Hunting regulations are made specific to particular areas of land called Wildlife Management Units (WMUs). The province is divided up into 95 different WMUs. In order to determine the hunting regulations that impact wildlife around Basket Lake, we found that Basket Lake falls within the WMU 15a (see below).

A publicly available report of the moose population in the WMU 15a details the catastrophe that we are fighting to avoid. Hunter interest in WMU 15a is moderate-to-high relative to other WMUs, which is likely due to the excellent road access in this area. As only one element of what is needed for a sustainable moose population, the minimum # of calves per 100 cows /100km2 is 30. As evidence in the report, the # of calves per 100 cows /100km2 has been at or below 30 since the late 1990s! The report is a quick read and full of key information needed to support our request for a a resource stewardship agreement. Follow this link for the full report.

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During a sitting of the provincial legislative assembly in March 2015, disagreement in how to solve the clear decline in moose populations was evident. Tourist operators that rely on moose hunting do not want the hunting season shortened because of the possible impact on their businesses. While this argument is valid, it is also short-sighted as moose habitation destruction and moose tag allocations put an unsustainable pressure on Ontario's moose populations. If we continue this way, we stand to lose a bigger part of our heritage than hunting...the moose itself! To read the transcription, see page 8 and 9 of the document here.

Emma has diligently put together a list of pertinent research drawing on resources available through the University of Toronto as well as open access on the internet. Here is a link to an annotated bibliography documenting our search thus far.