Henry Miller
The annual general meeting of Zone ‘A’ of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters was held Saturday in Fort Frances.
A presentation was given by Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer Steve Pauluzzo, who reviewed regulations concerning the use of firearms along roads in the Rainy River and Kenora districts.
He referred the membership to page 21 of the Hunting Regulations Summary for 2011.
Basically, hunters must not possess a loaded firearm on the travelled portion of a road or on the land between the travelled portion of the road and a fence that indicates the boundary between the road right-of-way and the adjoining land.
If there is no fence, a person shall not possess a loaded firearm within eight metres from the edge of the travelled portion of the road.
These regulations apply during the open gun season for deer in the districts of Rainy River and Kenora.
The following roads are excluded from the above regulations: Fleming, Boffin, Lost Creek, and Lyons.
Shooting across or down any road, including logging roads, is prohibited.
Another presentation at Saturday’s meeting, in which many local people were interested, was the topic of elk by Mike Solomon and Murray English.
They informed the group that English and Bruce Ranta had set up cameras near the Pipestone Road, where several calves and yearlings were recorded.
A local trapper had harvested 10 timber (grey) wolves in the area, which likely played a strong role in the increased survival of the young elk.
Motion cameras also were moved to areas outside the traditional release area, which picked up images of elk in the expanded locations.
It is evident that the animals have spread out from the release site where most of the studies have taken place.
The local Northwestern Ontario Elk Restoration Coalition is finding greater numbers of elk than have been officially reported.
Other new sightings have been reported, including one collared elk north of Morson, four east of Highway 71 south of Finland, four north of Barwick, two bulls south of Richan (near Dryden), and one cow north of Emo.
Many other informative issues were discussed Saturday, such as land use, access roads, changes to the fishing regulations, the automated licensing system, and Ontario’s first elk hunt.
All these issues (and others) are important to us but the reports from each club in the zone caught our attention. It’s amazing the effort that is put into conservation throughout the zone.
As well, O.F.A.H. clubs are doing a good job of promoting hunting, fishing, and other traditional outdoor activities.
Also at Saturday’s meeting, awards were handed out. The Atikokan Sportsmen’s Conservation Club received the Fred Aaron Trophy for the club deemed to have done the most for conservation in the zone.
Meanwhile, John Charbonneau of Atikokan was awarded the Larry Nault Memorial Plaque for his work in conservation.
Elections also took place during the meeting, with Bruce Hamilton of Fort Frances being re-elected as chair of Zone ‘A.’
Rounding out the executive are Roy De Corte of Atikokan (secretary/treasurer), Jeremy Funk of Sioux Lookout (first vice-chair), Jan Loman of Ear Falls (second vice-chair), and Erwin Burgstaler of Dryden (alternate director).
