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Bennett agrees elk numbers down in region
East Kootenay Hunters Association president Larry Hall has received national media attention in the past week for making statements about a dramatic decline in the elk population in the region.
He also stated the provincial government needs to do more to protect elk and moose populations. Hall has been quoted, without any mention of original source or when, by most provincial and several national and international media sites as saying elk populations have declined by almost 75% in the past 50 years, though a hunting ban should not be considered.
Hall is asking regional hunters to raise their voices and demand change as to how the provincial government manages its elk population.
“We’ve had as much as 30,000 elk in the East Kootenay and now we are down to 7,500 to 8,000 elk. We’re down to about a quarter of the elk population that we had 40 and 50 years ago,” he said.
Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett said he agrees with Hall and suggested the provincial government needs to pay less heed to urban voters who don’t hunt.
“I share the same view as many hunters that elk and deer populations are down,” he told e-KNOW. “I still hunt every fall and I spend weekends in the mountains regularly. I am not seeing the elk or deer where I have in the past. What I am seeing is more wolves and more bears but especially wolves. As a MLA I have advocated for all of my 16 years that government manage predator populations like it manages prey populations. But government is limited in its policies by what society will accept and society, at least urban society, is strongly opposed to more aggressive predator management.
“Government should find the courage to stand up to those uninformed urban interests and reduce wolf and bear populations. But I am not holding my breath. There are way more urban MLA s in the legislature than rural MLAs,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Hall has expressed concern about the government’s handling of wildlife.
On February 2, 2007, Hall told the Regional District of East Kootenay board of directors that the provincial government’s allocation policies that grant a larger percentage of the available wildlife harvest to commercial operations was resulting in negative ecological and economic impacts to the region. He asked that the RDEK request a moratorium on the new policies and that the public and Resident Hunters’ Association be consulted on the matter.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
