O.F.A.H. AGM Alan Fennell Notes and His Comments
March 20 to 21 2015
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Friday March 20, 2015 - 8:00 AM
-call to order, conservation pledge, thoughts for our Armed Services Personnel,
and a minute of silence for one no longer with us
-copies of the 2014 Annual Report and financials distributed
-President’s Report – Glenn Rivard
-Executive Director’s Report – Angelo Lombardo
-Fish and Wildlife Report – Matt DeMille
-Government Affairs Report – Greg Farrant
-Business Development & Corporate Messaging Report – Robert Pye
-Zone/Member & Club Services Report – Brian McRae
-now 725 clubs
-municipalities allowing Sunday gun hunting from 67 to 160 in 10 years
-Treasurer’s Report – Frank Wick
-a number of handouts
-with explanations and details discussed 2014 actual budget income and expenditures
-2015 budget motion to accept;
Vote; Carried
-Resolutions Report – Kerry Coleman -no resolutions
-Advisory Committee Reports :
-Agriculture
-Big Game
-Firearms and Hunting Education
-Past Presidents’
-Fisheries
-Land Use / Trails Access
-native Affairs
-Small Game
-Sporting Dogs
Migratory Birds and Wetlands
-motion to accept the committee reports; Vote; Carried
-Old / New Business
None
-Appointment of Auditors :
-motion for McColl Turner;
Vote; Carried
-motion to accept all actions of the staff and directors in the last twelve (12) months;
Vote; Carried
-O.F.A.H. / Jack O’Dette Conservation Leadership Award :
Neil Wiens
-adjourn at 9:32 AM
COFFEE BREAK
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Friday March 20, 2015 - 9:45 AM
-Opening Remarks and welcome :
Glenn Rivard
10:00 AM -speaker : Shane Mahoney
-was here last in 2008; he is from Newfoundland; we have been doing conservation and
protecting hunting for 127 years; we are resilient; Canada has changed; we need to talk more
of what we do for wildlife and our country; this generation will be when all will realize
conservation will decide how we live on this planet; this continent has abundant wildlife;
animal conservation is complex; we still have predator animals which is an achievement of
conservationists; many (none hunters and anglers) have this myth …”that this just happened”;
majority think this was just an accident; we have to change this belief (remove the myth);
-this happened because people cared; because of meetings like this one; hunters and
anglers were the engine that drove the train of conservation; commercial harvesters just look
at wildlife as “money” whereas hunters and anglers have a visceral attachment to the wildlife
they kill; we need to speak more to people outside our group; tell all that the fundamental
quest is wildlife survival in abundance ( no matter what society does);
-imagine Canada with no wildlife; we currently live in an Eden because hunters and
anglers did something to save from extinction Canadian wildlife; conservation leadership is
mainly made up of hunters (06% of Canadians) and hunters plus anglers (10% of Canadians);
doing the right things - - not do things right; those who voluntarily take a life of wildlife must
become leaders in conservation and tell others of our hunting history; we owe this to the
wildlife because we take their lives;
-those who care do more; those who do more care more; wildlife makes us what we are;
think about building bigger coalitions with the bigger message “WE STAND FOR PROTECTION
OF WILDLIFE”; we humans have never made any creature on this earth therefore our divine
gift should be to protect the wildlife;
10:30 AM -speaker : David Critchlow; MNRF
-on firearms and Ontario roads (parts of province with areas provided for / allowed
public vehicle traffic); maintained versus non-maintained roadways; unlawful to have a loaded
firearm in a conveyance (air, water, land); unlawful to have a loaded firearm in the 66 metre
right-of-way on a public use or traffic roadway; non-public roadway you cannot fire on or
across the travelled portion of the roadway (whether maintained or not);
-section 63 says if a fence then ban is from fence line to fence line even if it is on private
property; if you need to know if the road is maintained or not because signage and / or
condition makes it unclear, then ask your local CO and / or the municipality; if you cannot
obtain/find an answer then just do not have a loaded firearm – PERIOD; if it is an OFSC
maintained snowmobile trail then MNRF calls that “maintained” for the application of the
legislation;
Page 3 of 7
Friday March 20, 2015 - continued
11:15 AM -speaker : Dr. John Casselman; Queen’s University
-climate change and fish; already effecting fish and fisheries; baselines are already
