He said he will just use the data from year one. Hope his decision is the right one!!!
Antis all ready lost the case last April 30 so they have no bearing on his decision.
I remember a local bow shop in the 80s running bus loads of hunters to Ontario every spring. Too bad I was way to young then, I would have loved to have gone.
Non resident hunters in Ontario do NOT have to be fully guided like most other provinces.
Most outfitters in Ontario are semi guided. That's the reason for such a difference in pricing.
Ontario has the second largest population of bears in Canada, with British Columbia being number #1. Ontario has not had a Spring hunt since 1998.
In 1998, Ontario had an estimated population of black bears at around 75,000 bears. Now about 110,000 bears roam the province.
It will be a tremendously successful spring hunt when and if it happens!!!
WV, an average hunt cost for a Fall hunt in Ontario is around $1500.00 U.S. Our hunts cost $1595.00.
**Fully guided means guide drives hunter to bait site and then picks hunter up after the hunt. Guide is also paid to bait the site for the hunter. Fully guided includes skinning etc.
** Semi guided means hunter drives self to bait site and hunter baits own site once shown his assigned bait with bait supplied by the outfitter. Hunter usually skins his own bear with a semi guided hunt or pays About $90.00 to have his bear skinned. A semi guided outfitter still tracks and retrieves the harvested bears.
Hunters who take a semi guided hunt does not mind doing some of the work to save BIG dollars.
Three bears were killed by police in Sudbury yesterday in two separate incidents — and police say it was in the name of public safety.
In the first instance, officers responded to call about a 500-pound bear that was injured and acting aggressively in a neighbourhood near Lasalle Boulevard.
Who's in charge of dealing with black bears? Who shot a bear in New Sudbury? Police say it was dangerous — and inhumane Police were told the bear had been causing damage to property.
The Ministry of Natural Resources was called, but didn't arrive in time — before police had to kill the animal.
And shortly after 11 p.m. Monday night, a bear and her cub were found inside a home on Muriel Crescent in the city's south end.
Police said there was extensive damage to the front door of the home.
The owners were not inside at the time.
Both animals were killed.
Police are cautioning people not to underestimate the speed and power of a bear — and are asking people not to chase the animals with sticks and bats.
Good thing they (antis) lost the court case last year!!!
Skull, it would be great to have you as a sponsor of Bowsite!! You wouldn't regret it.
Council adopted a motion tabled Monday by Coun. Mac Bain calling for a return of the controversial hunt, cancelled 16 years ago following an intensive campaign by animal welfare organizations, suggesting the status quo is not adequately addressing the problem of nuisance bears in the North.
Some council members lamented at how special interest groups in southern Ontario pressured politicians of the day to do away with the hunt and that the Ministry of Natural Resources today lacks the resources to trap and relocate problem bears as it once did.
“Quite frankly, they don't do anything. Trying to call the MNR is a challenge all by itself,” said Coun. Daryl Vaillancourt, who is manager of the North Bay and District Humane Society which often receives calls about nuisance bears.
He said front line MNR staff aren't to blame, but suggested changes with that ministry are needed, particularly in the North where demand is the greatest.
“To not have a spring bear hunt here in Northern Ontario is beyond their comprehension in southern Ontario,” said Vaillancourt.
Although he supported the motion, Coun. Chris Mayne said he's not entirely sure the return of the spring bear is the answer.
“The real issue is a lack of funding for the MNR,” said Mayne, who suggested the MNR response is what will eliminate the threat of a black bear that wanders onto a North Bay golf course rather than the return of the hunt.
The motion notes that nuisance black bear encounters cost city taxpayers money when police are called. And, although police have guns, Bain suggested dealing with bears is outside of their expertise.
His motion also notes that the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters supports the bear hunt as a successful wildlife management tool that minimized dangerous encounters between people and black bears. It also indicates that organization has advised the annual hunt used to contribute more than $40 million annually to the Ontario economy, mainly in the North.
In addition, the motion calls for the hunt to be reinstated even as the province reviews the results of a two-year pilot project that saw a limited return of the hunt in parts of Northern Ontario including North Bay.
The second and final year of Ontario's spring bear hunt pilot project wrapped up June 15 and the province has indicated it is still looking at the results.
The two-year pilot involved a limited, residents-only hunt in eight of 95 wildlife management units in Ontario - areas of highest bear incidence including North Bay, Timmins, Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. Preliminary data showed that 847 residents reported participating in the 2014 early hunt and that 193 bears were harvested.
