MWF Renews Call for Complete Moratorium on Moose Harvest in the Duck Mountain and Porcupine Forest, and a Province-wide prohibition on Moose Cow and Calf Harvest
Province must enforce complete conservation closure to save plummeting Moose populations.
Based on the most recent moose population survey data released by the province, the Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF) is again calling on the province to enforce a longstanding conservation closure in the Duck Mountain (Game Hunting Area (GHA)s 18/18A-C) and Porcupine Forest (GHAs 13 and 13A). Conservation closures are a legal designation that prohibit all harvest – licensed and Indigenous – to give moose populations a chance to recover.
In 2011, when moose populations in this Duck/Porcupine Area dropped to 2,471 animals, the Manitoba Government prohibited moose hunting by establishing a conservation closure. All stakeholders (licensed and Indigenous hunters) supported this decision knowing that if moose populations continue to decline, there is risk they may not recover. While there are many factors affecting moose survival – climate change, changing landscapes, predation, disease, ticks, increased human development in remote areas and hunting – there is one factor the provincial government can control to help sustain moose populations, and that is the moose harvest through hunting.
Successive provincial governments maintained this 2011 moose hunting closure. In 2022, a limited Indigenous (First Nations and Metis) harvest was allowed by permit based on surveys showing the population was beginning to recover.
Following the most recent aerial surveys in the Duck/Porcupine Area in 2023, population estimates showed the moose population is over 36% below the threshold that triggered the original closure in 2011. Since these data were released, the MWF formally requested that the Minister reintroduce a full closure for all hunters.
The ongoing failure to enforce the closure and prohibit harvest will put the future survival of this moose population at risk. MWF believes all groups committed to the conservation of this population will support this decision.
MWF applauds the province’s recent decision to curtail the licensed harvest of cow and calf moose in the few remaining GHAs where that was permitted. Given the ongoing pressures on moose populations across Manitoba, the MWF is asking the province to prohibit harvest of moose cows and calves by rights-based harvesters across the province. This measure is recommended to foster recovery of the population.
Background information:
Past Survey Results: https://www.manitoba.ca/nrnd/fish-wildlife/resource/articles-and-publications.html?wg=wildlife_and_fisheries_branch&term=survey
2023 Survey Results containing 13/13A (Porcupine Forest) and 18/18A-C (Duck Mt): https://mwf.mb.ca/archives/11735
Summary of Most Recent Survey Results in the Duck Mountain and Porcupine Forest:
- Duck Mountain: 2010 (1349 moose), 2023 (1169 moose)
- Porcupine Forest: 2010 (1,122 moose), 2023 (409 moose)
- Total for Duck/Porcupine Area: 2010 (2,471 moose), 2023 (1,578 moose)
