Advocacy

11(1) In order for wildlife management to be successful,

• approaches should be varied across the province to account for regional differences in wildlife populations and agricultural production,
• governing bodies must work closely with producers and landowners to identify and rectify specific wildlife conflicts,
• individual producer wildlife conflicts need to be recognized as legitimate concerns and flexible mitigation tools need to be developed,
• enforcement by Fish and Wildlife Officers is essential for issues management and therefore, Officers need to be located within reasonable distance of farms, and,
• mitigation approaches require consultation with stakeholders for allocation of the resources.

(2) Beef producers should be compensated

• (a) for the goods and services, they provide to maintain wildlife and habitat,
• (b) any livestock mistakenly killed by known or unknown persons, and/or,
• (c) the financial losses caused by wildlife to crops, stored feed, and livestock.

(4) Biosecurity risks from wildlife need to be accounted for in wildlife management to limit impacts on industry, landowners, and rural communities. Wildlife and free-roaming bison should be managed to limit the disease risk of,

• (a) liver flukes,
• (b) chronic wasting disease,
• (c) tuberculosis, and,
• (d) brucellosis.

(5) Bison are not considered a true endangered species as they are commonly farmed livestock.

(6) Wild boar are an introduced species that require rapid and swift action from all levels of government to achieve eradication.

(7) When making wildlife management decisions the government must recognize the inconvenience, biosecurity, fire risk, added time and financial expenses of allowing hunting, recreational access, or other activities on the land.

(8) To allow improve wildlife management the following actions should be implemented,

• (a) increasing the number of antlerless big game hunting tags in areas with highly dense populations,
• (b) extending hunting seasons in areas of highly dense populations,
• (c) providing landowners’ special licenses for antlered mule deer, and,(d) approving of Firearms Discharge Permits on legal hunting days.

Approved: November 22, 2023

From Part 2 – Policy and Priorities of ABP’s Policy Manual