The former Tory government, under former premier Mike Harris, decided to ban the hunt in 1999 amid pressure from animal welfare organizations that claimed the hunt was unethical because bear cubs were orphaned too young to survive in the wild.
The issue has remained controversial ever since, with many Northern residents blaming nuisance bear problems on the cancellation of the hunt.
The ministry knows, as we all know, that the real problem was the cancellation of the spring bear hunt for reasons of pure political expediency by Premier Mike Harris in 1999, without one iota of science to back it up. The result is a surplus population of black bears in Northern Ontario.
This has created many problems for northern residents and financial hardships for some tourist outfitters. One major problem that receives little recognition from the ministry is the 50,000-plus moose calves born each spring in Northern Ontario, of which 25,000-plus, or 50 per cent, that become easy meals for the over-population of hungry bears within two weeks of the calves being born. This is one important reason for the sharp reduction in the current moose population and the resulting curtailment in the moose tags allocations. And there is always the fear and uncertainty of Northern Ontarians wanting to enjoy their back yards and blueberry patches.
The ministry rank and file employees know what the problem is, but they are helpless in the political games being played by their southern bosses. Worse yet are the politicians who insist that the wishes and sentiments of the mass population of voters in the south, who don't have a bear problem, must take priority over the danger and annoyance of the over-population of black bears in the north.
So, the Ministry of Natural Resource and Forestry spin doctors keep harping that we must keep our garbage indoors and get rid of our bird feeders. We've had garbage and bird feeders for decades and bears were not a problem - until the political cancellation of the spring bear hunt to save a few southern electoral ridings threatened by a rich, southern pro-animal anti-hunting group.
As Northerners, let's stop this charade of blaming the victims and put pressure on our Queen's Park politicians to gain some intestinal fortitude to admit past mistakes and completely open the spring bear hunt.
Never even baited this year in southern Ontario with the late opener of September 7. Just wasting my time...hope you have a successful fall season.
The shooting left three cubs orphaned. Two of the cubs were caught, while the search is on for the third.
In a release, police said officers got the call just after 12:30 p.m.
The mother bear and her three cubs found a “human food source and were eating this food when city staff contacted police.
“At the time that this was occurring, there were 90 children participating in activities at Camp Sudaca. Although these children were in a place of safety while the bears were in the area, there was still a concern for their well-being.”
Camp Sudaca is located on the eastern shore of Ramsey Lake and is part of the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area. The city runs the camp, which offers activities for children, ranging from games, swimming, canoeing, sailing, nature craft, campfires, overnights, mountain biking, wall climbing and camping skills.
Officers and staff with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry responded to the call.
Police said the “bear technician requested that police dispatch the mother bear as they believed this to be the same bear that was reported to be aggressive around Laurentian University earlier this week. The bear was dispatched by police due to a concern for public safety for the people who attend this area.”
Ministry staff members were able to catch two of the cubs and have transferred them to a wildlife refuge. They also set an overnight trap and will return this morning to search for the remaining cub, which does not pose a threat to the public.
Bear calls in Sudbury have doubled the year, according to police. The animals are desperate for food after a poor berry crop. On Aug. 10, officers shot three bears. First, they shot a wounded bear that had become aggressive in the Woodbine Avenue and Kiandra Court area of New Sudbury.
Later, at around 11 p.m., officers got a call about a sow and cub inside a Muriel Cresent home,, although no one was home. When the bears left the residence, they were "dispatched" at a safe location.
It’s believed the sow had two other cubs, but they have not been located.
As a result, the Northern Policy Institute is recommending the provincial government reintroduce the spring bear hunt with a non-resident component on a trial basis.
“History has demonstrated that non-resident bear hunting, primarily individuals from the United States, has been big business for outfitters and guides in Northern Ontario, particularly during the spring season (1937-1998),” Mike Commito, a policy analyst with Northern Policy Institute, wrote in his report, Does the Spring Bear Hunt Make ‘Cents?’
“In the wake of the moratorium in 1999, resident and non-resident hunters have participated in extended fall seasons. The most recent data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has placed the number of resident and non-resident hunters in 2012 at 16,378 and 4,843 respectively. Based on the cost of licenses for the 2012 season, this amounts to an estimated $1,825,693 in license sales alone.”
The report recommends reintroducing the spring bear hunt because it will be a boon to many Northern Ontario communities with strong outfitting industries, the current black bear population can sustain additional harvesting, and other provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, all offer spring bear hunting opportunities.