changing and also hard to see; to fish is to have faith (you are optimists) as you expect to catch
fish even when you fail often; data has proved that the bay of Quinty water temperature has
gone up 1.2 degrees Celsius in 75 years; each degree increases evaporation by 6%; have
measured a total of 10% evaporation amount increase;
-extremely low water levels changes spawning behaviour and produces more hybrids;
less of the water column for fish therefore their spawning grounds overlap more; by going
fishing and eating our catch we are helping reduce the carbon footprint;
12:00 PM Lunch Break
1:00 PM
-speaker : Angelo Lombardo; O.F.A.H. Executive Director
-year in review; please pickup an annual report, read it, then put it in the hands of a nonmember so they see what we are doing for wildlife and wild places; BMO MasterCard has
donated $1,000,000 to O.F.A.H. over the last 25 years; on moose O.F.A.H. is asking MNRF to
prioritize resident licensed hunters versus non-resident licensed hunters; there are 30 staff
here at the conference;
-on the topic of the 1923 Williams Treaty, 7 first nations want back there right to hunt
and fish will no Canadian / Ontario controls; we lost our request to have “Intervener Status”;
we will continue to make your voices heard as much as we can; on the topic of The Algonquin
Land Claim, the AIP is not signed yet; we continue to request information as there has been
silence for many months; it looks like the government listened to us and has a bill to require
first time gun buyers to get training before they can purchase a firearm;
-National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) started in 2014 with 14 schools and is close
to 40 schools already; there were 87 Family Fishing events this year; digital Ontario Out of
Doors magazine (OOD) has more content that the print version; another great year of hard
work for wildlife, wild places, fishers, hunters and trappers in Ontario Canada;
2:15 PM
Coffee Break
Page 4 of 7
Friday March 20, 2015 - continued
2:30 PM
Dr. Brad White; Trent University
-DNA of fish; since the 1970’s fish study has had changes; new technology; the latest is
an eAPP to see if two species members are compatible; DNA specifies specific species,
location, and a particular individual; conservation not preservation for the Canadian landscape
as animals adapt and live inside change; we are not about enshrining what is current; Nelson
Deyes of MNR started / seeded the start of forensics many years ago; human sequencing
becoming 100% used in all applications (human Genome) is being used more and more in
wildlife; already done in whales, moose, wolves, badgers, and whitetail deer; animals leave
DNA on the landscape as they travel / live in it;
-DNA of wolves in Algonquin Park show they are not Grey Wolf, they are very close to
coyotes; western coyotes first came to Ontario in 1919; and are Eastern Wolf; the partnership
of Brad White, Trent University and The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (the
predecessor of MNRF) working with animal DNA and forensics started in 1988; public
knowledge of this work is a good deterrent to criminal activity against wildlife and wild places;
polar bear DNA work is currently being done;
-helping Kenya and South Africa on rhinoceros work; lake level work being done on fish
(what is the DNA in a certain body of water); he has helped on dolphin work for japan and
China; DNA is being used to find fraudulent caviar by sturgeon DNA identification; due to the
trade to/in Asia on bear gall bladders, tigers, and east coast seal penises DNA testing had
become a technology used in the front lines of crime investigation;
-work is now being done on black bear to be able to identify individuals tracking
raccoon rabies spread has shown that all provinces have been infected by the United States of
America not an adjacent province; the rabid raccoons came to Canada by hitch hiking on trucks
from Florida;
3:30 PM
MNRF Junior Conservation Award
-Barrie District Hunters & Anglers
Conservation Club Youth Program
Bruno Vanden Berghe / O.F.A.H. Conservation Lottery Award
-for selling the most books of tickets -Royal City Fishing Club
Windsor Sportsmen’s Award (for second place ) -Sudbury Game & Fish
Protective Association
Third place in the O.F.A.H. Conservation Lottery -Halton Club
Fourth place in the O.F.A.H. Conservation Lottery -Canadian Forces Club
Fifth place in the O.F.A.H. Conservation Lottery -South Central Ontario
Wildlife and Fish Association
6:00 PM
more awards presented
-dinner
Page 5 of 7
Saturday March 21, 2015
7:00 AM
Board Of Directors Meeting
8:30 AM
-speaker Shane Wood; O.F.A.H.
