Loading...
The Citizen, 1986-11-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1986. PAGE 5. Huron deer hunt called "one of best ever" MNR officers are on the back roads of the county 24 hours a day during hunt season, checking for valid licences, legal violations, as well as asking hunters specific questions which will enable the ministry to set the deer season at a time which will be satisfactory to the greatest number of hunters. Above, Conservation Officer Glen Sturgeon checks the licence of Terry Armstrong, RR 1, Lucknow, in the bush near Belgrave. Both deer hunters and officials of the Ministry of Natural Resour­ ces are reporting the 1986 four-day controlled deer hunt in Huron County as “one of the best ever,” both in terms of the number of animals bagged, and in the low number of legal violations encoun­ tered by the Wingham District MNR office. As well, Mother Nature provided four days of near-perfect weather, even though alotofcornwas still standing to shelter the animals, and there was no snow to make tracking easier. z Terry Matz, EnforcementCo- ordinatorand Fish and Wildlife Management Officer at the Wing­ ham office, said that by Monday, the Wingham check station had had 80 deer kills reported, up from 52 in 1985; the Hullett Wildlife Station reported 56, up from 46 last year; and the Zurich station had 38, up from 26 in 1985. As well, only two charges were laid in the entire area by officers on 24-hour duty, and no bona fide trespess com­ plaints were reported. “Trespass complaints are actu­ ally our Number 1 priority in this area, since all hunting here is done on private land,” said Mr. Matz. * ‘The fact that no complaints came in reflects that most hunters are better trained and more respons­ ible than some have been in the past.” With the hunter success rate estimated atabout20 per cent, Mr. Matz does not expect many more than the 174 kills already reported to come in: 855 validation tags were issued for the 1986 hunt in Region 85, with only 80 hunters not being successful in the lottery used to determine who hunts in what area. The 20 per cent success rate is used by Ministry biologists to determine the number of people who will be eligible to hunt through the issuing of validation tags. This, in turn, is based on informed estimates of the total deer popula­ tion in the region, as determined by the number of kills made the previous year, and the size and condition of the deer herd based on the MNR observations throughout the year. Everyone hunting deer must apply for a validation tag. Report­ ing kills is mandatory, although it is not necessary tobring the animal in to one of the check stations: data may be mailed in on the form provided, with failure to do so resulting in no license being issued to the defaulting hunter in the next year. Landowners with 50 acres or more have an advantage in getting a tag in a controlled hunt, as all of them are permitted to hunt without going through the lottery system which determines who else hunts. Mr. Matz says that the number of landowners wishing to hunt re­ mains fairly constant from year to year, with all other applicants entering a draw, in which an independent computer company in Toronto makes a strictly random selection of names to whom a tag will be issued that year. A separate draw is made in each of the three areas of Region 85, the Hunters in Huron are asked to fill out a detailed form containing information on hunting methods, condition and location of the deer killed, and other questions to enable MNR biologists to estimate the next year’s harvest. Here, Clinton hunters Jack Carter, centre, and Butch Fleet locate the place they made their kill for MNR technician Bob Gibson, left, at the Hullett check station on the last day of the hunt. Officials say feedback from hunters has been very positive during the entire hunt. Wingham District office of the MNR. In theory, if a hunter is successful in the draw in one area, his name can be entered in the draw in another area, on an equal footing with any other name. Mr. Matz feels that the excellent MNR technician Rob Gibson mea­ sures the amountof fat on adeer taking in the hunt near Clinton. This is one of several tests done to determine the age and condition of deer kills in the area, with the data gathered being used to assist Ministry biologists in estimating deer population management for the following year. weather experienced in this year’s hunt season is responsible for the much higher number of kills being made; in 1985, there were three and one half days of heavy rain during the four-day season. How­ ever, hesaysthatthe number of hunters may be slightly down, since the late harvest season has left many farmers with little leisure time. The International Scene November 11 - from perspective of 41 years BY RAYMOND CANON If I tell you that I have rather mixed feelings about the war of 1939-45, not to mention the one of 1914-1918, you may find that you do, too, that is, assuming that you are alive and old enough to be aware of either of the two; most Canadians are not in this position. I still consider myself rather fortu­ nate in that I missed the second one by the narrowest of margins; by the time I was old enough to think about military service in any country’s armed forces, the war in the Pacific had come to an end. Perhaps you can understand how my feelings eventually came to be rather mixed on the subject. By the time my education had been completed, atleastinaformal way, 1 had gone to school, among other places, in Switzerland, Germany and Canada and thus had a chance to look at the war from both sides, not to mention the neutral stance which is part and parcel of Swiss foreign policy. The turning point in my thinking came when I found myself as an instructor for the N.A.T.O. pilots from all the member countries in Europe. One day I saw down at a table in the officers’ mess and discovered that sitting side by side were Luftwaffe pilots from Ger­ many and R.C.A.F. pilots from Canada. The majority of the German pilots were wearing the Iron Cross and other medals for their exploits in fighting against the Allies in World War II. The Canadians, for their part, were wearing their decorations for their successes against the Germans. Here, in the space of a few short years the Germans and Canadians had become allies, with their most likely enemy being the Russians who, don’t forget, had been our staunchest allies during World War II. I was to spend 19 years in the R.C.A.F. Reserve but I never forgot that moment. In case 1 ever did, there was the periodic news item to the effect that the Canadian Fighter Pilots’ Association was holding one of its regular reunions with one of the guests of honour being Adolf Gallant, one of the leading German aces during the Battle of Britain. Wars are horrendous events to say the least, yet, as wars go, World War II was a relatively popular one, certainly in compari­ son with the one in Vietnam. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the Vietnamese leaders were a shadowy bunch whose allegiance to any cause was a bit suspect. In Hitler the western world had a bonafide villain. He was, among other things, a megalomaniac and any nation or any person for that matter who got on the wrong side of him was in for a bitter experience. However, my reading of history tells me that, if Hitler got such a head start, it was the allied nations who had themselves to blame to a considerable degree. They vacill­ ated during much of the 1930’s, sold Czechoslovakia down the river and only in 1939 did they finally decide to take a stand. Evenatthat, it was almost too late and World War II was a close call indeed. The most unfortunate thing about wars, especially the two big ones, is that so many young men in the prime of their life had to have this life cut off so suddenly and it is problematical whether they even understood what the warwas all about. The tragedy is compounded when on realizes that Canada was in a war with a nation that prayed to the same God for victory while our chief ally, the Soviet Union, could care less about any god, it was either the gospel according to St. Marx or nothing at all. On November 11, when we commemorate the dead, it is generally the practice to honour those who fell in both wars as well as the conflict in Korea. I feel sorrier forthosein World War I since a reading of history makes it obvious that all the nations, not just the Germans, were proceeding inexorably towards a major conflict almost from the moment that Queen Victoria died. It was fashionable toblame the Kaiser for all our problems at the time but on balance he was no more respons­ ible for the war than anybody else. Certainly he was not the instigator that Hitler was as far as starting fights is concerned. For a goodly number of years I marched in every Remembrance Day parade. The more frequently 1 listened to the ceremony and watched the real veterans lined up beside me, the more I became convinced that there are really no winners, medals or nc medals; we all lose. War is simply our inherent inability to live on this planet and solve our problems as civilized people; if the many young men who did not return died for anything, it is in the hope that one day we will learn what follies we have been commiting and do something about it. Somebody once said that war is too serious to be left in the hands of the generals. I would update that and state that war is too horren­ dous a concept to leave in the hands of anybody.