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We have neglected wildlife.
Shaun D. Freeman is a registered professional biologist who has been working with wildlife and habitat throughout BC for 30-plus years. He has worked with everything from bats to bears, Alces to Zapus.
Having observed the ecological changes in our province firsthand for over half a century, his experience allows him to deeply understand the issues and what we must do to correct them – the mistakes we’ve made and where we have to go if we want wildlife in the future.
Shaun specializes in wildlife inventory, habitat inventory, management of carbon credits for valuating habitat, habitat mitigation, wildlife and habitat monitoring and management plans. He is a trapper and consulting biologist focusing on assisting First Nations and ENGOs, the Proprietor and Senior Wildlife Biologist for SDF Environmental.
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.
