Menu
Menu
It’s hard to articulate the number of species that are benefited by these prescribed fires.
Craig McLean is a Wildlife Biologist in the Thompson Okanagan Region of British Columbia. BC born and raised, he has traveled, worked, and lived all over the province. Over the past 20-plus years he has worked with a large variety of species from songbirds to Roosevelt elk.
Growing up in the interior of BC, his love of all things nature grew from a young age, and this love has only grown as Craig’s trips have expanded from the forest behind his house to the remote reaches and corners of the province. As work and travel have expanded so have his perspectives of how fortunate we are to have such massive diversity in landscapes, ecosystems, fish, flora, and fauna in British Columbia.
Based in the Okanagan, Craig works mostly with Bighorn sheep and Mountain goats with much of his recent focus being around habitat security and enhancement and working through the various ongoing disease issues with Bighorn sheep.
We are a group of people who live and work primarily in rural British Columbia and care deeply about wildlife and the habitat it requires to survive. “Wildlife First” isn’t just a catchy tag line – it’s how we operate.
We are proud of our relationships with First Nations people who started outfitting in BC in the 1800s. Today, more than 35 Indigenous communities or people own guide territory certificates in BC. We have aligned stewardship values – they cannot move and we cannot move – thus we share a similar seven-generation, long-term view on wildlife management. We support Indigenous traditions and knowledge that helps improve our understanding of wildlife and ecosystems.
Why “Who Cares?”
The Who Cares campaign is designed to be educational and provocative, not political. It’s intended to draw your awareness to the issues that exist, help you see that wildlife in BC is facing significant challenges, and engage you in caring – caring to the point of taking the kind of action that produces positive changes on the land.
Who Cares is about putting down our differences to work together to achieve positive changes for habitat and wildlife. It is about collaboration, not entrenched positions.
Along the way, we will have differences – maybe even HUGE differences, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together to achieve a shared mission of healthier forests, fewer wildfires, floods, and landslides, and more abundant fish and wildlife. A province that we can feel proud to leave to our children and grandchildren.
It’s not us versus nature – we ARE nature! As humans, everything we do on this planet has an impact. All our food choices – whether animal or plant-based – have consequences. And the way humans think about animals is incongruent, to say the least. Regardless, whether you are an omnivore, carnivore, or herbivore, if you care about wildlife, habitat, and BC’s forests, there is far more that unites us than separates us. Please – let’s invest our energy together on positive change instead of attacking one another. Too much is at stake.
Who Cares is an initiative of the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia. Yes, we hunt and yes, we understand that it is difficult for those who don’t to understand. It’s counterintuitive how hunters can care so deeply for the very animals they pursue, possibly even more deeply than those who don’t hunt at all. Get to know us, ask us whatever you want. We’re happy to share our beliefs as best as we can.
Wildlife needs to be assigned a value so that land-based decisions will consider them and their habitat. There are more values on the land than just timber. Wildlife needs to be a key performance indicator of a healthy forest. Forestry reform is needed.
We are pro-wildlife, pro-ecosystem health, and pro-sustainable use. Pro-Super, Natural British Columbia. Pro-wild within. Pro-clean air. Pro-clean water. Pro-wild fish. Pro-collaboration. Join us!
Suite 103–19140 28th Avenue
Surrey, BC V3Z 6M3
Telephone: 604-541-6332
Fax: 604-541-6339
Email: info@goabc.org
Copyright 2021, Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia.
