The war in Iraq and the Canadian opposition to it are affecting Saskatchewan hunt farms.
“Bookings are way down,” said Dave Nowlin of Northsask Frontier Adventures Game Hunting Preserve of Love, Sask.
“The war and our perceived lack of support is hurting relations with American customers. The war for sure hurts us.”
Nowlin provides hunting of wild boar, elk, bison, fallow and whitetailed deer in northeastern Saskatchewan.
While speaking at last weekend’s Saskatchewan Whitetail and Mule Deer Producers Association annual convention in Saskatoon, Nowlin said the provincial tourism department is also seeing many cancellations of package tours and trips due to the Iraq war.
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Eugene Flees, a Wisconsin deer producer and hunt farm operator, told the convention his bookings are off slightly, but he expects before hunting season starts, they will rebound.
Harvey Granatier, a vice-president of SWAMPDA, said that during two trips the organization made to American hunting trade shows this winter, directors found concern from American hunters about the war as far back as January.
“The Americans like our animals, but war may have an effect on this year’s season,” he said.
Nowlin said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the United States caused many cancellations.
“You should have seen me crying on the 12th. We thought the season was lost there were so many (cancellations). But after a week they’d nearly all rebooked. So I don’t know what the long-term effect is going to be, but that experience keeps me optimistic,” he said.
Al Morhart of Briercrest, Sask., is another association director. On a recent trip to a show in Springfield, Missouri, he found hunters were attracted by the size of the Saskatchewan animals and the “clean land, clean air concept” of Western Canada.
Morhart said consumers’ desires to hunt Saskatchewan animals will eventually overcome fears of war or patriotic fervour.
Flees agreed.
“The American hunter want big bodied animals. They want (large antlers). They can’t get those on hunting preserves in Texas. They need to go north. For me, that means Wisconsin. For you, that means Saskatchewan. In the long term, this is tourism and we will be hurt (by war) like any part of the industry,” Flees said.
Nowlin estimates that Saskatchewan had $4.5 million in sales from hunt farms in 2002, based on the 39 trophy ranches that requested export certificates from the Saskatchewan government last year.
“Quite a big chunk of those sales are based on American hunters. They are a big, maybe the biggest, part of our industry,” he said.
