Due to a dramatic drop in the area moose population, conservation officials and wildlife researchers agree less moose hunting should happen this year in the Cariboo and Omineca regions.
"I don't think hunting caused this, but we are not going to have hunting accentuate it," said provincial wildlife biologist Doug Heard, who is based in Prince George. "This is not a catastrophe but we want to get on it before it becomes one."
The provincial moose herd is counted every seven years, with small regional counts every year. In 1998 and 2005, the moose numbers in the Omineca area were about 20,000 but the numbers have plummeted to about 10,000. The population was from 17 to 50 per cent less in certain areas of the Cariboo, a 70 per cent decline was seen in the Skeena-Nass region, but there was no observed decline in the Kootenays, the Peace or the Okanagan regions.
Heard said consultation was done with hunting associations, the BC Conservation Service and other moose biology specialists and it was agreed that hunting should continue in these regions, but there should be less of it.
It was also agreed that another moose count should be conducted this coming winter, along with further study of the large trove of data collected in the last two samplings.
There is no clear cause, Heard said, since moose populations dropped heavily in areas both affected by pine beetle-killed stands and in healthy stands, in clearcut areas as well as non-harvested areas. Likewise there was no marked difference in the numbers of reported collisions with motorists or trains.
"It's not clear to me what is going on," said Heard. "Even though we have a decline over a number of areas, the reasons don't have to be the same. There is some inconsistent data. So I am keeping an open mind to what the cause might be, including that there might be a number of factors in a number of different areas."
The provincial strategy includes looking at poaching, increased backcountry use by the public, changes to habitat and ecosystem conditions, including mountain pine beetle consequences, logging practices, and data collection methods.
There still seems to be a healthy bull-to-cow ratio across the province and there is the possibility that the moose herds were actually even lower but are already on the rebound, Heard added..
He emphasized that there are both positives and negatives to logging in moose habitat, especially the aggressive logging of dead pine stands killed by the beetle epidemic.
"Food is not this issue for moose," said Heard. "They do not suffer like caribou do, for example, by logging activities, because the food options for moose are more plentiful and there is no shortage of it anywhere in our region. The moose population decline is not due to a shortage of food."
Research shows that while clearcut logging allows predators to see moose more easily, moose can escape from predators that aren't as strong at making their way through the deeper snow that settles in the open areas.
After a few years, the cutblocks regenerate with an understory that blocks the moose from view even better than a mature stand of timber, while providing an easy food source for moose.
The problems for moose start when humans go in to thin the forest to improve the growth of the harvestable trees, according to James Steidle of Stop the Spray B.C.
"Recent moose population collapses across the Central Interior are not helped by the extensive brushing and herbicide spraying that eliminates ungulate forage," he said. "There is no research that suggests herbicide spraying is directly linked to this current trend of declining moose numbers, but when a chemical is sprayed on 25 percent of every hectare that is logged, as it is in some areas, ungulate forage will be and is impacted."
Steidle complained about the lack of research on this topic. Heard partially agreed.
"I have done some work on that, and we don't think that is a big deal for a couple of reasons," Heard said. "One: herbicides have been used for a very long time, so the moose population drop wouldn't likely be so big within this recent window of time, if that was the cause. And two: we don't think they are limited by food. There is a lot of food out there for them."
