THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Bill Reimer of Fort Smith has been a hunter for decades.

"I started hunting when I was about 12," said the now 55-year-old, who was born in Saskatchewan and grew up in southern Manitoba.

Bill Reimer, president of the Fort Smith Conservation Association, stands on the shooting range operated by the organization. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"My initial hunting was rodent control," he said with a chuckle, explaining that involved using an air rifle to thin out populations of mice and rats.

Reimer brought his love of hunting to Fort Smith when he moved there 27 years ago.

For the past five years, he has been president of the Fort Smith Conservation Association, which is an independent group primarily made up of resident hunters.

"It was originally founded to work on wildlife issues. It's still our primary reason to be," Reimer said. "Part of that is operating the shooting range so that we have a legitimate place for people to sight-in rifles, to practise their marksmanship and everything else so that there's less wounded game when people are going out hunting."

Reimer has been a member of the association for about 15 years.

"Our membership floats up and down throughout the year, but the last number I had was somewhere slightly over 100," he said, noting that while most are hunters, some join to just shoot targets at the range.

"Most people who are shooters are also hunters," he said.

The association's shooting range is in northern Alberta just south of Fort Smith. It is located on Pine Lake Road across from the floatplane base at Four Mile Lake.

"It's been there probably close to 20 years," said Reimer. "That's our main community activity."

The association recently worked with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for a "sight-in your rifle" event at the shooting range.

The group also makes its views known on hunting issues.

"We get asked and we make comment when we can on issues, and we're on the government's list for consultation," said Reimer, noting it was one of the organizations that successfully asked the GNWT last year to open up an area of the Slave River Lowlands for bison hunting because of healthy populations of the animals in that area.

The association membership also includes some aboriginal hunters, but the group does not get involved in treaty rights issues concerning hunting.

"We don't deal with any of the treaty or land claim-type issues," said Reimer. "The resident hunters are our main focus, but we have members who are treaty members. It's all along the lines of making sure there's responsible hunting."

Having hunters who can shoot effectively and avoid wounding animals is one of its main goals of the association, he said.

"If your population of hunters have the skills to take down the animal that they're shooting at and not have wounded animals head off into the bush, your population stays up. You use what you take," he said. "You don't end up killing things that you don't take."

Reimer said he has personally harvested animals that had been wounded previously by other hunters, including a cow moose that had been shot but survived and even gave birth.

"She'd survived for at least a year," he said.

Other goals of the association include hunter safety and proper handling of firearms.

Reimer said he hunts ducks and geese, as well as some small game.

"I always get a moose tag and sometimes fill it, sometimes don't," he said.

Part of the enjoyment of hunting is getting out into the woods and into nature, he said.

Reimer also enjoys the wild meat that he harvests himself.

"Hunters all enjoy hunting and we all like living off the fruits of our efforts out hunting," he said. "But we all know that, if you take them all, there is no hunting."

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