To the editor;
In the Chris Creek-Bonaparte area, the moose this year have all but disappeared.
Ranchers, trappers and landowners haven’t seen one moose in more than eight months.
Previously, a person travelling through the area would see two or three moose per day.
What is causing this incredible decline?
At the beginning of the pine-beetle epidemic, local biologist and moose expert Doug Jury expressed concern over increased access and huge open cut-blocks.
Major haul roads were installed to facilitate logging trucks. None of these were gated or deactivated, allowing people to access large areas of moose habitat.
Lack of government spending in the wildlife-protection sector gives a free hand to poachers and minimal sentences make a mockery of charges laid.
Native harvesting also has a major detrimental affect on wildlife populations.
Indiscriminate killing of any sex of animals does not allow for stabilization of populations.
Moose are not traditional game animals of local bands to begin with, as moose did not show up in the Thompson area until the early 1900s.
Predators have also been able to kill more easily with open cut-blocks and roadways.
Government needs to do something now before we all lose this magnificent animal.
Closure of some roads, increased fines, predator control and closure of native hunting may all be required to save the moose.
Contact your local government representative and ask them to do something now.
Don Marshall
Kamloops