According to Spokesman review the 4pt APR passed

[huntnnw]

Hunting- A controversial antler point restriction for whitetail deer, proposed by a Stevens County sportsmen's group, was approved by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today during its meeting in Olympia.

Starting this fall, only whitetail bucks with four or more antler points on one side will be legal for hunters to target in Game Management Units 117 and 121.

The split vote by the commissioners disregarded the input by game managers and wildlife biologists who advised against it.

It disregarded the concerns of Fish and Wildlife police over the potential for illegal kills.

It disregarded the commission's own frequent requests to the agency managers to simplify rules.

It disregarded the public meetings held around the state in which the majority of sportsmen at every meeting had concerns about the proposal.

It disregarded the concensus off the commission itself that this could not be considered an experiement that would lead to biologically significant information.

It disregarded the high pecentage of sportsmen and agency managers who expressed concern that it will be a setback for youth hunting and the family nature of hunting in the two most popular whitetail units in the state.

This vote was an embarrassment to wildlife management in this state.

[rasbo]

gotta wonder how many deer will be shot and left lie....Im ok with restrictions on points but there is going to be some waste I bet

[huntnnw]

thing is I dont see many 3 pts...I see 3x4 more than 2x3 bucks

[Armadillo]

Still how many people will know what they're shooting at from a distance when they see antlers. I think its much easier to distinguish a 2pt from a 3 pt rather than a 3pt to a 4pt

[Ridgerunner]

too bad it passed, I'm not a big whitetail guy but didn't seem necessary to me and is making things more complicated up there.

[ICEMAN]

The wildlife commission knows best.

[Wenatcheejay]

This might however keep those pesky Non Native NE Washington folks off that land making more room for Locals to take larger animals in a few years. Think about all those folks with leases who now can sell more trophy hunts to schmucks.

How much does it cost to buy a vote on the Wildlife Commission these days?

[turkey slayer]

Be ready to see a lot of 3pts and 2pts found dead and just left.

[dscubame]

I support this in full.  I have been hunting Huckleberry for over 15 years now.  Seeing the change in this unit first hand over the last three years I have been asking why they have not put a APR in this unit, a conversation around the campfire every year.  Although 4 point is a bid odd I would have supported 3 point over 4 but I will take the 4.  Time will tell and I am confident that in a few short years I will be able to say I told all the nay sayers so. 

And as far as the illegal harvest goes....it is year around by a suprisingly large number of locals.  Deer carcus are everywhere year around, a indication of the economy in the region going on a decade now.  Unless your local or close to it you may think you understand but you do not.

[1bugman]

To Hell with WDFW. 

[bearpaw]

Glad to hear. This will give the bucks a chance to grow up and breed. There are still a half dozen hunting units in the general area with no antler restriction on whitetails. At the end of the 5 year test period if it was not successful, or if it is no longer beneficial, just as promised, I will oppose it's continuance.

But honestly, unless we try it in NE Washington, we have no idea how it will work because biology has been presented which supports both sides of the argument.

The spokesman was against this from the beginning and you can see right through their spin. It will get a comepletely different review from media biased in favor of the restriction.

[bearpaw]

I forgot to mention, the purpose was to create greater buck escapement (reduce the harvest) without reducing opportunity to recreate. If it was 3pt then any fork horn buck with one eye guard would have been legal, and that would not have resulted in the kind of harvest reduction that we need.

[huntnnw]

Maybe us hardcore whitetail hunters should start opposing trophy mule deer hunts in this state. There has been almost nothing done to improve Buck escapement or manage any units for quality in whitetails. 2 units people! 2!! Go hunt the other units That are any Buck then. What the real kicker is all the nay sayers now that are against it will be the first in line to hunt these units in 3 years 

[bobcat]

Here is an article from the Northwest Sportsman magazine:
 
