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Foundation dedicates itself to all things hunting related
Patrick Keller
Lakeside Leader
A recent trip to the local fish and wildlife offices in Slave Lake has yielded a treasure-trove of interesting and useful facts about hunting. Local officers were out beating the bush, and were unavailable for comment, but the office was stocked with a series of fact sheets provided by the Hunting For Tomorrow Foundation.
The foundation has provided a wealth of information related to both hunting and conservation as well as condensed, easy-to-digest translations of Alberta’s hunting and fishing regulations.
For example, we didn’t know that there are over 110,000 annually licensed hunters in the province, 6,820 of which are women and another 6,200 of which are youth. Or, that in 2007, there were over 41,000 resident game bird licenses sold in the province.
Thanks to cooperation between groups such as Alberta Conservation Association, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and Environment Canada, the Hunting for Tomorrow Foundation has become a kind of clearing house of information for hunters and their favorite pastimes. The group exists to continue the tradition of hunting as a substantial and integral part of Alberta’s heritage, culture and environment.
According to the HFTF mission statement, they wish to “increase the level of public understanding, involvement and support of hunting,” and to “increase opportunities for every Albertan to hunt within a managed system that conserves the wildlife resource.”
They also claim to strengthen the work of other hunting organizations within the province, including the Alberta Bowhunters Association, the Alberta Trappers Association, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Canadian Wildlife Service, to name just a few.
The foundation has cast a pretty broad net by including nearly everyone with an interest in the pastime, but they stop short with strong sentiment against poachers. “Poachers are not hunters,” the material warns, and further “80 per cent of all calls reporting illegal violations are by hunters and anglers.”
So, who is behind all this hunting do-goodery? We spoke with Kelly Semple, the Executive Director of the Hunting For Tomorrow Foundation who brought us up to speed on their work.
“For new hunters and even old hats, trying to understand the legislation can be daunting,” said Semple. “That’s what’s behind the fact sheets. On several occasions, I have had to call fish and wildlife, and even they have trouble understanding some of it.”
Beyond helping making sense of the dry reading that is legislation, the group hopes to promote the pastime and is active in creating new programs and events that are hunt-centric.
“We have a couple of big projects on the go,” said Semple. “There is a mentor program and a new program for waterfowl hunting.”
The waterfowl hunts are “ladies only” events which are fully guided, but there are other, specific hunts tailored to different levels of interest, Semple told us.
And, they are serious about getting down to the brass tacks of hunting.
The plan, said the director, is to create an economic impact study that details the benefits or drawbacks of hunting.
The group is beginning to survey the public and will soon have a website dedicated to collecting voluntary information from outdoorsmen.
“The results of the survey will come from looking at the largest cross-section of data, to see how hunting impacts rural economies, tourism and people,” said Semple.
For more information about the foundation and their programs, contact HFTF at 780-462-2444.
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