Hunters get OK to declare war on elk at Alberta military base
Special hunts aim to manage population
Soldiers won’t be the only ones carrying guns at Canadian Forces Base Suffield this fall.
For the first time, hunters will be able to shoot elk in an attempt to help reduce the growing numbers on the military base, located approximately 50 kilometres north of Medicine Hat.
Officials say elk have been causing problems in the area.
“Local landowners have been concerned about some damage to property, such as damage to fences and damage to forage crops,” said Carrie Sancartier, spokeswoman for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. “There also has been increasing pressures on landowners to manage recreational hunting access in the area.
“So that’s the main reason for that — to manage the herd on the base.”
Lt.-Col. Doug Claggett, base commander for CFB Suffield, said the elk population has reached about 4,000 since the animals were first reintroduced on the base in the late 1990s.
“We’ve been told it’s the largest herd in Alberta,” he said, adding a special hunt is being tested this fall to determine whether it will help manage the population.
While hunters are thrilled by the move, both outfitters and environmentalists have some concerns.
“It’s always the reason for the hunt that concerns us,” said Cliff Wallis, vice-president of the Alberta Wilderness Association. “If they are causing damage, there are ways of dealing with that. I don’t know if you need a special hunt to deal with that.”
Wallis said there’s a healthy population of elk in the area, but the province is blaming wildlife for doing what comes naturally.
“You could have a war on everything, on seed-eating birds to whatever,” he said. “That is not a good reason.
“If you are going to have a hunt out there, it’s got to be well-managed, well-controlled. Then, that’s fine.”
Outfitters said the hunt is a good idea.
“There is a tremendous amount of elk there,” said Gordon Burton, who runs Double Diamond Outfitters, which takes hunters into the area around Suffield. “We often see them bedded right on the other side of the fence.”
But he questioned why it was such a last-minute decision to open it up this fall.
“This will be high demand,” said Burton, a director with the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society. “How we’ve dealt with high demand is a lottery. How will we deal with firstcome, first served? Lineups like at the Apple Store?”
According to the province, hunters must register in advance and will be able to purchase a licence through albertarelm.com on Thursday.
A total of 200 permits will be allotted for four special hunts of antlerless (female or young) elk, which run for five days each between Nov. 12 and Dec. 7.
Burton said it would have made more sense to announce the hunts for next fall rather than next month.
“That’s very surprising,” he said. “That’s extremely reactionary and not indicative of a well-planned management strategy.”
Officials from Suffield, however, said they’ve been in discussion with the province for a year to come up with the best approach to manage the elk in and around the base.
“Unlike places like CFB Wainwright, for example, where they actually have hunting on the establishment itself, they don’t do it in certain areas where they do explosive training,” said Claggett. “The difference for Suffield is that the entire military training area is used in that sort of capacity.
“There’s a great deal of safety concerns.”
Each hunter who gets a licence will be required to wear red or blaze orange clothing, attend a mandatory safety briefing and sign a waiver after they check in at the base.
There will also be a lot of controls on the hunters during their time on the base.
“We need to make sure people are fully aware and know that this area is different than any other places that they’ve hunted,” he said. “Safety is our paramount concern. It’s not about going out there and doing the hunting and controlling the herd at this point in time.
“It’s really to see if we can manage it and what techniques we need to have in place.”
Once this year’s trial is complete, Claggett said they will review it to see whether the hunt on the base will continue in future years.