 
Commission Approves 4-pt Rule For 2 NE WA Whitetail Units     (Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:48:08 +0000) 
Washington Fish & Wildlife Commissioners today approved a four-point-minimum antler restriction for whitetail deer hunting in a pair of units northwest of Spokane.
According to WDFW spokesman Darren Friedel, the vote was 5-2, with commissioners David Jennings and Brad Smith voting against.
The rule affects hunting in Game Management Units 117, 49 Degrees North, and GMU 121, Huckleberry, in central Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties.
Not much more information was immediately available.
The change was proposed by a stakeholder group from Stevens County, but was not widely supported outside of that.
A local outdoors columnist, scratching his head about how the proposal had made it so far (there were at least four public meetings), wondered if one of its proponents, Fish & Wildlife Commission vice chair Gary Douvia, had compromising pictures of the rest of the commission, a theme he followed up on last week with an unusually harsh article.
“The record provides a clear answer on how the vote should go,” wrote Rich Landers of the Spokane Spokesman-Review — and it wasn’t the way it went.
Another reporter who’d followed the issue emailed me just now to say, “Well, it’s  not biologically sound, but at least they didn’t take in two or more counties, like the 4 pt. fanatics wanted. Now wait ’til the local restaurants, gun shops, motels, bars, etc., start getting way less hunter traffic. Suddenly, those pro-4 pointers will get lots of flack. “
The antler restriction was requested in spring 2010 by the Stevens County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee in a petition to the commission which requested that WDFW staffers get additional public input before considering it for this coming hunting season.
Northeast Washington has seen a decline in whitetail in recent years, blamed largely on a pair of severe winters in the late 2000s that also took a big bite out of turkey populations. Local hunters have been looking at ways to bring the deer back. This past February, they held a coyote hunting derby that took 227 animals, an estimated 90 of which were female.
“Hopefully this will give our whitetail deer population a shot in the arm,” wrote Freddie Giannecchini of the Stevens County committee in a derby wrap-up. “Their numbers have been going down for years with very little positive and proactive management from (WDFW). Yes the WDFW has restricted the taking of does recently in 2009 and 2010, and have restricted the youth, senior and disabled hunters in a time when our buck to doe ratios are very low. Without proactively adding bucks to the population, by point restrictions or shortening the late portion of the season, to help the low buck to doe ratio, the dept is going to flood the area with more does making breeding for what bucks are out there even tougher allowing many more does not to breed when nature intends them to be bred, causing later and later fawn births. This is the only hope we have at this time to try to help the Whitetail Deer herd in this area.”
According to WDFW’s 2010 game status report, however, today’s buck ratio for Northeast Washington is better than where it was at in the late 1990s.
“In the late 1990s there was unprecedented low representation of mature white-tail bucks in the harvest,” writes Colville-based district wildlife biologist Dana Base. “This concern was addressed by maintaining conservative late buck seasons that did not extend beyond the middle of the rut. From 1999 until 2005 there was consistent improvement in the percentage of older bucks based on monitoring antlers. Improvement in the general trend toward more bucks 4 years or older was also supported by cementum analysis of deer teeth. Since 2005 this trend leveled out at least for 5+ antler point bucks. We are currently at a level that has reasonably good representation of mature bucks in the white-tail population. At least 1 in 5 white-tail bucks harvested is 5 point or better.”
Stay tuned. I’m sure Landers will have something on this, and have no doubt that WDFW will fire off a press release about 10 minutes after quitting time.
    Copyright © 2011. Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.

[Curly]

Hunting- A controversial antler point restriction for whitetail deer, proposed by a Stevens County sportsmen's group, was approved by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today during its meeting in Olympia.

Starting this fall, only whitetail bucks with four or more antler points on one side will be legal for hunters to target in Game Management Units 117 and 121.

The split vote by the commissioners disregarded the input by game managers and wildlife biologists who advised against it.

It disregarded the concerns of Fish and Wildlife police over the potential for illegal kills.

It disregarded the commission's own frequent requests to the agency managers to simplify rules.

It disregarded the public meetings held around the state in which the majority of sportsmen at every meeting had concerns about the proposal.

It disregarded the concensus off the commission itself that this could not be considered an experiement that would lead to biologically significant information.

It disregarded the high pecentage of sportsmen and agency managers who expressed concern that it will be a setback for youth hunting and the family nature of hunting in the two most popular whitetail units in the state.

This vote was an embarrassment to wildlife management in this state.

 

The commission is an embarrassment.  Sometimes I wish the commission would just go away.  I have a hard time seeing what good they are anymore.....