24 June 2008
Honourable Barry Penner
Minister of the Environment
PO Box 9047
Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC
V8W 9E2
Dear Mr. Penner:
Please find enclosed a story about our wolfdog, Tundra and the presentations I do about wolves for the local school children in the North Vancouver Island area. I discuss pup development, denning behavior, choice of food, respect for the wolf as a wild animal, along with other topics, with the children.
These presentations are a rare opportunity for these children, school staff and community members to interact with an animal that is mostly wolf, that exhibits wolf behavior, but is extremely friendly and safe for them to pet her. The children are extremely grateful for these visits and they respond by sending me their creative thank you cards.
As you can read in the article, I present a realistic view of the wolf as a wild animal that is misunderstood by many segments of the community including your ministry which I will detail later in the letter. I assure them that it is rare to see a wolf in the wild but should they be lucky to experience this encounter, do not approach the animal, feed it or in any way try to habituate the wolf. Just let it be a wild animal and leave it alone.
That should be the policy of our government, to extend protection to the wolf by leaving it alone, since it is a self-limiting animal in regards to reproduction. Many studies have shown the wolf does not breed when food supply is scarce, thereby limiting its population. There are other factors too, which help them to limit their population.
The children and adults attending my presentations, along with all the people I meet on my trips with Tundra, are dismayed as I am regarding all government’s attitudes towards the wolf. The BC Government is no exception to this misunderstood attitude.
According to your Hansard testimony on May 22,2008 at your estimates, you admit that your ministry does not have an accurate estimate of the wolf population in BC. Anecdotally, you state that there have been more sightings of wolves in BC and you feel the population is on the rise but you have no hard figures to support that conclusion.
With no accurate figures however, your ministry has decided in the BC Hunting & Trapping regulations that BC resident hunters can kill 3 wolves a year. According to the 2006 Wolf Hunter Harvest data (the most recent data) there were 597 wolves killed in BC. This data is likely inaccurate and under reported as only 3 regions have compulsory reporting and the harvest data is based on self-reporting which is always suspect.
I believe your ministry’s management of wolves is seriously flawed in a number of areas. Hunters do not need to purchase a tag to kill wolves as is required for other animals. Your ministry has no accurate records of the harvest of wolves, yet you continue to allow this unmonitored killing to persist. Conservation officers could not successfully prosecute a hunter for killing more than 3 wolves or out of season hunting because they would have to rely completely on the admission of the hunter which they would not get.
As accurate a picture I can get on the harvest of wolves in BC, about 600 wolves are killed out of a population between 7,000 – 9,000 wolves. This represents between 6.5-8.5% of the annual population but this is likely low due to the reasons I have mentioned. Given natural causes for death, along with the hunting & trapping, I question whether this is a sustainable harvest and your ministry officials can not assure me that it is sustainable because they do not know.
Another area of concern is the hunting of wolves and all wildlife in BC Parks, Recreation Areas, Conservancies, etc. British Columbians and its visitors want to visit these protected areas to enjoy the scenery and its wildlife. They are aghast at realizing that the small hunting contingent in this province can kill wildlife in these areas. All of Canada’s national parks are protected from any hunting or trapping within its boundaries. BC parks should be granted the same exemption.
In the hunting regulations and on the BC parks website it states that hunting and trapping is not allowed in many Provincial Parks, Conservancies, Recreation Areas, and Protected Areas. This is a completely inaccurate and misleading statement. It would be more accurate to state that few parks and other areas are free from hunting and trapping. To prove my point, here is a list of parks that allow hunting and trapping (list is not exhaustive), according to the BC parks website and hunting regulations: Strathcona, Brooks Peninsula, Carmanah Walbran, Tweedsmuir, Wells Gray, Denetiah, Manning, Finlay-Russell, Graham Laurier, Hakai Luxvhalis Conservancy, Homalthko River-Tatlayoko, Itcha Ilgachuz, Kakwa Park, Liard River Corridor, Muncho Lake, Atlin Park, Babine Mountains, Mount Assiniboine, Mount Blanchet, Mount Edziza, Naikoon, Northern Rocky Mountains, Omineca, Pine Le Moray, Purcell Wilderness, Redfern-Keilly, Rubyrock Lake, Skagit Valley, Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness, Stein Valley, Stikine River, Stone Mountain, Sustut, Tatlakui, Tatshenshini-Alsek, Ts’il?os, Valhalla, Cape Scott and Dune Zakeyih.
As you can see it encompasses most of the large parks and refutes emphatically your misleading statement that many parks are free from hunting and trapping. Is this policy to appease the BC Wildlife Federation?
The most disturbing policy your government has directed towards the wolf is the very protracted wolf killing season. In the Hunting Regulations, Regions 5,6,7a&7b (which encompasses more than half the land mass of BC & where most of the wolves reside) the hunting season for the wolf is from Aug. 1 – June 15th which ensures that hunting can occur during the pup birthing season (March 15-May15). No other animal can be legally targeted by hunters during their birthing season except the wolf! How more mean spirited can your Ministry and Government be towards the wolf?
Also, in these aforementioned regions, there are areas where there is no closed season or no bag limit on the wolf. No wonder there were 524 wolves killed in 2006 in these three regions. While most of the wolves reside in these regions, if your intent is to seriously erode the wolf population in BC, this policy will succeed.
Will the Minister commit to significantly providing much more protection for the wolf in BC? Specifically will the Minister:
Significantly reduce the hunting season on the wolf in all regions of BC?
Reduce the allowable harvest of wolves to one wolf per hunter & require hunters to purchase a tag to hunt wolves?
Eliminate all hunting & trapping in BC parks, conservancies, recreation areas, etc?
Implement mandatory reporting of wolf kills in all regions?
Commit to a comprehensive wolf inventory system so we know how many wolves reside in BC?
Your ministry has a long way to go to improve the plight of the wolf in this province, since it has endured many years of persecution. I am doing my part by taking Tundra to schools and community groups to raise the profile of the wolf and to educate them about Tundra’s wild cousins. Mr. Penner, what are you going to do to protect the wolf in BC?
I would appreciate acknowledgement of this letter with an estimation of the timespan for your response.
Sincerely,
Gary R. Allan, JD
PO Box 210
Sointula, BC
V0N 3E0