Wish us luck guys, we might need it.

I am leaving tomorow for anouther school bison hunt. For those that are unfamiliar or have never heard of what I am talking about, here is a brief discription.
For the last 6 years some schools have been taking students out on a wilderness bison hunt for education purposes. It was started by a gr. 7 teacher, Peter Harms. Since Peter started the school bison hunt, other schools have followed. The school bison hunt has been a success.
The pure Wood Bison were introduced into the Yukon in the early 80's. They want to keep the herd to a certian number so they don't expand too much. The main reason is so that they don't come into contact with other impure bison and contract diseases. To keep the populations in check, the gov't allows limited hunting. They may be the wildest free Bison that exsist.
These free roaming bison are getting very difficult to hunt. So far this year, only 20 bison out of 70 have been taken. That's 3 1/2 months of hunting.
I have been fortunate to be invited to do these hunts with some of the schools. This will be my fourth hunt. It is very challenging and alot of responsibility and pressure.
We generally have about 25 students, some parents and a couple of teachers. First Nations are also involved. First Nations have given me permission to hunt on their land. They support this hunt as well.

I would like to add that Tim Mervyn of Mervyn's Yukon Outfitting donated the Bison Tag. Very big of Tim to do this. Usually it is the Fish&Game Ass. that donates the tag. The F.G.A has donated their tags to other schools this year.
This year we have an unusually warm spring. The snow is disapearing fast. This will provide some difficulty with our snowmachines. Many miles are covered to locate the Bison. They are really spread out. The warm weather we are having will make for a fun hunt. In the past it has been -30 below O for the whole week we hunt. The kids cut alot of firewood to stay warm in their wall tents. They will get a break atleast this year.

I have got to run, lots of gear to get ready,

Wish us luck for a safe and successfull hunt,


thanks ,

Daryl

quote:

Originally posted by Yukoner:
They may be the wildest free Bison that exists.
I would like to add that Tim Mervyn of Mervyn's Yukon Outfitting donated the Bison Tag. Very big of Tim to do this.

These are two of the reasons that I will continue to come up there. For those of you who have never seen the area, it is truly some of the most amazing and rugged country you would ever want to experience. It is not the sort of place your average school district would send a bunch of kids on a "field trip". The fact that Daryl has been entrusted with these kids, under these circumstances, speaks volumes. Tim's generosity here is also indicative of his character. Whether it is Sheep, Bison, Bear, or Moose...if I hunt The Yukon, it will be with Tim.
Good luck on your hunt Daryl! Just try not to shoot the biggest bull in the area OK...gotta leave something for me next January!

Best,

JohnTheGreek

Awesome!

Good to see the program is still operating!

I caught one of those hunts on TV a while back. you are very lucky the anti movement hasn't cut you off. An excellent program. Good luck!
I wish that kind of program was available to all kids. It would bring home the realities of life to them.

Good luck on your hunt Daryl!

Cheers,
Canuck

That sounds like an awesome program for the kids, too bad more schools didn't have similar programs...Good luck on your hunt!

I saw that on Country Canada a couple of months ago-looks awsome. Wish our kids around here had something like that. By the way-which one on the show was you?

quote:

Originally posted by SHOOTIST:
I saw that on Country Canada a couple of months ago-looks awsome. Wish our kids around here had something like that. By the way-which one on the show was you?

SHOOTIST,

None of them. I was down south in Alberta for the winter taking a course.


Thanks guys.

The Bison hunt was a success. The weather cooperated. It was the warmest bison hunt yet. At night the temprature only went down to -25 C. Durring the day it warmed up to about -10.
It was a tough hunt. We covered around 60-70 miles a day on smowmobiles. I was pretty bagged from breaking trail and getting machines unstuck. The kids were really tough. No complaining. They ate it all up. When we stopped for a break, the kids were wresling and goofing off in the snow.
Everything went smoothly(other than the rough trail), but best of all there were no injuries.

These were a great bunch of kids. There were a couple of fatherless boys in the bunch. I plan on taking them along on some future hunting and fishing trips along with my crew.

Oh yeah, the parents that volunteered were great as well as the teachers. All around, it was a great experience for everyone.


Daryl

quote:

Originally posted by John Y Cannuck:
I caught one of those hunts on TV a while back. you are very lucky the anti movement hasn't cut you off. An excellent program. Good luck!
I wish that kind of program was available to all kids. It would bring home the realities of life to them.

Yes it is an excellent program. I do not believe the school bison hunt will last forever It will most likely be the school board that closes it down.
When that time comes, we will just continue to do the same program after school. It has become popular enough that most students and parents can hardly wait till grade 7 so they can go on 'THE BISON HUNT'. If the school board stops the School bison hunt, there will be a lot of disapointed people. We can't have that can we. It won't take much to get a group together. It might even be a little easier.
The anti's don't carry much weight up here. Most people here are like me, the pay no attention to anti's. I don't give a shit what they think.


Daryl