Conditions loosened for bison hunt

The doors have been swung open on the annual hunt for wood bison.

The doors have been swung open on the annual hunt for wood bison.

The Yukon government announced Monday it is setting aside the lottery system for bison permits. It will now provide permits to all interested and eligible hunters as a means of encouraging a higher harvest this winter.

Also removed is the restriction requiring successful hunters to wait five years before applying for another permit.

As there is next to no predation on the transplanted bison population, hunting is currently the only means of controlling population growth, Harvey Jessup, director of wildlife management for the Department of Environment, explained during an afternoon press conference.

“The Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board recommended an adaptive management approach to manage the harvest because the hunting has not been as successful as we had hoped and the population is continuing to grow,“ he said.

“The only thing that has really changed a lot is there will be no limit on the number of hunters that can go hunting.“

The new adaptive approach, it was pointed out, is being implemented on a five-year trial basis.

All licensed hunters who have taken the bison hunt workshop are eligible for a permit. Non-aboriginal hunters are still required to pay the $50-fee,  though there is no fee for aboriginal hunters.

Jessup said the coming winter’s harvest target has been set at 200 for the four-month season running from Dec. 1 to March 31.

The first three months, he noted, will be open to all hunters, with the requirement that successful harvests be reported no later than 72 hours after the kill.

If the harvest target has not been reached by the end of February, further permits will be issued for the March, using some type of lottery system similar to what has been in place for the last 10 years of the hunt, Jessup said.

While the impact from the level of hunter traffic in the affected game management zones remains a common concern, Jessup added, it was felt that it was particularly important to control the March traffic.

March, he explained, has always been a favourite month among all hunters because of expanding daylight hours and warmer temperatures.

The beginning of the Yukon’s wood bison population was transplanted into the territory’s southwest corner in the mid-1980s from Alberta’s Elk Island National Park, as part of a national recovery effort for the threatened species. The number of bison and their range have grown significantly since.

Wildlife managers have long held that the ideal population level is 500, though current estimates put it at 1,100-plus. The first permit hunt began in the winter of 1998/99, with 45 of 50 permit holders harvesting a bison, for a success rate of 90 per cent.

But long gone are the days of curious bison permitting hunters to practically drive over them with their snowmobiles.

With a much more wary animal these past few years, the success rate has plummeted to 35 per cent.

Of the 282 permits issued last year, 99 bison were taken, in addition to six other incidental kills, including a couple likely killed by wolves, according to information provided to Environment staff.

There has been concern by local first nations and the general public that a rising bison population is displacing the indigenous moose and caribou, and private land owners have complained of property damage by the massive animals.

Among several recommendations made to then-Environment minister Dennis Fentie last January, the wildlife management board asked that a more fluid means of managing the bison harvest be put in place.

The recommendation, Jessup explained, was the product of extensive consultation with first nation governments, renewable resource councils, special interest groups and the general public.

Prior to the minister’s acceptance of an adaptive management plan, adjustments to the annual bison harvest often required regulation changes that could take up to 18 months to get through the system, Jessup explained.

He said the intent of the management plan and the 200 harvest target - the highest yet and twice last year’s target - is not to reduce the bison population overnight, but to help keep it under control.

With the 2007 population estimate of 1,100 bison - which included a plus or minus variable of 200 animals - and the estimated annual growth rate of 18 per cent, the bison population this year could well be reaching 1,300 or more, Jessup acknowledged.

He said it’s difficult to tell how many hunters will take advantage of the open season, but pointed out that before the one-in-five-year rule came into effect in 2003, it was common to receive 800-plus applications.

Of the 282 permits issued last year, 155 were handed out by the Yukon government through its lottery system, with 447 hunters submitting applications.

The bulk of remaining permits were distributed by the Champagne and Aishihik and Little Salmon-Carmacks first nations. Ten went to area outfitters, six to Yukon schools, and one was auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Yukon Fish and Game Association.

Removing the one-in-five rule, Jessup pointed out, will allow successful and experienced hunters to return to the field the very next year.

The government is planning to hold bison education workshops in Whitehorse on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, said Environment communications officer Dennis Senger said.

There will also be a workshop held in Haines Junction, though no date has been set, and the department is considering workshops for hunters in Watson Lake and Ross River.

Should the demand warrant, the government is prepared to host more workshops, he said.

Senger pointed out there are already 1,100 hunters in the Yukon who’ve taken the bison workshop over the last 10 years, and they are not required to take it again.

Jessup said when the bison hunt was first proposed, it was felt a workshop was imperative to ensure hunters knew what they were getting into, given the remote winter conditions they would be encountering and the sheer size of bison they would be dealing with.

Hunters, for instance, are required to use a rifle with a minimum punch to hunt bison.

“This is not your average caribou or moose hunt,“ he emphasized.

Bison permits went on sale as the announcement was unveiled at 2 p.m. Monday. Five had been purchased as of noon today.