Driving around Terry Raymond’s property on a fall morning, he can easily spot a cow and calf moose and three bulls nesting in the trees in an area he’s dedicated to wildlife habitat. Mule deer and white tail deer feed in one of his hay fields and Canadian geese flock nearby.
“It’s a poachers paradise,” Raymond says, joking about the land that’s been in his wife’s family since the 1930s and sprawls thousands of acres across Glendale, northwest of Bearspaw. The land is mainly used for cattle grazing and growing hay.
A hunter himself, Raymond said he thinks there’s a lot of value in hunting.
“Licenses pay millions every year that goes into conservation, enforcement officers and regulations, which determine the number of animals that can be harvested,” he said, adding that a dozen hunters he’s given permission to be on his land are his “eyes and ears in the field and look after (his) best interest.”
“My land base is so large, I can’t be everywhere and see everything that goes on at once.”
But, he said, it’s the people that continue to hunt on his property without permission that prompted him to take the first step down a long road of trying to change provincial legislation. Hunting is regulated by the Province under the Wildlife Act and is enforced by Fish and Wildlife Officers.
Raymond said he’s invested more than a year into researching regulations and speaking to provincial groups like Hunting For Tomorrow Foundation to garner support for an amendment to Section 51 of the Wildlife Act.
It would require hunters to obtain permission from adjacent landowners before accessing and discharging a firearm from or across a URA.
“The whole thing I’m after is to make it unlawful for a person to discharge a firearm from or along a road allowance without permission,” said Raymond.
Fish and Wildlife Officer Ken Mackay said hunting seasons, species legal to hunt and license requirements change in different zones throughout the province.
Raymond’s land, east of Cochrane south of Highway 567, is a bow-and-arrow-only hunting zone. The riffle zone begins north of Highway 567 and west of Highway 22 near Cochrane.
In Alberta, every two miles north/south and every mile east/west is an undeveloped road allowance (URA), which is 66-feet wide. Since it’s public property, Raymond said it’s also a common place to find hunters.
“The problem is that people get down and hide in the grass on the URA, which they’re perfectly able to do, it’s legal. But then they wait for an animal to come by, they shoot and what are the chances that animal is actually going to die on that URA? Slim to nil,” he said.
“For a deer that’s shot really well, they can still run 100 yards - and you think how fast they can run - before they expire and drop dead and most times that’s going to be on mine or my neighbour’s property,” said Raymond.
“Then the hunters (without permission) try to sneak in on my land and claim their trophy and get out of there. That’s where it becomes an issue,” he said, adding hunting on URAs leads to trespass, and to conflicts between hunters that do and don’t have permission to be on the land as they may be going after the same animal.
“It’s wrong, it’s unmoral and unethical, and it needs to be stopped,” he said.
According to the Petty Trespass Act, which is under provincial jurisdiction, anyone who enters onto private land without permission of the landowner is trespassing.
Raymond said that although there are laws in place, it does little to prevent trespassing because “the chances of hunters getting caught are so small.”
“Even if you do get caught, all you get is your hand slapped. It’s called petty for a reason, the fine is small. It’s more of a hassle for me to get anyone charged with trespassing than anything else.”
Raymond added another issue is that many URAs are unmarked, making it difficult to differentiate “the public property from a farmer’s field.”
With several URAs running through his property, Raymond said he wants there to be legal recourse for “hunters trespassing onto private property” since it’s been an issue that he says has affected him for about 30 years.
According to a Rocky View County (RVC) report, current (Provincial) legislation governing hunting does not prohibit access to URAs for hunting, or discharging of a firearm along or across an URA.
“Municipalities have limited authority regarding enforcement of hunting regulations but do have authority to adopt bylaws addressing firearms and no-shooting zones pursuant to the Municipal Government Act,” the report states.
Following RVC council’s direction, administration prepared a draft resolution for the amendment to Section 51 in September and council unanimously approved on Oct. 8 that it be forwarded to Alberta’s Agricultural Service Board (ASB) and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) for debate and discussion.
Councillor Greg Boehlke said the resolution was presented at the AAMDC’s regional meeting on Oct. 17, which he attended. Boehlke said board members ruled that more time is needed to research the issue. It will be presented again at the regional meeting in January, and if passed by board members, will be forwarded to the AAMDC’s provincial meeting in the spring for discussion, debate and a vote.
The resolution will also be presented to Alberta’s Agricultural Service Board (ASB) regional meeting on Nov. 7 for discussion and debate. If members approve, the resolution will go forward to the Provincial ASB conference held in Edmonton in January.
Boehlke said he thinks the resolution “has a lot of merit because the issue of hunting on URAs affects many landowners not only in RVC.”
Allison Williams, RVC intergovernmental affairs manager, said if the resolution is supported at the provincial conventions, it will then be forwarded to the Government of Alberta for their consideration.
“Any amendments to the Wildlife Act are within the jurisdiction of the Government of Alberta and the legislative process,” she stated.
“It’s a long and slow process. But it’s gotten a lot bigger than when I started a year ago.
“It’s like a snowball going downhill: It’s gaining momentum and getting bigger the further it goes because people see this is a big issue,” he said.
