Cascade blacktails

[AOD]

Large poplutations of deer attract pressure from predators (humans included.) The natural response for prey is to scatter and seek less pressured habitat. This year in my area the deer population seems to be cut in half from years past. Cougar sightings have increased. When I get snow I am going to do alot of tracking to see what is really going on.....

[2MANY]

Lack of mating due to the internet.

Actually I miss the remote back country helicopter logging.
When that was happening so was the deer population in a couple of the areas I hunt.

[jackmaster]

i have hunted the same piece of dirt since i started huntn when i was 11, the place i hunt has always had alot of deer, well ever since we lost baiting, hound huntn and trapping i have watched the deer numbers seriously drop but the strange thing is the elk numbers are up in the area, so between maybe competing with the elk and predation thats the reason for the decline, on one little 300 yrd stretch of an old skidder road i found 4 huge brand new piles of cougar sheet. the bobcats seem to be on the incline to, and i know they like fawns along with the blackbear liking fawns to, and i am sure the yotes get their fare share. i also think there is some poaching going on in there as well, have you ever hunted a place so long that you know when stuff is out of place?

[tluns]

I know what you mean jackmaster. That's what has me curious. When the decline started happening we attributed it to all those things I see listed. The decline is so bad the only reasonable thought is the hairslip issue but the state claims it didn't happen in this area. I don't know how they know that as they don't seem to know anything else. I'm also wondering, if it is hairslip, how long the recovery will take. It isn't just bucks in decline, in fact it seems opposite. We never see does anymore(obviously there must be some to create the bucks). Only deer we see are bucks because they are cruising in the rut.

[bobcat]

I've been wondering where in the heck all the blacktail does are. I see very few bucks, but I see even fewer does.   . 

[singleshot12]

don't forget herbicides

    that's got to be one of the biggest factors in my opinion.

You bet it is.. predators and hunting just keep the deer numbers healthy and in check. herbicides wipe out their food source,cover,and contaminate their water making an area baron of deer almost over night. seen it happen from aerial spraying.sucks big time
Predators and poachers are the least of the problem

[BOWHUNTER45]

This time of year they just disappear ....and now is the time ... after the rut they find there own little hole in the ground and do not show up out in clear cuts like they were 3 weeks ago .... I prefer heading to heavy thick timber when late bow season starts ...Find that sweet spot and your in ...I talked to a lot of late tag holders in my area and I only know of a couple killed ...everyone else is disgusted ...

[boneaddict]

Someone needs to tell me exactly where this is, so I don't go there.   Sounds bad.   

[lewy]

Can't speak for the others, but I'm talking white river drainage

[bigbeamhunter]

Everything with sharp teeth I live somewhere between snowden and goldendale
I shoot bobcats and coyotes off the porch had a cougar kill a doe in the backyard last year loggers have seen a big cat once a week I'm doing my best to kill it it's not far from the house problem is to get him I have passed up 21 coyotes probaly a few of the same ones and 7 bobcats I want the cougar if we all hunted and killed a few animals with sharp teeth it might help

[jackelope]

Someone needs to tell me exactly where this is, so I don't go there.   Sounds bad.

Especially with the tigers.

[billythekidrock]

Someone needs to tell me exactly where this is, so I don't go there.   Sounds bad.

Especially with the tigers.

 

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

If you look at the deer population in the SW corner of the state, from Goldendale to the ocean, and from Lewis county south you will see timber companies that use herbicides now instead of slash burning. We get signs telling us to keep out while while the animals can't read. Look at hair slip, and hoof rot.
Nobody has looked at the effect of the herbicides on the animals. All i every see is people throwing out the opinion that it isn't the herbicides. Where is the study then?

[BENCHLEG]

 :yeah:I have been saying that for years it's a no brainer   They are paying off somebody.

[bobcat]

Where's the Department of Ecology when you need 'em?