The Ministry of Forests is proposing new limits to mule deer hunting regulations to help declining buck populations in parts of the B.C. Interior.
As part of a regulation change currently open to public feedback, the province is proposing a limit to the number of mule-deer bucks –  hunters can bag in the Thompson, Kootenay, Cariboo, Skeena, Omineca, Peace and Okanagan areas.
Currently, hunters are allowed up to three bucks shot in different regions, but the province wants to limit that number to one mule-deer buck per hunter.
“This province has the most liberal mule deer hunting opportunities in all of North America and, historically, that has been considered sustainable, but the landscape is changing out there,” said Steve MacIver, a regulations and policy analyst with the fish and wildlife branch.
He says mountain pine beetle, wildfires, oil and gas development and forestry have all changed the landscape resulting in a declining mule deer population.
He also said  mule deer hunting has increased particularly in the Thompson-Okanagan in the last five years.
“We expect [the proposed changes] will reduce the harvest by five to 15 per cent,” said MacIver.
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