According to Sgt. Kevin Nixon with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, the number of hunters in the area has been decreasing over the years, but amount of illegal activity has remained steady.
Sgt. Nixon said it is not unusual to hear complaints about wild game poaching and people who shoot animals and leave them behind with injuries, as well as other B.C. Wildlife Act violations.
Among the cases that conservation officers in the area are working on is the case of a bull moose that suffered multiple shots and was left alive. The case is now pending court.
“Whether they [people who shot the animal] couldn’t find the moose, or whether they shot multiple animals and only retreated one, we don’t know,” said Sgt. Nixon. “We are working on a couple of cases like that right now.”
In another case, also pending court, a group of people shot a bull moose one day before the seven-day general open season (GOS) for moose hunting that takes place from Oct. 20 to Oct. 26.
“Every year we encounter evidence of people shooting moose the day before the open season,” said Sgt. Nixon. “The open season brings hunters from all over, so we are very busy during those seven days, and as a result, violations do occur.”
This season, there were four field officers covering the Bulkley-Stikine area, one of the two sections of the Skeena hunting zone. The area extends from Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park up to the Yukon border. To cover this area more efficiently, Sgt. Nixon assigns his staff to focus on the busiest sections. For other areas, conservation officers depend largely on complaints of locals that witness suspected or known illegal activity. Since there are less people living in the northern areas of the province, there are also less reports of illegal activity.
“The further north you go, the less public assistance you get,” he said. “But we have to be out there, and in a lot of cases, find the crime.”
The Conservation Officer Service often schedules unannounced patrols to surprise hunters and detect violations.
“The average hunter has good ethics, but some people are fence riders - if they think they can get away with something, they might fall on the wrong side of the fence,” said Sgt. Nixon.
If caught in illegal activities, hunters could face losing their firearms and hunting privileges, as well as paying fines. The B.C. Wildlife Act sets out fines from $5000 to $50,000 depending on the severity of the case. A loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, for example, could mean a $230 fine. People hunting animals outside of the open season could face a fine of $575. Other B.C. Wildlife Act violations reported this season include use of illicit drugs and alcohol while hunting.
“If we come across a more serious violation, we send people straight to court,” said Sgt. Nixon. “Bottom line is that it [illegal activity] is not worth it.”
General open seasons do not issue a set number of tags, according Greig Bethel, public affairs officer for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. Instead, GOS provide a so-called bag limit, representing the maximum number of animals a hunter can harvest in a season and a restricted length of season. The GOS bag limit for the Burns Lake area hunt is one bull (antlered) moose per hunter.
The province is divided into a series of geographically defined wildlife management units (MUs). The MUs for the area around Burns Lake are MU 6-4 (south of Burns Lake) and MU 6-5 (local area).
“The most recent data we have for the 2012 general open season is 897 hunters (MU 6-4) and 151 hunters (MU-6-5),” said Bethel. “The estimated total number of moose harvested for the 2012 general open season was 168 moose for MU 6-4, and 49 moose for MU 6-5.”
To report known or suspected wildlife violations, dial 1-877-952-7277.