Are harvest reports even a useful tool for wdfw / us hunters ???

[chester]

Thats the basis of it 

[Practical Approach]

Personally, I feel that by asking hunters to post their success results, they have an easy out to blame hunters for the declining populations.....the hunters lied and skewed the results.

Shouldn't proper game management be all about being in the field and personally observing game populations and carrying capacity, because expecting hunters, many who are in a big last minute dash to post any result so they can purchase a tag, is expecting too much in my opinion. Lastly, do we really need to know how long it took someone to harvest their game?


I would rather they drop the hunter reporting and rely on good ol' fashion boot earned observation and apply their schooling to what they find in the field. 

Harvest is a piece of the puzzle for biologists to use to help them figure out what is going on in a specific area with game populations.  Proper game management isn't always about the field.  Sure, you need to spend a fair amount of time in the field but that is just part of the picture.   Population surveys are great for getting population trend data on overall population size and sex rations including calving or fawning rates.  While this information is great to compare year to year, it is also nice to look at bull and buck survival in your populations as well.  If there aren't enough bulls or bucks escaping the hunting season among other environmental factors, then adjustments need to be made to hunting seasons.  With the addition of harvest information it is easier to validate any buck or bull changes you are finding in your surveys.  

Not to mention, surveys (time in the field)  is a huge expense.  For one, there are not enough biologist to spend all of their time surveying all of Washingtons elk and deer populations.  Shoot, helicopter time alone runs around 800 bucks an hour for flight time.  It would take big bucks that WDFW doesn't have to survey every GMU the way some folks feel they should be surveyed.  


I think as an environmentally conscious hunter and a stewards of the land, we should be on our toes about reporting  info as soon as you can.  Reporting your harvest in a timely manner is on way a hunter can actively participate and help out to better manage populations.  

I know I am extreme, but in my opinion you shouldn't get a tag the following year if you don't report your harvest by the deadline.

[ouchfoss]

I feel the same way others do about it. I like the fact it is used as a management tool to determine how the population of a herd is doing in reference to how many animals where harvested in that GMU but I dont like that the information is available to anyone who wants to look it up on the net.

[Gringo31]

I fill mine out accurately.

The wdfw uses the harvest reports to get harvest trends. Harvest trends help with population assessment of a given area.

Yet, hard to make any good use of harvest reports with game or fish when the tribe doesn't play nice in this dept.

[boneaddict]

Yet the funny thing is I absolutely don't use harvest reports as a guidline to where I want to hunt.  I still scout using my two feet.

[chester]

Thats the way to do it bone. and you see alot more then most.

[Annette]

They used it to track me and send me a notice about the Wolves   

[addicted]

yes they are a useful tool for wdfw. do they use them? that is a different story.

[Little Dave]

There's a whole host of simpletons encouraging the state to manage game with wolves, bears and cougars.  However, our argument to counter that is that hunting is a better and more cost effective option.  One example that we provide in these debates is that hunters provide information.  An accurate and timely report of where, when, and how much time was spent hunting is something a wolf, bear, or cougar will not do.  The information is essential for management.  For one example, it is cited in the state's revised elk management plan that I have recently reviewed.

Ten dollars isn't a signifcant penalty considering the value of the information for both management and keeping hunting relevant in the ongoing debate about how to manage wildlife.  Compare other late fees.  Late with a financial payment these days the fee will probably be at least three times higher.

There should be a more substantial penalty for late reporting.  I'd like to see the penalty set up as an option between a refundable deposit in the same amount as the license or the reportable tag restricted to a specific game unit and reduced date range which excludes opening day.

[Snapshot]

They justified taking away 1/4 of the early archery deer season in 2009 by saying, "Few people were using that time anyway". Hunter reports told them that. Because of that I will now hunt every day that is open, even if it is just map hunting. 

[Little Dave]

That statement, "Few people were using that time anyway," could only be derived from the report if successful hunters reported more frequently than unsuccessful hunters.  Successful hunters that report are asked to provide the month and date of their kill.  Therefore, it can be presumed that they are not continuing to hunt after that date.  Perhaps if more unsuccessful hunters reported, the state would not be able to make that assumption.

[Practical Approach]

I fill mine out accurately.

The wdfw uses the harvest reports to get harvest trends. Harvest trends help with population assessment of a given area.

Yet, hard to make any good use of harvest reports with game or fish when the tribe doesn't play nice in this dept.

Westside Tribes do.

[Bofire]

Nope, I never hunt anything, easiest way to get past a pain in the ass that the state will not use anyway.
Carl

[steen]

Truthfully.  There is always those who like to mess up surveys by fudging on the statistics.  How many people do you really think use those statistics for their hunts.  I have never used it.  Even if someone put 4x4 on their hunter report does not tell you what size the deer is, only the rack, not mass and not whether or not it is a trophy.  Unfortunetly the game dept considers a 4x4 or even a 5x5 (that is counting the eye guards) as a trophy.  Now if they also asked for width and mass around the bases it would say lost more.  But I don't understand why anyone would fudge the results.   How many deer shot in a certain area can change every year also.  I hunt where I hunt mostly for the fun in camp with friends and family, getting a deer is a bonus.  There is alway blacktail everywhere back home.

[Little Dave]

One would probably spend more time in the year watching the full length of those long pharmaceutical ads a over and over than the few minutes it might take to file an accurate report.

A few have mentioned that the state sent out bulletins about the wolves for some hunting in Sherman or Kelly Hill.  That's how it is used now.  After a number of years the state may be able to have a "you may also be interested in" tempting feature which cross references your reporting pattern with others to both maximize their sustaining revenue and optimistically, hunter success.  It's kind of like how targeted ads work on some of the search websites.

In computer science, there's a phrase "garbage in, garbage out" which applies to this.  If we as a group send the department incorrect reports, we shouldn't be expecting much more than incorrect management as a result.  Send in an accurate report if you have the time... or sit back and enjoy the ED commercial and wonder how it all went wrong.