low and calf harvest concerns are high enough to warrant calf harvest controls across this broader landscape.

For WMU 48 with calf harvest controls, it took 10+ years to grow the moose population towards its then target (close to 1,200 moose). The calf gun season has been 6 or 7 days (i.e., 1 week) and tag fill rates on gun calf tags appears to be approximately 50%. This has a direct bearing on how many gun-calf tags that can be made available in the draw.

The current calf gun season for WMUs 35 to 42 is 14 days (2 weeks). Extending the calf gun hunting season to the full length of the moose gun hunting season (5 weeks), while providing more flexibility for hunters to harvest a calf, comes at the cost of significantly reducing available calf validation tag quotas. Note that for WMU 48, gun calf tag fill rate is approximately 50% in 1 week – across 5 weeks of a gun season, calf gun-tag fill rate may be at or close to 100%. Also note that moose calf harvests have historically been high with the previous overlap with the deer gun seasons in WMUs 36, 37 and 42 – this is often due to use of dogs pushing deer and moose from forests during the deer gun hunt.

It would be more prudent to reduce the calf gun season to 1 week (same dates as south of French-Mattawa Rivers) on the above nine WMUs and implement calf harvest controls through calf validation tags. This would provide hunters with higher calf tag quotas and assist in getting within the moose population objective ranges faster. Obviously need to keep cow harvests quite low during the moose recovery period to maximize potential population growth.

New selective harvest approach proposed for 2021
This looks promising and in the right direction to sustain moose populations.