The former Conservative government of Mike Harris cancelled the spring bear in 1999, despite opposition from many in Northern Ontario. There have been calls for its reinstatement ever since.
Many in the North, including people in Sudbury, argue the spring bear hunt would control the number of bears in the region and reduce nuisance bear calls. Many independent biologists, however, reject this argument, saying bears are wandering into urban areas because they are hungry and too many people leave food sources out that attract them.
Two years ago, the provincial government reintroduced a limited spring hunt to some parts of Northern Ontario. Only Ontario residents are allowed to hunt.
According to Commito, reintroducing a full spring bear hunt could generate millions of dollars annually for the province. In 1997, a provincial mail survey found that non-resident hunters spent $25.2-million on spring and fall black bear hunting.
Commito said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry estimated the current black bear population in Ontario to be 85,000 to 105,000 animals. That number can sustain additional hunting in the spring. The ministry said the current black bear population can withstand a 10 per cent harvest threshold.
“While the 10 per cent harvest rate is generally applicable across the province, it could be too high in certain parts of Ontario’s Boreal Forest region, so it is important to keep stock of these local variances in terms of acceptable harvest rates,” Commito writes. “. . . Going back through the last (14) seasons from 1999 to 2012, the estimated combined legal harvest for trappers and hunters is 75,754 black bears. This gives an expected annual average of 5,411 and therefore places Ontario in an acceptable harvest range of 5-6 percent of the total population.”
Does the Spring Bear Hunt Make ‘Cents?’ can be found at www.northernpolicy.ca.
The Northern Policy Institute, set up the provincial government, calls itself Northern Ontario's independent think tank. It develops and promotes research, evidence and policy opportunities to support the growth of sustainable Northern Ontario communities.
?
Looking positive!!
Another day, another bear story.
It was another sad ending, too, although in this case the dispatching of a bruin by police at least had a compassionate angle, as the animal was hobbled by injuries.
Police received a call just after 10 a.m. regarding an adult bear that had crawled under the deck of a home on Danforth Avenue in New Sudbury and appeared to be hurt, said Staff Sgt. Craig Maki.
"Fortunately, we had a ministry bear technician with us," said Maki. "They are the experts when it comes to bear management."
Police and natural resources personnel spent more than an hour assessing the situation and determining the best course of action.
"It's a pretty populated area," said Maki. "Before we did anything, we also went to every home in the vicinity and asked people to stay inside, just in case the animal happened to get out while hurt."
The officers "tried to coax the bear out from the deck, with little success," said Heather Pridham, regional outreach specialist with Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. "The bear was being aggressive."
At one point, said Pridham, the animal "tried to enter the property," at which point police "deemed the situation a public safety issue and dispatched the bear."
She said the bear was also "showing signs of a previous injury and possible trauma, causing it to drag its back legs."
The source of that injury is unknown, although Maki said police are confident the bear "wasn't shot prior to us putting it down." He said the injuries to the hind legs "would be consistent with being hit by a vehicle."
The staff sergeant estimated the adult bear weighed about 300 pounds.
"It's not something we like to do for any reason," he said. "But, at the end of the day, if it's suffering, it's the humane thing to do."
It's also the prudent thing, from a safety perspective, he added, if there is a bear behaving unpredictably in a densely populated neighbourhood.
The Danforth bear is the fourth one dispatched by police in recent weeks, following the shooting of a mother and cub on Muriel Crescent earlier this month, and the subsequent shooting of a second mother bear at Camp Sudaca on Lake Ramsey.
That's not the complete toll, though, as a couple of bears were also put down earlier in the summer. Maki didn't have the paperwork at his fingertips, but said his understanding is one or two had to be put out of their misery after being struck by cars.
Maria Bozzo, a Prestige Place resident who has been tracking occurrences of bear activity on behalf of the Ward 8 Community Action Network, said a bear was also killed by police in June on Melbourne Street, after it "wandered from here (her street) across the creek and went to the seniors residence on Lasalle."
That occurred "in the middle of the day," she said. "Neighbours were having a yard sale and the street was full of people."
Bozzo also happened across the bear that was found dead on Rutherglen Crescent in late July and alerted police to that situation, which was later determined to have been a case of a citizen mortally wounding the animal.
"A friend and I were walking our dogs and saw it lying there," she said. "I thought it was asleep and was worried that if our dogs woke it up, it might attack some other dogs that were tied up nearby."
