Eric McGuinness
ANCASTER — The Hamilton Conservation Authority is considering a partnership with the Six Nations Confederacy to allow hunting at Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area as a means of reducing an overpopulation of deer.
The idea was discussed by the authority’s business and administration committee at a closed-door session Thursday night and will be raised, again in camera, at a full board meeting next Thursday.
The move follows reports of a recent illegal crossbow hunt that led to the conservation area being closed temporarily, and Confederacy claims that First Nations have a treaty right to hunt there.
Native men in camouflage who were confronted at the site reportedly said they were conducting an environmental inventory and study into chronic wasting disease.
Today, authority chair Chris Firth-Eagland confirmed discussions are taking place and said a controlled hunt, with proper notice to area residents, “could be one of the safest, most peaceful, harmonious ways out of the dilemma (over how to deal more than 100 deer in an urban park that should be home to only 10 or 12).
“The other path is to do nothing and let nature take its course — disease, starvation and more coyotes coming in to hunt the weakened deer.”
He called a cull, in which deer are herded together to be shot, a brutal approach involving chaos and pain, while a controlled hunt “is more in keeping with the rhythm of nature.”
It’s not clear if an agreement with the Hamilton authority would extend beyond Iroquoia Heights.
Lawyer Paul Williams, representing the Confederacy, was quoted this week in the Ohsweken-based weekly Turtle Island News as saying he wanted “to discuss not only harvesting in Iroquoia Heights but other locations in which there may be overpopulations of deer that can be harvested safely and in a manner consistent with conservation practices, in collaboration and partnership.”
Williams declined to comment on the matter today.