With another planting season about to get underway, farmers across the province are faced with the same old issues concerning prices, yields, weather, and wildlife.
Yes, wildlife.
Every year, farmers face loss and damage from wildlife that raid their crops—sometimes as new shoots and sometimes as ripe seed. And every year they look for solutions to this age-old problem.
The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association says the problem seems to vary with the area.
In southern Ontario, for instance, deer, raccoons, and geese are the prime culprits, but here in the north, bears and deer are causing headaches.
In the south, there are a number of measures farmers can take to minimize wildlife damage, such as rotating crops and establishing buffer zones between crops and wooded areas.
Up here, though, the options are restricted by the limited number of crops that can be grown and the availability of arable land.
That’s why Larry Lamb, president of the Rainy River District OSCIA, wants the provincial government to untie farmers’ hands.
“We know what the problem is,” he said. “There’s no doubt bear and deer do quite a bit of damage, especially with corn.”
Lamb said bears are a particular problem because they inflict damage beyond the crops they actually consume.
“They’re pigs,” he remarked. “They lie down in the field and scoop it in like popcorn. They roll around and flatten the crop so you can’t harvest it.”
Lamb said he and many farmers feel their options are restricted by the Ministry of Natural Resources because bears and deer cannot be hunted out of season without special permission.
And therein lies the problem.
“We tell the ministry we have a problem and maybe they’ll send someone out to look at it or set traps for the bears, but by then the damage is done,” he argued.
“We want to be able to shoot on sight,” he added. “In the south, if a dog is harassing your livestock, you can shoot it. Why not the same with bears?
“They [MNR] won’t let us harvest the bears and the bears won’t let us harvest the crops.”
Linda Wall, Rainy Lake area supervisor with the MNR office here, said the current system does, in fact, permit farmers to kill bears that are ruining crops or pose a safety threat.
“They do have the right to shoot the bears, but they must notify us within 24 hours of having done so,” she noted.
“Not everyone knows that, but it should only be a last resort,” she stressed.
Lamb acknowledged the MNR does issue special permits to take bears out of season, but there is a procedure that must be followed and farmers don’t have the time to deal with paperwork.
Instead, he said the answer may lie in the ministry compensating farmers for crop damage. “There are more bears being shot than the ministry is aware of,” he claimed.
In fact, the OSCIA feels so strongly about the issue that it has enlisted the help of the Nuisance Bear Committee, which is in the process of releasing its final report to the provincial government.
Fort Frances Mayor Glenn Witherspoon sits on the committee and is aware of Lamb’s concerns. He said the matter of compensation was raised, but did not confirm it was among the committee’s recommendations.
“The committee has completed its findings and the ministry should have it shortly,” said Mayor Witherspoon.
Committee chair Royal Poulin said the committee heard more than 600 recommendations from concerned farmers and others over the last few months, and gave assurances their voices will be heard in the final report.
“We will be meeting with the ministry on June 12-13 and will submit the report shortly thereafter,” said Poulin.
Poulin noted some are blaming the crop damage on the closure of the spring bear hunt a few years ago, but added it’s not that simple.
“It’s not just since the closure of the [spring] hunt that we’ve had this problem,” he explained. “It’s a longstanding issue.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
