Some History – Another Hunters’ Meeting by Ralph Bice

From Wednesday, September 21, 1977

There was another hunters’ meeting in the Legion Hall, Huntsville, on September 17. This was called by the newly reorganized Muskoka-Parry Sound Hunt Camp Association. A few hunters have been working for two years to try and get hunters interested again.

The association came into being in 1962. There had been many small group discussions going back to the second world war as many of the hunt camps that had been organized for many years and had paid out a lot of money for taxes and lease rentals thought that these camps should have some protection from the steadily increasing number of hunters going into the woods in deer season. All realized they were on crown lands which are open to everyone. At the same time many were opposed to so many hunters coming in and hunting in areas that they considered were their hunting grounds. There was a rule then, not always observed, that camps should be at least one and one half miles apart when camp leases were obtained. This was later changed to one mile but there were instances when new leases were granted less than half a mile from other leased camps. It was the transient hunters who came in for most of the trouble as they could, and many did, in fact still do, think it is right to park a camper trailer within sight of a camp and take over the area to hunt.

The late Frank MacDougall was then Deputy Minister and he made a survey. When he saw the way things were going he stopped issuing any further hunting camp leases. We were told to give the department three years as they had plans that would make a great difference in hunting. The only change was raising the hunting licences from $5.00 to $10.00 per year and not one single thing that would benefit hunters. Not long afterwards, taking the advice of nature gurus, the bounty on wolves was discontinued. So a predator control program was started and the cost per wolf is many times the amount of the old $25 bounty.

After five or six years the men trying to get the association going began to lose heart, interest lagged and the association died a natural death.

At another meeting the Minister, Hon. Frank Miller, was told to shorten the deer hunt so there would not be so many hunters in the woods at one time. It was mentioned that short seasons have not shown that deer populations would increase. Mention was made that a report by Leo Bernier, former minister, on a three year ban on hunting in an area near North Bay had not shown any significant increase in deer. There was some discussion about feeding deer in winter yards in Muskoka. The association last year found $1000 to help buy feed.

Mr. Miller talked about wolves and asked if we thought the wolves could be controlled and reduced in numbers on a ratio of one wolf to every 100 deer would there be objections. Brings a smile to hunters in areas where they seldom see a deer and it would mean a lot of wolves would have to be moved. Also, a lot of deer would have to be brought in.

Those of us who have attended so many meetings can recall so many promises but I do think that with conditions the way they are regarding hunting we might see an improvement. I am going out on a limb and say that we have more chance of getting things with Frank Miller at the helm than we ever have had. But a great deal of the success will depend to a certain extent on the hunters.