been sitting on the side line and I see some real concern so lets get the real numbers I have some and they are documented from the 1990 sheep management plan this might be contradictory to what has been said but here they are right form ASRD
1989 all the following are in the 1990 sheep management plan and refer to the 1989 season
sheep in Alberta (not including national parks)5215 outside the parks
2500 trophy hunters resident and non resident, residents killed 230 rams
291 resident non trophy hunters killed 90 non trophy sheep
21,000 days effort expended means hunts averaged 7.5 days that includes travel in and out
major concerns industrial and recreational disturbance, loss of habitat, die offs from contact with domestic livestock particularly domestic sheep,
forest encroachment due to fire suppression
management goal for year 2000
raise population to 6900 Achieved
resident harvest of 250 rams been within this number for 20 yrs.
40 non resident harvest
500 non trophy harvest by resident
highest licenses sold prior to 1989 3284 trophy licenses in 1984 (less than today)
difference in success rate between res and non resident was based on skill and effort
(means we need to spend more time on the mountain)
here are some notes I obtained from the 2009 Wild sheep meeting in Red Deer
Quoting AS RD
population 2009 is 6971 sheep which is above the target of 6900
as much as 70% habitat loss from forest encroachment in some WMU this due to wild fire suppression since 1950
2002 -3540 resident took 248 trophy sheep goal of (250)
2002 nonresidents took 42 rams with 58 hunters
average age of rams harvested 6.5 years (.5 is because they are born in spring killed in fall) in 4/5 zones
1998 full curl rule put in this increased age to 7.5yrs average in those zones but decreased harvest from 16 per yr to 4 per yr. in these zones ( no real old or huge rams have been harvested in these zones since full cull implemented (+10yrs) seem we lost a lot of opportunity here. for a gain of 1 year in age structure
we are all concerned about this we all want lots of game and good success and great trophy's
but the bottom line I read out of this is hunter numbers are not the culprit
we need to do some burning to get back habitat, control some access and and focus our attention on the solution rather and fighting over who deserves what
If we drive the successful hunters off the mountain then who will show these young guys the way. A guy that gets to hunt sheep every 5 years
let us put that in relation to whitetail "if you are 30 today and successfully hunted whitetail since you where 15 that means you would have that same field experience at thirty if the 5 yr rule was put as you did when you where 18
just my thoughts "lets drive them to manage the resource rather than the hunters because when we are managed out of the picture they won't have to manage anything"
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