Quote:
Originally Posted by lilsundance
Well Chuck, Here's my take on it. You are complaining about you having so long between getting drawn. You forget about everyone else who applies in the same WMU as yourself having to wait the same time. Your asking others to pay higher fees so you can get drawn sooner. A lot of people probably may not be able to afford the higher prices. Remember higher prices will also drive up poaching as people will still feel they have a right to healthier meat and will feel the gov't is making hunting a rich mans sport like in the UK. As for limiting the number of times you can use 999 that will mess up a lot of people who do plan. My party of 4 is a prime example of that. We plan it so that 3 use 999 and 1 applies and gets a moose draw. We rotate so that we always have 1 get a draw in our area. Yes I know in time we wil have a skipped year because more are applying each year.
But here is the real reason your plan wont work. Alberta's population is expanding every year, and our game population is remaining fairly constant as a whole. So more people hunting for the same amount of animals is going to mean longer waits between getting drawn.
What we need to do is make SRD change what designates a resident. Take the Yukon as an example, you have to live there as a resident (Yukon Drivers license) for 1 year before you can hunt as a resident. We need to implement a system like that. Instead of stopping non-resident hunters applying for draws perhaps let them apply by themselves but have a set number per species that can be drawn. Lots of people here have family that no longer live in Alberta that like to come back and hunt with their father or brother. Drop guide allocations from 10% to 8% and strictly enforce that percentage. These things I have proposed probably wont help much in the way of draw waiting times in the long term, but it may be sustainable to maintain our hunting heritage before it becomes a rich mans only sport like it seems you want to make it for your own private gain. Of course this is only my opinion.
|
I find it hard to believe that not many people have touched on the bolded statement above (well said to your entire post lilsundance). Increasing costs won't do anything except take us one step closer to paid hunting. The real problem is a constant population influx with stable(?) numbers of big game. It's the unfortunate truth behind it, and no amount of changes to a draw system will change the fact that there is a limited resource and an increasing amount of people wanting to exploit that resource.
I agree that we need to re-define what a resident is, or at least better manage the enforcement of the current definition of a resident. It's pretty easy to "forge" a mailing address to get a WIN card, how about a driver's license or Alberta health card as supplemental proof of residency? How about a staggered rights approach, so that a new resident can only get general tags for the first year or two, then move on to special draws?
What about limiting the amount of special draws you can win each year? There are a lot of guys on here who brag about how many special draws they got. If it were limited to one draw per year, or two even, it would force people to prioritize.
I completely agree with mandatory payments on successful draws, or forfeit the tag.
I completely agree with mandatory reporting of success on the tag, although I don't think it will reduce wait times. I support it to help out with resource management.
It sucks to have to wait 15 years for a moose tag, but there are ways around it. 999 and grab an undersubscribed tag for a northern zone. Partner on a tag with a buddy, one guy can 999 and the other can get the P1 or P2 tags in the northern zones. If guys are willing to spend more money on tags, why not spend more time to get to the zone? It sucks to have to travel 8-10 hours or more, but I would rather drive and hunt, than complain about it. I have a buddy who hunts with 2 others and they hunt moose north every year, and have gone 6 years in a row where at least one of them fills a tag. There are plenty of hunting opportunities for those who are willing to do the research and put in the time, just because you can't shoot a trophy from your back deck doesn't mean there aren't any opportunities in this province.
IBTL??