Wow! 35 pages of postings in - Sheep on a Draw - Us sheep hunters are a fanatical bunch. Probably because sheep hunting takes us, under the power of our own two feet, into the most beautiful country that God has created. Although it took me 10 years of hunting to get my first sheep, I think we have a great system here in Alberta. In my opinion any legal ram in Alberta is both a TROPHY and MATURE ram. I do not think we should change to accommodate the few trophy hunters out there. While we have not see any evidence that necessitates change, SRD seems to be considering some. While we have many dedicated people in our present F & W system they have been emasculated by our present government so they can barely keep up with enforcement, never mind the management of a species. Any changes would have to be simple and easy to enforce.
It seems given that SRD will most likely not change the following:
- the outfitter tags seem set in stone (they will probably benefit MOST from any changes)
- predator control of any sort (grizzly wolves and cougar) would create a political firestorm
- subsistence hunting will continue (as if anyone needs sheep meat for subsistence these days)
that the Alberta resident sheep hunter will have to bear the brunt of any new management controls SRD would put in place.
I would hate to see sheep go on a draw because this would increase wait times to get your draw immensely (probably ten or fifteen years). I would hope we all realize that hunting sheep is as much about exploring new country as it is actually shooting a sheep. Right now we have the opportunity to hunt almost 300 miles of the Eastern slopes. Putting sheep on a draw would mean narrowing your options of where to hunt.
Of all the suggestions given so far, increasing waiting times for 3rd and 4th rams seems to make the most sense. This is easy to enforce but will take the more time to see the tangible results in more trophy sheep. This waiting time is okay as we do not have a problem with our sheep populations.
One other suggestion is a surcharge on each tag sold of $100.00 for residents and $1,000.00 for non-residents to be set aside in a separate fund for habitat improvement and predator control. This would be an affordable price to pay to keep our sheep hunting opportunities available for the average Albertan. Which most of us are.
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