In Haut-Rhin, hunters are mobilizing to ensure that the hunting plan that has become unfeasible in the department for this year is scaled back. They are not the only ones since local naturalists, walkers and many others have joined their fight so that the imposed quotas do not endanger the populations present on their territory, especially with regard to the large deer. To everyone's surprise, animalists remain absent from the debates or even want to force hunters to harvest more.
A hunting plan that has become dangerous for deer.
Hunting plans are established in the departmental hunting plan during various meetings but the reality on the ground can sometimes be different from the figures put forward by the different parties.
Indeed, hunters are not the only ones to decide on these figures because representatives of farmers, foresters, state agents and environmental associations are also involved.
This time, these figures are contested by hunters who refuse to be “the gravediggers of biodiversity” as the Departmental Federation indicates. In total, 2,000 deer should be harvested in Haut-Rhin and 800 are still missing by the end of the month.
Large deer are not the only ones to be affected by this hunting plan which has become too important according to hunters who are opposed to going through with it this year, at the risk of being awarded substantial fines.
Silence of animalist associations.
Strangely, certain structures which nevertheless say they are always opposed to the samples taken by hunters concerning species which are not in danger such as foxes, badgers, marmots, chamois or even sometimes wild boars, say nothing.
-The hunters' fight is for once the same as theirs, namely, to slow down on harvests which, for once, could really have harmful consequences on a population in a given territory.
Even one of the leaders of the environmental associations of Alsace has positioned himself on the side of the foresters and wants to force the hand of the hunters so that they follow through with the hunting plan.
As for the associations who still want the hunters to stop their actions, nothing is happening. As if the problem didn't exist.
At One-Voice, we continue to swoon over news items allowing us to focus on hunting and even observations from the ASPAS side.
Perhaps this attitude will end up opening the eyes of activists who think that these organizations are really involved in favor of nature and not simply driven by hatred of the hunter because, for once, they could ally themselves with the hunting world to carry out truly useful action on the ground.
