Free: Contests & Raffles.
These are all great ideas. I would suggest we start by removing the general archery season on mule deer does. This is something simple that can be accomplished relatively easily. Compound bows have come a long way in the last 10-20 years. Someone can walk into a bow shop and get set up and shoot a doe at 20 yards on the same day. Another concern is the season dates. Archery season starts on September 1st but mule deer doe season begins on Sept. 15th and goes to the end of the month. Many of the high country mule deer does begin migrating to the valley floor around mid September. At the very least why not have the season open on the 1st and close on the 15th? That way the majority of the migrating does will not be effected. Also, from what I have witness and based on talking with game wardens it is a law enforcement nightmare. The first half of September is fairly mellow but on the 15th when mule deer doe season opens all heck breaks loose. It is very common to see hunters standing in the middle of the pavement flinging arrows at does on private land. The doe is wounded and runs a few hundred yards to die and rather than risk getting caught the shooter just drives away. Of course people break the law during all the hunting seasons but the mule deer doe archery season is by far and away the worst. There are a significant number of lazy unethical hunters driving private roads/highways flinging arrows. What possible harm could come from taking away a general season on female mule deer? I just checked the regulations and it is against the law to harvest female crawdads.
The Yakama and Muckleshoot tribes have draw tags for sheep and goats. I talked to a couple tribal goat hunters this year. Not sure about moose. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You bring up some good points to consider regarding data. I'll offer this, deer management is not a new thing, states have been managing deer for decades and numerous studies have been done in state after state. It's a pretty well know conclusion that antlerless harvest is increased to reduce herd numbers or to reduce herd growth. When herds decline many states reduce antlerless harvest until herds rebound. I'm not sure how many times the wheel has to be reinvented before everyone understands that a wheel rolls downhill without being pushed? Just some food for thought regarding all the other deer studies that have been done all over the west!
any hunter on the east side would agree i dont know about the west side. cats are everywhere.
Quote from: DaveMonti on November 18, 2017, 05:48:02 PMYou bring up some good points to consider regarding data. I'll offer this, deer management is not a new thing, states have been managing deer for decades and numerous studies have been done in state after state. It's a pretty well know conclusion that antlerless harvest is increased to reduce herd numbers or to reduce herd growth. When herds decline many states reduce antlerless harvest until herds rebound. I'm not sure how many times the wheel has to be reinvented before everyone understands that a wheel rolls downhill without being pushed? Just some food for thought regarding all the other deer studies that have been done all over the west!I'll do you a little favor and do some work for you ie doe harvest. But you'll have to also listen to my opinion. It's a tough job managing a herd when there are so many variables you can't control. Drought, snow pack, fire, habitat loss and more are all working against you. Plus, in nature, in a natural setting, deer herds don't maintain a level population. (neither do any other species) It's all about the roller coaster of ups and downs, from highs to lows. But hunters don't want that and many won't accept it. They want it to always be high. That can't be done. it's against the laws of nature. The more you push for high years, the more there will be low years. That's how it works. The best that can be done is to have a middle range of not so high highs and not so low lows. And that takes a lot of work and data. Even then, nature can throw a dog turd in the punch bowl. I believe that is what has happened to the mule deer herds in this state. Two back to back winters with little snow, then two summers of fires burning up important range, especially winter range and then even a normal snow year can devastate a herd that is dependent on a greatly shrunken winter range. When the guys who study the herds tell you the herd needs to be reduced so the range recovers, I'd believe them. What point is there to increase the herd before the habitat can support them? That just makes any recovery that much longer. And hunters won't accept that either. What the managers need is public support and a patient hunting crowd. Let them do their job and trust that they are doing the right thing. As habitat improves, they will let the herd grow. Right now they want the herd reduced for the purpose of rebuilding the range. Personally, I'd rather see the deer harvested and utilized by hunters than to die out on the winter range. Now here's the harvest and doe harvest for you of all the 200 units, the last 5 years. Notice the increase in doe harvest in 2014 was 549 does over 2013. That's the whole increase for a total of 28 game units or an average increase of less than 20 does per unit. In 2015 it was even less at 229 more does taken for an average of about 8 does per unit more. 2016 was 172 more does than 2013 or and average of about 6 more does taken. Note for those same years, the buck harvest was also higher. in 2014 there were 924 more bucks taken for an average of 33 more bucks taken per unit. in 2015 it was 2,541 more bucks taken for an average of almost 91 extra bucks taken per unit. In 2016 the buck take had dropped down to 172 more bucks than 2013 for an average of about 6 extra bucks per unit.2012 - 941 does taken, 4,402 bucks, 5,343 total2113 - 817 does taken, 4,182 bucks, 5,009 total2014 - 1,366 does taken, 5,006 bucks, 6,372 total2015 - 1,046 does taken, 6,504 bucks, 7,550 total2016 - 989 does taken, 4851 bucks, 5840 total
The problem with real data to support an argument is most of the real data comes from WDFW. And we have seen how WDFW can skew the real data to match their goals. Look at how many wolves WDFW says are in the state compared to how many people on the ground are seeing. I saw wolves in the Alpine Lakes in 1997. I called WDFW and was told by Bio "no I didn't"....um ok...My point is if we rely on the state to make data driven decisions about our deer herds we are in essence leading the herds to slaughter. My opinion is that the wolves in this state are WDFW's tool to decimate the mule deer herds. The hound hunting ban didn't have the immediate desired effect ( although its catching up to us the last few years) so now its the wolves turn.You can reduce deer harvest through draw only, eliminate antlerless tags, and so on. But the real factors are predators and habitat.