CORNER BROOK — It used to take Celie Parsons an hour, sometimes two hours, to drive the roughly 50 kilometres from her home in Roddickton to her work at Tuckamore Lodge in Main Brook.
That’s because Parsons liked to take the time to stop and admire all the moose she would encounter as she drove up Routes 432 and 433 on the Northern Peninsula.
This year, the only moose Parsons has seen since last September was one while she was driving through Gros Morne National Park en route to Corner Brook for a visit.
Parsons, who has worked at the outfitting lodge in Main Brook for 11 years, is one of many people who are concerned about what is happening to the province’s moose population, particularly the once-thriving population on the Northern Peninsula.
Late last November, a wildlife biologist with the provincial government made a presentation to the Newfoundland and Labrador Outfitters Association’s annual general meeting in Corner Brook. The biologist predicted that, should the province continue on with the amount if hunting licences it currently issues — more than 33,000 — and the extended hunting season introduced this past year, then the island’s moose population could drop from the estimated 116,000 in 2011 down to less than 70,000 by the year 2016.
“Anybody who hunts, anybody who cares about animals, anybody who cares about the economy and anybody who cares about the people who depend on moose for a living should be concerned about this,” Parsons said during a phone interview with The Western Star.
In a posting she made on a Facebook group — the group’s name is Protect our Hunting Heritage — started by people who share her concerns, Parsons went into great detail about how she feels on this issue. She talked about how she used to proudly boast about being from the so-called “Moose Capital of the World” and how the great success rate non-resident hunters had was a great boon to the local economy.
She and others in the group believe government is responsible for the decline in the moose population, and fear things could get worse if nothing is done immediately about the high number of licences and the longer season that now lasts for 17 weeks from early September until early January.
“It is essential that a reduction of 50 per cent to the existing quota in Area 1, 40, and 45, be made immediately,” wrote Parsons, referencing hunting zones that take in the St. Anthony, Roddickton and Plum Point areas of the Northern Peninsula. “A shorter hunting season (is needed). Nothing can survive when snowmobiles can be driven directly into the area where the moose yard together for the winter. That is like shooting fish in a barrel.”
In December 2007, Corner Brook resident Gord Casey wrote a letter to the editor that was a warning about the decline of the Northern Peninsula’s moose population.
“Like so many other issues in this province, people often find the nerve and the strength to speak up when it is too late, when the damage has already been done,” Casey wrote at the time. “If we love, respect and cherish this province as so many of us claim that we do, then let's not stand idly by and watch another valuable piece of our culture and heritage be robbed out from underneath us by those individuals in the bureaucratic system of government who could benefit from some refinement of their efforts to date. Those in a position to effect change should have a vested interest in the outcome of the proper management of this resource.”
Contacted Wednesday, Casey said the content of his letter is just as relevant now as it was when it was published more than four years ago.
“I had feedback from government in 2007 on that article,” said Casey. “I was told by government that, ‘if you think the moose population on the Northern Peninsula is bad now, then wait until we are finished with our management plan.’ There was no elaboration on what that meant. I tried to get answers, but was brushed off.”
Having hunted on the Northern Peninsula for three decades, Casey said that, based on his own observations and on conversations he has had with local hunters and outfitters, people should definitely be concerned about how the moose population is being managed.
He acknowledged the issue has become a sensitive one since advocacy groups have begun putting pressure on government to reduce the number of moose-vehicle accidents, but Casey believes there can be a balance between maintaining the traditional hunt, sustaining the outfitting industry and keeping the travelling public safe.
“I would applaud government for anything they do to make sure they consider all the factors and the moose population remains stable and sustainable,” said Casey. “But there doesn’t seem to be any kind of effective method of putting this in place. There’s no discretion given to increasing licences in areas where moose-vehicle accidents occur the most.”
It is up to Environment and Conservation Minister Terry French to decide what the moose hunt will look like. His department will roll out a new five-year strategy later this year that will come into effect for the 2013 hunt.
French will be coming out with the plans for this fall’s hunt any day now.
“As a government, we have no interest in wiping out the moose population in the province,” French said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I’m a hunter myself and I believe in the outfitting industry. It’s sometimes very difficult to make a balance. You have social responsibilities and then you have an outfitting industry which means an awful lot to outport Newfoundland’s economy.”
French said the presentation given to the outfitters association last fall was just one scientist’s projection of what could happen and not necessarily an indication of what the province will decide to do. Before it unveils the five-year plan, French said hunters and outfitters will be part of a consultation process he hopes will bring together scientific information with local knowledge of moose population trends.
He wants to see a strategy that has the flexibility to change the number of licences in any given area, depending on how moose seem to be doing in that particular area.
“This is a real quagmire for government and this stuff is never easy,” said the minister. “Next season, we will have a five-year plan. Some will agree, some will disagree. I’m hoping we do it with a balanced approach and everybody is reasonably happy with it.”
The Western Star.