-he is the O.F.A.H. Community Hatchery Program (CHP) Coordinator, fish stocking in
Ontario is huge; over 1,200 waterbodies over 8 million fish have been stocked; plus the eggs
and fry supplied to Community Hatcheries; local hatcheries also teach the youth; some local
hatcheries do in school programs and outreach; some do habitat improvement projects;
-historically the community hatchery funding started about 1971; the current funding
model has been since 2013; this funding is for “keeping the lights on” and for capital
improvement projects; also this program facilitates the passing of surplus equipment from one
hatchery to another; on the CHP website there is hosting of a “Forum” for hatchery volunteers
to share ideas, problem solving, and other communication;
-questions and answers
9:15 AM
-speaker Len Hunt : MNRF
-he is a human dimensions research biologist; has been studying Ontario moose hunting
and Ontario moose; using moose management surveys trying to understand the resource
users; trying to find insights into the characteristics of a moose hunter; where do the people
who hunt prefer to hunt and where do they actually hunt;
-current studies show most moose hunters are male; the number of female hunters are
increasing; hunters are getting older; non-locals (southern Ontario hunters) percentage
increases in the North West and the North East; huge increase in the use of technical
communications; they are against more hunter restrictions;
-conclusions are hunters are diverse; economic importance of moose hunting is high;
status quo not really preferred; react as what they say or what they do?
-questions and answers
-from the floor a question was asked “did you get these conclusions because of
the way you worded the questions and what options you offered?”
-from the floor it was pointed out that if the hunter owns land ( a hunt camp) the
option to move WMUs is not there;
10:05 AM
Coffee Break
Page 6 of 7
Saturday March 21, 2015 - continued
10:15 AM -speaker : Kelly Semple; Hunting For Tomorrow
-she is the executive director; speaking on recruitment and retention; she is from
Alberta and “Hunting For Tomorrow” is a non-profit organization started in 2001; it is stories of
the heart told to others that make a difference; who, what, where, when, how, why; hunting is
a rite of passage for kids and hunting changes them in a positive way; over 60% of Alberta is
public land; in 1996 due to financial government stress the hunter and fishing education staff
was gutted; so private took over; “Camo is the new black!”
-we need to believe and tell others what we do is priceless; broaden who you give the
message to recruit and retain the public, media, and non-hunters; we must stop fighting over
the small problems / issues; we need to change from wildlife management by social pressure;
we must start to “STOP” attending meetings where our opinions are not asked for, are not
listened to, are not considered; be leaders of protection of wildlife and wild places;
11:00 AM -speaker Gord Ellis; Ontario Out of Doors magazine
-my family has been hunting white tailed deer since at least 1952; granddad was a
member of Bally Hoo Hunt Club on Manitoulin Island; he and his father hunted around Nestor
Falls from 1986; he lives in Thunder Bay and now he hunts with his father and sons Devin and
Austin; deer up here are built for the cold being heavier bodies and heavier racks;
-Calling and Rattling
you must have confidence in the tactic and yourself; real
antlers, artificial racks, or rattle bags all work;
-Stalk and Spot
if you do the wrong thing (which you will do when you first are
learning this skill) you will learn what to do and what not to do; look for parts of the animal like
a leg, switching ear, or a horizontal something in the vertical world; if you spook an animal
then stop and sit for deer are curious and many times will return to see what you were that
scared them;
-Ground Blinds
good for the cold times; good for the new hunters learning not
to fidget; helps control hunter odor; once placed after a few weeks the deer see the blind as
just part of the landscape;
Rut Times the rut is about timing; the rut turns on buck (and thus doe) activity and
movement; on a day that you historically have had success then stay out, no matter what the
weather, for the wait is always worth it;
-Baiting & trail Cameras it is amazing what the cameras will show you is at a location
when you are not there; if lots of does often you will not see a buck on the camera as they are
circling the does and chasing the does; usually over bait your shot is a clean one as the animal
often is standing eating therefore giving you time to place the shot well; the negative is it can
be very expensive; when you access the location, to place more bait or check the camera, you
are leaving scent; baiting could turn the deer nocturnal;
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Saturday March 21, 2015 - continued
12:10 PM
Lunch Break
1:00 PM
-speaker Pat Kehoe; Ducks Unlimited Canada
-showing you how to better identify waterfowl on the wing; there are puddle and diving
ducks; paddle also can be called dabbling; geese are Canada, snow, and blue; puddle ducks like
shallow water as they feed in the water column and on the bottom by tipping; diving ducks go
right under the surface to forage; sea ducks are much lower than 15 years ago; with pictures
and commentary went through different breeds to illustrate the differences and what to look
for to identify on from another;
-questions and answers
1:45 PM
Research Grant Awards
-Jacob Brownscombe
-Keith Munro
-Dirk Algera
-Matthew Palumbo
-keynote speaker Honourable Leona Aglukkaq; MP, Minister Of The
Environment, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, and the
Arctic Council;
-dinner
-more awards presented
6:00 PM