Good Morning, First off I…

Good Morning,

First off I give huge credit to the MNRF and the big game advisory committee for there efforts and understanding that there must be changes to the moose hunt in Ontario.

I had read and reviewed the moose recommendations and while I consider myself no expert I have been moose hunting with a gang of 10-15 guys up north in zone 26 for 12 years and most recently changed to zone 48/55B for the last 5 years. While up north we watched the moose population slowly decline while southern zones flourished. We have a very good understanding of the current group application process and believe that if people played by the rules and applied as a "group" there wouldn't be a huge cry for change as there is now.

My suggestions-

1- going to a individual points system credits the people that have been applying alone, all the while still hunting as a group. This gives no credit and actually penalizes the gangs/groups that have been applying as a group, only wanting there 1 adult tag, not being greedy looking for 2-3 tags etc since the group system started.

Solution - keep the group applicants but divvy the tags by giving the larger groups a better odd, example - give 50% of the adults tags to groups of 10+, 25% to groups of 5+, 25% to groups of 1-5 including the individual applicants. This will encourage people to apply with there group.

2- I like the idea of spreading out the applicants and the southern zones with moose. There has to be a typo not including zone 58 where there is a calf season but no adult tags? I personally know gangs that if are unsuccessful for the normal adult zone (48) will simple hunt calves and are usually successful in WMU 58. WHY IS THERE NO ADULT TAGS FOR 58! Offering adult tags for the southern zones will 100% pull applicants from other zone thus spreading out the moose hunters and better yet spread out the applicants.

3- bow and muzzle loading seasons in the southern zones. Cut the general rifle season to 5 days. Offer a 5 day bow and 5 day late muzzleloader hunt when deer muzzleloader season is on (first week of Dec) this will take some pressure again off the general rifle season and take some pressure off the deer during this late season hunt.

4- eliminate calf hunting all together, why are we killing next years adults when they have such a low survival rate already due to predation.

5- I was very disappointed to see that the antis got a foot in on the wolf and bear topic. Wolves in northern zone need to be kept in check and are becoming a real problem in some southern zones as well. Living in zone 59 we kill 5-10 coyotes a year simply by chance, they are way over populated and need to be kept in check. The spring bear hunt is a huge success and Iam sure will continue.

Again suggestions but Iam sure the right decision will be made.

Thanks again!