Northwestern Ontario hunters ready to 'dial back' moose hunt

The Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance says the Ministry of Natural Resources needs to move quickly to find solutions to the province's declining moose herd.

Executive director John Kaplanis said he’s pleased the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is launching a review of its moose management strategy, but time is running out.

“Whatever the proposals are that we have to go to the public with, we need to move on that, because the moose population decline is already in effect and it's not going to slow down.”

Public consultations on the issue are scheduled for early next year.

The review will look at factors like predators and quality of habitat.

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Kaplanis said there's a lot to learn.

“It's always easy to simply manage hunting. It's the easy switch to turn on and off right? These other issues are also factors that definitely impact moose population productivity,” he said.

Ministry spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski agrees hunting isn't the only issue.

“We're not sure of all the differences, or all the risk factors, but we do want to talk about all those. You know the predation, the habitat, the harvest, and then any ... climate impacts that there may be.”

Kowalski notes public input will influence the development of any new regulations.

'Managing hunting isn't enough'

Following public consultations, the ministry will develop new management actions, on which the public will then, again, be given the opportunity to give feedback.

"We want to hear what folks who have experience on the landscape have to tell us, and then we'll go from there.”

Kaplanis agreed.

"Just simply managing hunting alone isn't enough,” he said.

“We know that from previous history and research, so we're looking forward to moving ahead of some of these other areas and factors, primarily habitat concerns and predation."

Kaplanis said his association is prepared to accept a shorter hunting season for moose.

"The reality is, we're hunting moose in the province of Ontario for three months out of the year, and that may be a little too much. We may need to dial that back as hunters and take a hard look at what we're doing, and do our part of assist in these other issues."