100 Mile House Communities in Bloom
A16 Protestors rally at Cathy McLeod’s 100 Mile office
First gymkhana of season attracted numerous riders
Tourist season begins at 108 Heritage Site
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JUNE 6, 2012
• 48 Pages • Two Sections
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Billpassing flurry ends Carole Rooney Free Press
The wind-up of spring sitting in the British Columbia legislature leaves some laws changing, some bills waiting and some people wondering when the MLAs will sit again. Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett says she doesn’t know yet if Premier Christy Clark will resume legislative sessions this fall. After strong rumours the legislature might not return until 2013, B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins says British Columbians deserve to have proposed laws fully debated and the government held to account. “Premier Clark must commit to bringing the House back for a fall sitting.” NDP house leader John Horgan also complained the 30 minutes allowed for debating issues as complicated as sales tax transition for new home sales was insufficient. See BILLS… page A4
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Chris Nickless photo
Cozy canopy... Even horses seem to get tired of the rain sometimes. Bert Filipek from Fruitvale had an unexpected visit from Jazzy, a horse owned by Carl Eddy of Smithers, at the Back Country Horsemen’s Rendezvous in 100 Mile House on June 2.
Cariboo moose population plummeting Carole Rooney Free Press
The moose population in the Cariboo and certain other regions in the province has declined significantly, according to government estimates. The statistics and related potential for moose-harvesting cuts were recently released in a Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) fact sheet. However, the indications of reduced hunting allocations have some resident hunters questioning the province’s sampling methods. South Cariboo resident Garth Lee was British Columbia Wildlife
Federation director for seven years and a member for 10 years. He has been its delegate from the Lone Butte Fish & Wildlife Association, as well as sitting on a regional advisory committee. “The government of British Columbia advertises they manage our wildlife by scientific facts,” says Lee. “The problem is that they haven’t had enough money to do very many aerial inventories.” Rodger Stewart, MFLNRO Cariboo region director of resource management, says the declining moose population in the Cariboo region was confirmed through three aerial surveys performed last year.
“Our densities have reduced substantively since the time of our last surveys seven to 10 years ago, depending on [the Cariboo area]. “Our standing crop is reduced by anywhere from 17 to 60 per cent, depending on the area, averaging something like 30 per cent over the whole region.” The problem lies in the “very substantive decrease” in the total population in the region’s land base, Stewart explains, not in the numbers of moose cow/calf pairs or bulls. The decline stems from several other factors beyond hunting, all of which are reviewed as part of the analysis, he
notes. Since management is dependent on funding, Stewart adds specific efforts may be needed to target some of those. However, Lee says in order to manage it scientifically, the inventories need to be done every year, rather than every seven years or more. The resident hunting advocate says he “doesn’t believe” the numbers on the fact sheet, and that “it’s just a way to use one count every decade or so,” as a basis to make cuts to the annual allowable harvest. “They are conservative like that because they don’t get enough counts to be confident. So, who is going to take the chanc-
es? Who is going to stick their neck out and liberalize any kind of a hunting season, if they’re guessing?” Stewart explains the ministry uses a standard scientific method of random statistical sampling and models used across North America to estimate both adult or calf moose populations by gender. Also used are the annual harvest surveys of hunter’s success rates and time lengths to bag their moose, he adds. “We’ve found it correlates rather nicely to the historic information we’ve got from more detailed surveys.” See MOOSE… page A3