ข้อมูลหนังสืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์

เนื้อหาย่อ : History of Wildlife Management in B.C. Prior to the European settlement of North America, wildlife populations were abundant and diverse, and supported the many needs of the First Nations peoples. The Aboriginal peoples managed the resource through cultural controls and by using fire to modify habitat, which improved game abundance and opened up hunting grounds. European explorers of western North America wrote extensively about the plentiful game that was present. They and European settlers took advantage of this abundance by establishing markets for fur, hides, and wildlife meat. However, these markets were largely uncontrolled. This led to dramatic changes in wildlife populations, including the extirpation of Roosevelt Elk on the Lower Mainland and Wood Bison in northern B.C. These losses led to increasing public concern about the state of the resource. It was apparent that the exploitation of wildlife without limits needed to be changed. As a result, the public began to advocate for a different model that had two basic principles: wildlife belongs to everyone and should be managed so that populations are sustained forever. This formed the basis of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, which to this day, is the wildlife policy that is applied throughout Canada and the United States. In British Columbia, wildlife management became organized in 1905 with the establishment of the Department for the Protection of Game and Forests. Throughout much of the last century, the focus of wildlife management was on game species and the provision of hunting opportunities. The first Wildlife Act was passed in 1964. It later underwent a major rewrite in 1982. Amendments to the Act continue to be made as management issues change and government responds to those changes. In the 1980s, the emergence of issues such as species at risk and biodiversity conservation led to a broadening of the scope of the Wildlife Program. In 2002, the federal Species at Risk Act was passed, and in 2004 the provincial Wildlife Amendment Act was passed. These acts brought increased attention to the Wildlife Program’s role in the conservation and recovery of species at risk. Today, the Wildlife Program is led from a policy perspective by the Ecosystems Branch and the Fish and Wildlife Branch within the Environmental Stewardship Division of the Ministry of Environment. The program is delivered in the field by the Division’s Regional Operations Branch and regional offices. Photo courtesy of Kristy Palmantier Tsilhqot’in guide with Moose, Alces alces