Dear Mr. Hobson

Further to our meeting on August 26th 2013. The feedback from our members about the meeting was that it was a positive two way exchange of information. We appreciated the information you shared with us about; cougar prey preference, historical mule deer numbers in comparison to whitetails, Caribou management challenges current Caribou population status. The information you provided about the need to develop Grizzly Bear and sheep management plans is of great interest to our members as well. We believe that you heard our concerns about the decline in Elk numbers in the Cow Elk harvest areas and our concerns about the serious decline of Whitetail Deer in the Crown Land areas. We remain concerned about increased Cougar activity in populated area due to shortage of primary prey back in the Crown land.

Our members agree with your assessment of the decline in Mule Deer and found the study information about Cougar prey preference quite interesting. As hunters who are concerned about conservation and maintaining healthy game populations we fully support a dramatic reduction of Mule Deer harvest in this area. We further recommend a reduction in the harvest of Cow Elk to allow some recovery in their numbers. We respectfully disagree with the continued harvest of antlerless Whitetail Deer in the Crown land area and do not believe that you fully appreciate the severity of the impact that the last two winters has had on this species. Our members who regularly travel the back roads in the Crown land areas are reporting that there are less than ten percent of the whitetails that they would have seen in the fall of 2011 in the Crown Land area.We believe that as responsible hunters we need to support regulations that allow for healthy wildlife populations. We expect that any reductions in harvest opportunities will be equally  shared by the professional  Outfitters in the interests of all of our hunting heritage.

Many of our members are very interested in assisting with data collection for management purposes and have encouraged us to continue to meet with you to explore ways in which we may work together to support sound wildlife management. We hope that our views are taken into consideration for the development of regulations for next year.

Our club is interested in hosting community information sessions which present a balanced look at conservation and wildlife management issues in the province. We hope that you and some of your colleagues would accept our invitation to be guest presenters and look forward to discussing future collaborative work with you.

Thank you for meeting with us and we look forward to working with you.

Regards: Jim Toner

Environment Chairman
Edson and District Fish and Game Association