My comments pertain to the…

My comments pertain to the additional day (Sunday) of gun hunting in WMU 84 and allowing bow hunting during the gun hunting seasons for whitetail deer. I am both a bow and gun hunter and greatly support the proposals by the Ministry.

As a gun hunter, I would greatly appreciate the additional day of gun hunting. An additional day would better enable hunters to fill their tags by allowing more time in the woods. As I understand, the Ministry issues tags with the expectation that hunters can fill them without harming the health of a WMU’s deer herd. Allowing an additional day to fill the biologically safe quota set by Ministry biologists would be a winning scenario for both deer management and hunters. Finally, Sunday hunting is great for hunters who cannot take time away from work and family commitments during the week to hunt. As a young professional who hopes to balance work, family, and hunting, an additional day provides greater piece of mind as I budget my time during deer season.

As a bow hunter, the opportunity to hunt with my bow during a gun hunting season is an exciting prospect. Not only does this provide the benefits of more time in the woods as I previously mentioned, but also enables me to hunt deer that are moving heavily during daytime due to hunting pressure from neighbouring properties. As well, the typical temperatures of early November in Southern Ontario are far better suited to hanging a deer in a non-refrigerated setting than the relative warmth of October or the freezing temperatures late November and December.

To close, I fully support these two proposals by the Ministry and appreciate the opportunity to share my comments.