ONTARIO’S 2019 MOOSE MANAGEMENT REVIEW: A CRITIQUE
Alan Bisset1,
Brian McLaren2
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (retired 24 years), 5-307 Metcalfe St, E., Strathroy, Ontario, Canada
Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B 5E1
Abstract Between 2000 and 2019, the moose population and moose hunters in Ontario (Canada) declined from 100,000 each to 70,000 and 60,000 respectfully. The Big Game Management Advisory Committee (BGMAC), as advisors to the Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), conducted another review, soliciting public opinion on how to manage moose. The exercise consisted of seven open house meetings, a PowerPoint slide presentation, an opportunity to speak with MNR staff and BGMAC members, a questionnaire and a summary and recommendations document. Neither BGMAC nor the government has a mandate to advise on the First Nations and Métis moose hunt, so they were not targeted to participate.
There were three main themes in the information. The first was that calves were being overharvested, the second was that by killing calves, hunting opportunities were being reduced, and the third was a need to reduce tag fill rates so that more opportunities might be provided.
While promoted as “listening sessions”, the information provided at the open houses appears to have directed participants toward a radical harvest management system that contradicts much of what is known about managing moose populations. Perhaps the strongest point in the presentation was a district initiative started in 2004. Quotas were placed on the calf harvest in four Wildlife Management Units near the southern edge of the range. The results suggested that it was possible to successfully exchange part of the planned calf harvest for cows and still increase the population. As a result, the provincial program was changed in 2020 to one that increased the cow harvest and reduced calf harvest. Although the cow harvest should be about 40% of the bull harvest, cow tags exceeded bull tags by 50%.
Positive changes were adopted, including a quota on the calf harvest, a legal framework that could permit direct and predictable control on the harvest and a points-based tag distribution system.
Since the review and program changes, hunters have declined to fewer than 40,000 and there is no evidence that the moose population is increasing.