As a falconer myself, I…

As a falconer myself, I speak from specific, recent experience when I say the difference between a bird taken from the wild and a purchased bird is vast. Not only does the proposal enhance an important part of falconry heritage, which is recognized by UNESCO as “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” but the statistics on raptors surviving their first year are well known to be very poor, and the ability to trap a first year bird and give it the opportunity to gain a skill set and confidence to take game and then release as mature, prepared adults is something falconers in other provinces and U.S. states have been doing successfully for decades. There is no reason to think this approach won’t succeed here as well. Falconers historically have played such an important role in raptor conservation and wild take is one way they succeed in doing just that. So, thank you for finally doing away with the draw. I've heard from people who had birds that would apply in case they didn’t get the bird from a breeder! Now every falconer who really wants a bird can have the opportunity to trap one. (In Michigan, before you are able to advance from an apprentice to a general you MUST trap a wild bird to gain that invaluable experience.)

Regarding the Goshawks, The Ontario Hawking Club has been very active in monitoring goshawks and I strongly support the proposal to allow adjustment of the numbers of goshawks based as new information becomes available in the future. Again, this approach has been used elsewhere successfully and there is no reason it will not succeed here as well. The OHC has worked hard in the field to acquire data on active goshawk nest sites in southern Ontario, and for Goshawks specifically, the MNRF will be encouraging conservation and citizen science. Further efforts to monitor and study this species will only help the species as a whole. I am so glad to see goshawks included in a wild take for falconry, they are a very important species that is very difficult to obtain elsewhere.

I feel a strong need to add that The Canadian Peregrine Foundation specifically states on their website:
"Falconers came to the rescue by donating numerous adults to a captive breeding program operated by the Canadian Wildlife Service in Wainwright, Alberta. Over the course of twenty years, this program involved the release of more than four thousand young peregrines at sites all across Canada where the species had once thrived. Peregrines, like many predators, have a high rate of juvenile mortality (approximately 80% die before turning one year old), and thus success was slow in coming. However, the efforts put into this release program have indeed paid off with a small but growing wild peregrine population." I want to point this out because even the people who are very vocal about being "against" this proposal cannot deny the important contribution falconers have had to the success of raptors now.

Thank you so much for your attention to this important topic.