Spring bear hunt makes Bill a popular guy with lodge owners

Bill Mauro, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, was a popular man as he delivered a speech to attendees of the second annual Northern Ontario Tourism Summit Tuesday evening.

The summit, with approximately 350 guests, is being held at the Sault's Quattro Hotel and Conference Centre.

It began Monday and wraps up tonight.

The banquet room erupted in applause the moment Mauro mentioned the words 'spring bear hunt' in his speech.

The provincial government brought forward a new, five-year spring bear hunt proposal in October and, if approved, will move forward in 2016.

It will include 88 wildlife management areas across Ontario with a fall bear hunt and be open to non-resident hunters.

The harvesting of bear cubs and female bears with cubs will still be illegal and there are changes to rules around baiting.

Bringing back the spring bear hunt is a winner with many Ontarians, including tourism operators, as it will be open to non-resident hunters (and the tourism dollars they bring to hunting lodges).

"From a tourism perspective there will be money to be made in offering spring bear hunts to non-residents, where traditionally a lot of our hunters come from," said Brenda Baughmann, who operates the remote Bow Narrows Camp at Red Lake, Ontario (accessible only by boat) from May to September.  

The spring bear hunt will have a beneficial effect on other species, such as moose, which have been the target of predatory bears, Baughmann told SooToday.

"Over time, the bears have become more aggressive."

Baughmann added that some not-as-careful lodge owners have not properly disposed of their trash, attracting nuisance bears and thus scaring tourists away. 

"This minister (Mauro) has been very aware we have concerns and has made sure we are engaged in the conversation if the spring bear hunt were brought back," said Laurie Marcil, North Bay-based Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario (NOTO) executive director.

"The two biggest things we wanted were for the non-residents to be included in the spring bear hunt as well as more of the wildlife management units included."

"The spring bear hunt is a good thing for tourism because it allows us to take the right bear at the right time (specifically, male black bears) to prevent moose predation, it allows for something to happen in that part of the season when there's really nothing else going on in the bush that allows the tourism operators to extend their seasons, it provides income into small communities at a time of year when nothing else is going on," Marcil said.

"First and foremost, it's good for public safety, we obviously have a bear problem," Marcil said.

Mauro introduced a private members bill in 2013 calling for reinstatement of the spring bear hunt.

The hunt was eliminated in 1999.

Throughout the years, many stakeholders have called for its return, for reasons ranging from public safety (to cut down on nuisance bears wandering into urban neighbourhoods and coming dangerously close to schoolyards) to its value to Ontario's tourism sector.

In 2014, Sault MPP David Orazietti, who at that time was serving as Minister of Natural Resources, introduced a new, two-year pilot spring bear hunt. 

That two-year program was put into effect across eight areas in Ontario, including Sault Ste. Marie, and did not include non-resident hunters.

"I'd like to think that at the end of the day we all appreciate we're all making the decisions based on the best interests of the forest, the animals that live there, and of the people who make their living off the land because in the long term without sustainable forests none of us are going to be in the business you're in right now," Mauro told the tourism audience  Tuesday.

(PHOTO: Bill Mauro, Minister of Natural Resources, addresses the second annual Northern Ontario Tourism Summit, November 17, 2015. Darren Taylor/SooToday)