5,036 pigs killed on Santa Cruz Island

[WildlifeBranch]

QUOTE (Sierra_Dave @ Sep 11 2007, 07:51 PM)

1.)When "Prohunt" killed wild boars and left them to rot in the fields was that a violation of California Fish & Game rules and regulations?

2.) In the American River fish and amphibians are dramatically affected by estrogen from "birth control" pills taken by women in the greater Sacramento area that cannot be removed from waste water at the local treatment plant. How can anyone account for short/long term affects of the introduction of chemicals like "GonaCon"? The compound will likely leach into the local streams and rivers surrounding Pt. Reyes National Park. BTW, "No fertility control agents have been approved by the FDA for non-investigational use on wildlife populations in the United States. "

The unintended consequence of introduction of chemicals to chemically castrate wildlife may be the castration/mutation of non-target species.

3.) We presently set hunting and fishing hours based on a number of considerations. Is it possible to set hunting for times and places in areas to allay the public's concern over the witnessing of actual harvest of wildlife?

The goal is controlling wildlife to enhance and preserve the natural habitat, right? What can we do as hunters and fishermen to help you advance the strategies to protect habitat through legal hunting, right now?
Sorry if that's too many questions...or slightly off topic.
Thanks,
Dave

I 'll give it a shot Dave:

1) I would suspect that the island (TNC) had an MOU agreement with the Department to "shoot and leave lay" the wild pigs because of the sheer numbers. Actually, under depredation and encounter laws for wild pigs and damage/eradication efforts, I believe they can be left; sometimes the Dept agent specifies on the depredation permit an agreeable disposition (soup kitchen). Sport hunting of course has a law against "wanton waste"-- that's an entirely different objective than control or eradication.

2) I have no knowledge of that topic. Sorry. hadn't even heard this was the case.

3) While there could be different shooting hours depending on conditions, I cannot imagine trying to write those regulations or enforce them for any particular area if it differed just a little ways away. Plus, the moment you were to do that, someone who didn't like hunting would encounter a hunter no matter when legal shooting was "on"

We have a "harvestable surplus" with populations of most hunted species able to sustain (otherwise we would quit hunting them). However, I would be lying if I told you I thought hunting was used to "control" wildlife numbers (in some situations yes, but not for most of California's species, we just don't authorize that many to be taken).

Best help is to help yourselves so that hunting can continue in this state, then you'll be helping us-- be good examples, be conservationists first. Also, nothing is worse for hunters than the bad apples (go look at the "bowhunters who shot up a bunch of cattle in Utah" thread).

A life-long hunter from Chico who was also an Audubon member came down to the FG Commission hearing on Aug. 27th and rather modestly and unassumingly supported a lead ban on big game hunting in condor range-- he was a powerful voice for the hunting community-- as he was a conservationist first.

ugg-- getting to philosophical... sorry

 

[l0nepine]

I was out on Santa Cruz two weeks ago for labor day weekend. I went on one short hike and came across four skulls and some other random bones just off the trails.