Hunters could have a shot at two deer tags in 2004

Ken Johnston
Editor

The limit on deer may be increased for the Rainy River area in the future, but when that might happen will depend on how quickly the Ministry of Natural Resources can make some changes to the rules governing the hunt.
John Vandenbroeck, the Area Biologist for MNR out of Fort Frances and member of the Provincial Deer Technical Committee, said Friday that they are looking at adopting a program currently being used in South-central Ontario that allows hunters to take two deer per year.
At present local hunters apply for a doe tag and if successful they can harvest a doe. If not they can purchase a buck license and harvest one buck.
Vandenbroeck said that there are two factors driving the proposal to allow hunters to apply for a second seal. “Population problems as well as the move to create a new hunting opportunity are reasons we are looking at this.”
With only a finite number of hunters in a given area and an exploding deer population, the second seal program would allow a greater harvest by the same number of people.
“This would be a new tool for (MNR) managers to use at their discretion,” said Vandenbroeck. “We could turn it on or off relatively quickly.”
MNR is using the second seal program already and managers from other parts of the province have seen it as something they could readily use in their respective areas.
However, it is currently only being developed as an internal proposal by the Deer Technical Committee. Once they make their recommendations several public interest groups will have an opportunity to offer their input to the proposal. From there province wide public consultations will be held.
“If there are few public issues and support for the proposal it could be in place by the fall of 2004,” said Vandenbroeck.
The committee is looking at different directives to issue for managers to allow them to use the tool to meet objectives that may be unique to their respective jurisdictions.
Vandenbroeck is meeting this week with the committee to try and hammer out final recommendations from it.