I'm curious about the total number of deer in Washington state. Between "arguments" about using archery tackle in muzzle loader season, and a magazine article I read recently about bag limit changes and how little they affect total yearly harvest it made me curious.
I guess I am wondering if they are managed so differently because of populations/habitat differences, or are there different management "goals" in different areas of the country.
I know TN doesn't try to manage number of hunters in the field at any one time, which I believe is why WA has you choose a weapon type (am I right on this?).
My first thought is total population and habitat differences, not to mention having 3 different types of deer instead of 1. That has to complicate management. But I haven't been able to find any numbers for Washington's deer herds to support that thought.
*Edit*
I was able to look at the harvest reports from WA and TN. Looks like the total harvest for WA was a little over 33,000 vs almost 163,000 for TN. So I'm guessing the population in TN has to be far greater than Washington's sense TN's harvest was almost 5 times larger.