More recently, a bear was allegedly shot in the wee hours by a resident in Garson, she said, and strung up in a tree. The incident has been making the rounds of social media.
Bozzo began cataloguing bear events in New Sudbury last year around this time, and says it has only "gotten worse this year."
Maki would concur, noting Friday afternoon that police had already received 11 calls that day related to ursines in town. "And we had 35 yesterday," he said.
Since the animals came out of hibernation, the police service has fielded a whopping 1,200 calls, said the staff sergeant, and responded to more than a third of them.
That ties up a lot of time and resources, but police aren't going to turn a blind eye to a bear situation that seems problematic. "If it's a public safety issue, we're going," said Maki
Keep us posted....several buddies and I would make the easy drive from MN to come up.
Mark
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Enforcing stricter rules around garbage could go a ways toward alleviating Greater Sudbury's bear problem, Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer told The Star on Wednesday.
"I've talked with my peers and colleagues, and have spoken with the director of waste management, so that's something we'll certainly be looking at," he said.
The city does have some options under the current refuse bylaw. They can refuse to pick up curbside trash if it is left out earlier than recommended -- although Sizer admitted that sounds counter-productive -- or they can send a truck to collect garbage, which will cost the deviant dweller a $200 fine. Sizer said the city has not yet put into action either option.
"We're going to have to look at better bear-proof containers. It's no use if residents do what they're supposed to under current bylaws, if commercial places do not," he said. "It's got to be a concerted effort involving everybody."
In any case, the city needs to develop an attractant management solution, which would include guidelines on handling trash, birdseed and pet food, to prevent bears from roaming city streets.
"A lot of people are talking about diversionary food stations, where you're actually dropping food in different areas in the woods, and stopping the bears from heading into (the city)," Sizer added.
Ward 8 has been a hot spot for ursine sightings and to date, Sizer estimates he has received more than 200 emails from constituents, as well as an average of two calls per day, regarding bears.
"I'm looking for a now solution as much as we can, to try to solve the issue immediately," he said.
Bears were on the agenda at Wednesday's meeting of the Greater Sudbury Police Services board.
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police first looked into the urban bear problem in 2008 and again in 2012. Those years of inaction seemed to frustrate Gerry Lougheed Jr., board chair, on Wednesday.
Lougheed had stern words for the authorities, including the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
"Everybody's passing motions and forming committees, and talking about passing a bear policy, and we're now in 2015 with a crisis -- a crisis of killing bears, of neighbours being very afraid for their children and family members, of bears destroying property, but where's that policy?" Lougheed asked. "When I hear the government saying it's the municipality's issue, it's a police issue -- well I've been on this police services board for four years and I don't remember once that we ever developed a bear policy. As chair of the board, and as a board member, we want to see a bear policy, which I think is quite doable. ... Sixty days from now we'd like to see a preliminary report. At year's end, we'd like to see a policy."
In 2015, there have been 1,382 bear-related calls to date, with eight killings. Last year, five bruins were killed of a total of 535 calls. That represents a significant spike from the previous four years, during which a total of four bears were killed. Greater Sudbury has accounted for a full 30% of the bear calls throughout the province, police chief Paul Pedersen said during Wednesday's presentation.
Sizer echoed Lougheed's concerns.
"There have been three different motions or resolutions, and little has come of it. I really look forward to a city-driven policy that encompasses everybody," the councillor said. "The ministry's going to have to play a big role. I do like the idea of a policy and bringing something back to council for adoption."
Lougheed was resolute that the ministry delegate not chair the committee -- too many masters, he mused during the meeting -- as it could represent a conflict of interest.
If, in two months, the task force has not made significant headway, Lougheed said the community should "lock arms and say 'fine, this is unacceptable.' So we will lobby for change."
For his part, Sizer said he is "absolutely committed" to the task force and hopes to have a policy drafted within the next two months. The concern, he said, is that the issue will be forgotten once the bear season ends and the bruins go into hibernation. Ideas will sit on shelves and get dusty, prompting the cycle to repeat itself next Spring.
Sizer is eager to get started with the bruin-based task force, which city council approved at its Aug. 11 meeting. They are scheduled to meet for the first time on Friday at 2:30 p.m., but will be meeting with Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault on Thursday.
The delay, Pedersen said Wednesday, was related to summer vacations.
"The ministry was unable to provide a resource person immediately," Sizer added, noting a representative from the provincial body is expected to attend Friday's gathering.
Twitter: @marykkeown
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