King, Decline in hunters? Yes. I am not so sure this is a bad thing. But, on the age old issue of habitat, I must report a sad Canadian story.
I recently spent two weeks at my home in Maple Bay on Vancouver Island. My son is 12 and I am passing along what traditions I can. In that regard, I took the test for the Canada PAL license so I can keep some guns permanently in Canada and we looked for places to hunt waterfowl (probably next year).
Turns out that just miles from our home is a fairly large river bottom valley which is known to have lots of waterfowl.
Well, the boy and I went exploring. On the small two lane road through this valley we saw the wetlands in the bottom which I am sure is several hundred acres. There were over 500 Trumpeter Swans there, thousands of Canada Geese, many thousands of other ducks, geese and waterfowl. There were waves and waves of waterfowl.
As the small road made the end of its loop through the valley I saw a real estate sign for 65 acres for sale which went down into the wetlands. Got the information on the listing which said "there is a flooding problem in the winter which is presently being addressed." I called my realtor and asked her to contact the listing agent and find out what that meant. I told her if I was interested, I wanted all the wetlands left alone.
Well, it is MUCH WORSE than I imagined. Apparently, the landowners in the valley don't like the rainy season flooding. The "municipality" is building a control dam at the head of the valley and will "seasonally block the water." Goodbye another magnificent wetland.
My boy is only 12. I told him "remember this sight of many thousands of waterfowl. It is a sight you won't see much in your life."
Breaks my heart.
Regards, Craig
