Environmental appeal decision sheds light on B.C. hunting rules

Two years after B.C. reduced the moose hunt in its north by half, the provincial Environmental Appeal Board has rejected a challenge of the change in the number of moose allocated to hunters. 

Gerry Paille, B.C. Wildlife Federation's president for the Peace region, said while appeals of hunter quotas rarely succeed, they highlight a lack of transparency in how the province arrived at its quotas for moose.

"Some of the data doesn't make sense to us," Paille said. "We haven't got a full explanation as to how they came up with that number."

The Environmental Appeal Board decision, issued Thursday, sheds light on how the province sets its hunting regulations, and underscores gaps in moose and caribou population data in some regions. 

The wildlife federation was named as a participant in the appeal, because it represents resident hunters. The B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

In 2022, the province cut the number of moose available to resident hunters and commercial hunting guide outfitters in half. Officials sent resident hunters and guide outfitters in each management zone an updated allocation for the next five years.

Cassidy Caron, owner of a commercial hunting outfitter in the Peace region, said in board documents the change in regulations puts her business in an "impossible situation."

The change reduced moose hunting in Caron's zone from an open season to a quota of five moose. She was notified of the change that May.

In an email from Caron to the Ministry of Forests that was included in the board documents, she said she already had 23 clients booked for moose hunting tours by that point, and the change in regulation so late into the year was "unbelievably unfair."

"[The change] will probably result in bankruptcy of our business and possibly the loss of our houses we mortgaged to buy the area," Caron said. 

That July, Caron appealed the quota, alleging the change was announced too late in the season and questioning whether the province's actual quotas were based on science. 

Calls for transparency

In the email, Caron said after losing two seasons of hunting tours to the COVID-19 pandemic, the moose population was flourishing, and asked for transparency on how the decision was made. 

It's a call that's been repeated in the years since. 

When controversial hunting regulations came into effect this May, further reducing the northern moose and caribou hunts, hunters, outfitters and the B.C. Wildlife Federation asked why the regulations were changed — and called for hunting regulations to be based on science.

In the board documents, the ministry did not argue that the 50 per cent reduction in moose harvest was a science-based calculation. 

Instead, it argued the reduction is based on its legal obligation to uphold First Nations' constitutionally protected right to hunt and its agreement with First Nations in the area to reduce the moose harvest by half. Neither party challenged this right.

The ministry also showed the board how it arrived at quota estimates. A ministry biologist took a random survey of moose hunting licenses and estimated moose kills from 1976-2020 in the region — specifically selecting data from the past five years.

From those stats, the biologist calculated the average number of moose kills in each management area. Then, the biologist cut those numbers in half to arrive at the quotas for 2022.

In the decision, board chair Shannon Bentley said there isn't enough evidence to prove the province's data on moose is not based on science. Additionally, the board decided there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove that hunting regulations should be solely based on science. 

'Trying to send a message'

Paille said these quota appeals are common, but rarely result in a change to hunting regulations. Plus, he said, they often take years to resolve — which is too long to change the quota for one season.

"It's a case of the outfitters trying to send a message to the government," he said. He added the wildlife federation is calling for the province to boost moose populations without changing hunting regulations.

Still, Paille said he expects several more appeals of the 2024 update to hunting regulation.