Written by Marna McManus

For those who enjoy hunting in our province at this time of year, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment is reminding the Hunter-Harvest Surveys are now mandatory, as of last year.

Population Ecologist for the fish, wildlife & lands sector, Jessus Karst, said it doesn't take that long to fill out the form.

"Especially with it being online now," he noted, saying the survey is located on the HAL website. "There's a harvest report that you fill out for that license, and if you don't have access to a computer, there's also a phone number you can call and they'll fill it open and help you go through it."

Karst noted it's one survey per license, taking maybe five minutes in all.

"It's not a long survey, it's a short series of questions and it could be either at the end of the season for the one license, which would be your birds, and for all the other game species, it would just be right after you harvest."

He said, even if you didn't harvest, that fact also needs to be provided.

"It just helps us get information about the harvest and how long it took them to hunt or harvest, how much time they spent, and if they harvested," he shared. "It can be used for us to not only determine the amount of harvest for species per year but also look at some of our management strategies. We'll see if they're working or to see if we need to try some different managing strategies based on this information."

"So we get the data back from these surveys, and then it's a pretty quick turn around where we try to use it for quota setting for the next year the next season, so it's a very valuable input for us."

Karst said most of the survey deadlines fall around January 20th, but they should confirm on the HAL site.

"This is just a really important way for hunters to contribute and be part of the management of different species in the province, and so we appreciate them when they do fill it out, for sure."

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