Setting sights on hunting The Resort Municipality of Whistler is targeting hunting as a possible conflict within the boundaries of its Local Resource Use Plan and is holding public meetings this month to get feedback from hunters who use the area. Heather Beresford, of the RMOW Parks Department, says the municipality intends to apply to the provincial government to have B.C.'s hunting regulations changed to limit hunting within the LRUP — if potential danger to backcountry users is perceived. "We don't know how much hunting goes on in the LRUP area, so before we approach the government we have to get in tough with hunters to determine the extent to which the area is used," Beresford says. The LRUP, a co-operative agreement between the B.C. Forest Service and the RMOW, deals with recreational and logging use of the area surrounding Whistler's municipal boundaries and stretches along the west side of the Whistler Valley from Brandywine in the south to Cougar Mountain in the north. Hunting is not allowed within municipal boundaries. Beresford says the LRUP is updated every year and one of the parts up for review is whether hunting "is something that we want happening within the boundaries." Peter Jacobi, a Squamish-based conservation officer, says he can't say how many hunters use the LRUP area, but the species hunted in the area would be black bears and deer. The meetings will be in Whistler Aug. 10 in council chambers, in the Pemberton court house Aug. 14 from 6 to 9 p.m., in Squamish Aug. 21 at the Sea to Sky Hotel from 6 to 9 p.m., and in the North Vancouver Rec Centre Aug. 23.
