The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation is not surprised that rural landowners want to require hunters to ask permission to enter private land.
Access and permission issues arise all the time, said executive director Darrell Crabbe.
At the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention in March, delegates passed two resolutions asking for changes to the Wildlife Act so that hunters would have to obtain permission to hunt on unposted land.
The SWF and environment ministry both recommend hunters ask landowners, whether land is posted or not, but that is becoming harder to do as farmers operate increasingly larger farms, don’t have landline telephones or are absentee landowners, Crabbe said.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“A lot don’t post this land,” he said. “How do you contact these people?”
Both Crabbe and Rich Hildebrand, a Prince Albert conservation officer, say it is simple common courtesy to ask for permission in any situation.
If hunters don’t ask, and there is trouble, landowners will start to post more land and make access that much more difficult, Hildebrand said.
He also said there are some hunting zones in the southeast that do require big game hunters to have written permission to drive vehicles on roads and trails on private land.
“Just because the land is not posted does not give the hunter implied right of access,” Hildebrand said.
And just because land is posted doesn’t mean a hunter couldn’t be granted access by the owner.
The onus is on landowners to post their property.
Signs are to be placed prominently along the boundaries of the land and at each corner and the backside, he said.
The signs have to be a minimum of 600 square centimetres and the wording should clearly say no hunting, or no trespassing, or hunting with permission only.
The provisions in the Wildlife Act, 1998, as well as laws regulating recreational vehicles, were not superseded by those in the Trespass to Property Act passed in 2009.
That legislation makes it an offence to enter land or engage in activity on that land if the owner or occupier objects.
“The owner’s objections can be expressed verbally, in writing, by posting signs or by enclosing the property,” said a statement from the justice ministry.
Other legislation, such as the All Terrain Vehicles Act and the Snowmobile Act, also prohibit the use of these machines on private land without permission, with some exceptions.
The ATV legislation allows people to operate the vehicles without permission only on land they or immediate family own or occupy. Otherwise they require permission to be on private or Crown land.
Under the snowmobile act, people can operate the machines on any land unless it’s posted. Again, the onus is on the landowner to post, not on the snowmobile operator to ask permission.
Crabbe said many of the complaints he hears are specific to areas. For example, the moratorium on moose hunting in Manitoba has created more activity in eastern Saskatchewan as First Nations hunters looked across the border.
“The number one reason for a decrease in hunting is a lack of access,” Crabbe added, but then populations can get out of control.
“This is the only method (of control) in modern wildlife management.”
