At the end of August, the Hunting Department of the Umbria Region announced that, following the ordinance of Administrative Court of Umbria on the appeal presented by WWF regarding the hunting calendar for the 2018/2019 season and the subsequent decree of the Council of State of last September 6, “la selection hunting to species Roe deer and fallow deer it is to be considered suspended starting from the date of 12 August and until further notice ". To date, we are still waiting to know the final sentence on this surreal story and the Association's fear is that a prolonged suspension of the selection hunt for species Roe deer and fallow deer in Umbria, in addition to being able to create damage to agriculture, it will end up mortifying the figure of the selection hunter, in whom we place great hopes to be able to relaunch a correct, real and not manipulated image of hunting, supported by the awareness that hunters are a part of a society useful for the countryside and its inhabitants, for the environment, for the territory and for the fauna.
In fact, after years of rather messy hunting development, with the selection hunt, which starts from the censuses and then moves on to the formulations of the sampling plans, some priority objectives of a general nature have been identified, such as the strict control of the wild boar, the stabilization of the roe deer in suitable areas and the containment of the fallow deer, with a careful planning of densities. In our country, in the last decade, the expansion of the Ungulate population represents, as far as the available data can testify, a sometimes very marked increase in the number of individuals.
In fact, the presence of the species has already created a negative impact on the territory in economic and social terms for 20 years, deriving from the impact that their presence determines. on agriculture, forests and road safety. This last point, in particular, has come to the fore in recent days due to the sad news stories that have marred these days of celebration. This is why we believe that it is necessary to make the control activity more incisive and to prepare technical protocols with the ISPRA at the regional level. So we would equip ourselves with univocal means of action throughout the territory, having a specific goal. To this end, we propose the creation of a “Project for the creation of a database on the distribution, consistency and management of ungulates throughout Italy”. The monitoring of animal populations is the basic prerequisite for acquiring the information necessary for conservation and the choice of management models to be applied. The knowledge of the population includes the definition of the parameters of: distribution, consistency, density and structure of the respective animal species.
Therefore, the distribution and structure of the investigated population, its ecological needs and the extent of the sampling in the environmental context in which it will operate, as well as the mortality rate according to the predetermined management objectives will have to be analyzed; this will make it possible to set limit threshold values, against which it will not be appropriate to carry out the sampling. The selection hunter, to practice this form of sampling, must acquire a considerable cultural background, both through training courses with strict final exams, which through practice in the field. A training course that will lead him first to be able to collaborate profitably in the census activities, and then to be able to safely recognize the garment that has been assigned to him and to tear it down in a clear and clean way. This is essential in a type of hunting that aims to collect conservatively, that is, without causing the decline of a population.
For this reason, the Association firmly believes that this sustainable hunt is certainly the most correct way to target not only deer and bovids, but all the sedentary game. The correct selection hunter, in fact, intervenes in the natural habitat with knowledge of the facts, avoiding serious alterations of the natural structure of the population. For this reason, Arci Caccia Umbria intends, not only to make available to everyone, hunters and not, the ideas and experiences gained, but above all listening to the voice of the technicians to achieve the objectives set out, so that, in a nutshell, we can take the road to a new management, "NOT TO BE PROMISED BUT TO BE REALIZED". A local initiative that could also be a winner on a national level to try to give a better future to hunting.