MANITOULIN – A proposal for additional opportunities being provided for deer hunting on Manitoulin Island has now been shelved.
A Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) spokesman told The Expositor last week, “the proposal is no long being considered. We received information from a number of organizations, groups and individuals who voiced their opposition to the proposal. It is no longer being considered for Manitoulin Island.”
As was reported in last week’s edition of The Expositor, the MNRF was asked to consider a proposal after a recent Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) Zone D meeting for providing additional deer hunting opportunities to hunters on Manitoulin Island, by filling in deer hunt season gaps that are currently in place.
“There is a week after the regular deer gun hunt ends where there is no hunting. And then the black powder and bow season starts for a week and then closes again. In the rest of Ontario these seasons continue until the end of December,” Bryan Barker told The Expositor after the recent OFAH meeting with a wildlife policy analyst for the MNRF.
He had suggested that filling the gaps in the seasons on Manitoulin with bow hunting opportunities would not be detrimental on deer populations since the total number of deer tag allocations provided by the province for the deer hunting seasons on Manitoulin would not increase.
However, a MNRF spokesperson told The Expositor last week, “the proposal for additional bow hunting opportunities drew enough concerns, from fish and game clubs and individuals, that this proposal has been cancelled.” The ministry spokesperson said that no one who contacted the ministry felt that Manitoulin Island doesn’t already have a long enough deer hunt season.
