Late northern Saskatchewan winter contributes to ‘worst season on record’ for outfitter

Snow clearing, flooding, terrible trail conditions, and worries about wildlife are just a few of the issues some northern Saskatchewan outfitters are experiencing this year.

John Prosak owns No Fly Zone Outfitters and runs his business around Cree Lake, about 600 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

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He says the late winter this year means equipment is constantly stuck, equipment is breaking, and they’re even trying to rebuild paths and new trails.

“It has been by the worst season on record, other than COVID,” he said.

One of the major concerns for his business was that bears remained in their dens for much longer than usual, and now that they’re coming out, they’re very thin.

“They’re not eating very much food, and it could be just that they had such a long winter, that it takes them time to get used to eating again,” he said.

That’s made for a tough hunting season as well because there are fewer bears around. He believes some of them simply died in their dens.

“There wasn’t hardly any berries last summer in general, and so they couldn’t put that weight on,” he added.

While things are improving this week, he said the black bear season begins typically before bears are out of their dens and continues until the end of June.

But many of Prosak’s clients weren’t able to wait that long.

“Unfortunately, this is my last week. It’s too little too late no matter what happens now. We only had three weeks of clients.”

While the black bear season was a loss, he’s also worried about the deer population, because food sources have also been scarce for them in northern Saskatchewan.

“We’ve yet to see exactly how that will play out, but it’s definitely a concern,” he added.

For Faryn Anderson from Otter Creek Outfitters north of Spiritwood, business was tough as well to start the season, with cancelled bookings and challenges to accommodate clients.

“Getting sites all set up, snow removal, we had to hire a CAT to remove snow to our camp, building bridges, we had roads washed out,” she explained.

Her business also suffered financially on the hunting side, but despite that, she’s optimistic the rest of her season will pick up.

—  with files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick

Read more:

• Mail delays, long detours plague northern Sask. communities after washouts
• Rolling the dice: Inside a Saskatchewan outfitter’s daily hunt
• Fur industry in northern Saskatchewan facing uncertain future