I have just read through this entire thread.
Because of the bickering between the headbone hunters, the meat hunters, the treaty people, the non treaty people, the outfitters, the farmers and the government's inability to properly manage re-introduced elk it is painfully obvious that, to be fair, we will have to re-introduce wolves and cougars to the Suffield area to control elk numbers.
hehe
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My outlook on the subsistance hunting issue...
Our wildlife, whether introduced or native, is all Albertan's wildlife. Since the animals are the crowns animals (and we create our gov't) we as a whole society, native and non native combined, have the responsibility to manage our wildlife.
Because the suffield elk populations are just a grand gov't. experiment, our government should cull and harvest the Suffield elk in a manner that is fair to all people. It might be best if designated government hunters culled the Suffield elk and the meat distributed to our provinces food banks and maybe lunch programs for schools. The food banks deal with actual people (FN too) that are in need. School lunch programs feed
all of our children.
This approach would take everybodies egos out of the equation.
Subsistance hunting has a place in remote areas, which Suffield is not.