Post by: bobcat on May 28, 2016, 08:41:08 AM
Quote
This proposal provide recreational deer hunting opportunity and protects deer from overharvest. The proposal continues general deer hunting season opportunities for 2016 in most Game Management Units, but reduces archery and muzzleloader antlerless deer hunting opportunity in several northeastern Game Management Units as a conservative management strategy due to population uncertainty created by a blue tongue disease outbreak in 2015. These changes were not proposed earlier, but ongoing information sharing necessitated additional proposed changes.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/regulations/2016/wsr_16-10-120.pdf
Post by: PolarBear on May 28, 2016, 09:42:11 AM
Post by: buckfvr on May 28, 2016, 09:59:42 AM
Between the wolves ( and other predators ) , blue tongue, and everyone wanting to shoot baby deer , one bad winter and we are in an extremely bad situation.
Post by: bearpaw on May 28, 2016, 11:17:08 AM
The blue tongue really hit hard around agricultural areas where we had the highest numbers of deer. I'm glad to see WDFW is cutting back antlerless harvest until herds can begin to rebound.
Post by: Duckslayer89 on May 30, 2016, 03:41:35 PM
A friend just saw three wolves this morning, we've also seen cougar this spring, and we've been 100% shooting opportunity on bear again this spring, no doubt there are plenty of predators!
The blue tongue really hit hard around agricultural areas where we had the highest numbers of deer. I'm glad to see WDFW is cutting back antlerless harvest until herds can begin to rebound.
Do you think black bears have much of an impact of fawns in the spring? I've always wondered if they really make a dent or not.
Post by: bearpaw on May 30, 2016, 10:35:52 PM
A friend just saw three wolves this morning, we've also seen cougar this spring, and we've been 100% shooting opportunity on bear again this spring, no doubt there are plenty of predators!
The blue tongue really hit hard around agricultural areas where we had the highest numbers of deer. I'm glad to see WDFW is cutting back antlerless harvest until herds can begin to rebound.
Do you think black bears have much of an impact of fawns in the spring? I've always wondered if they really make a dent or not.
Depends on the bears in an area. Studies in some areas have shown significant fawn and/or calf predation by bear, in other areas studies have shown other predators made a much larger impact. To my knowledge there are no studies in WA to show bear predation rates on fawns. So the correct answer is probably that it's an unknown amount of bear predation on fawns in WA, likely significant in some areas and not significant in other areas.
I'm reasonably certain that coyotes are the biggest predator of fawns under 4 months in most areas of WA and cougar are the biggest predator of deer older than 4 months in most areas of WA. But humans, automobiles, dogs running loose, etc may actually be the largest predator of deer in some areas.
Post by: C-Money on May 31, 2016, 06:19:22 AM
Post by: pianoman9701 on May 31, 2016, 06:25:58 AM
Post by: superdown on May 31, 2016, 07:45:12 AM
Post by: Elmer Fletch on May 31, 2016, 08:42:28 AM
Are these changes actually going to happen or are they still just proposals at this point?
Hearing location(s):
Natural Resource Building
1111 Washington St SE
Olympia, Washington 98501
Date: June 10-11, 2016 Time: 8:15 a.m.
Post by: Gringo31 on May 31, 2016, 10:03:32 AM
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It's just the beginning of the tag cuts in the NE. Hunters will be systematically replaced by other predators. And, it'll happen fairly quickly now.
:yeah:
There is only so much harvest allowed. If the predators take more, in order to attempt to remain sustainable, we get less.....
Post by: buglebrush on May 31, 2016, 10:59:31 AM
It's just the beginning of the tag cuts in the NE. Hunters will be systematically replaced by other predators. And, it'll happen fairly quickly now.
Exactly. That is the end result of WDFW's inexcusable refusal to manage predators. The NE today the rest of the state tomorrow. :bash:
Post by: grundy53 on May 31, 2016, 11:12:07 AM
ExactlyIt's just the beginning of the tag cuts in the NE. Hunters will be systematically replaced by other predators. And, it'll happen fairly quickly now.
Exactly. That is the end result of WDFW's inexcusable refusal to manage predators. The NE today the rest of the state tomorrow. :bash:
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Post by: jackmaster on May 31, 2016, 11:17:14 AM
Post by: bobcat on May 31, 2016, 11:31:09 AM
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on May 31, 2016, 02:13:12 PM
It's just the beginning of the tag cuts in the NE. Hunters will be systematically replaced by other predators. And, it'll happen fairly quickly now.
Exactly. That is the end result of WDFW's inexcusable refusal to manage predators. The NE today the rest of the state tomorrow. :bash:
The doe hunts will be back in a couple years. They did the same thing after the bad winters in 09-11. No big deal....
Predators are not going to kill all the deer.
Post by: pianoman9701 on May 31, 2016, 02:30:51 PM
Post by: buglebrush on May 31, 2016, 02:57:35 PM
It's just the beginning of the tag cuts in the NE. Hunters will be systematically replaced by other predators. And, it'll happen fairly quickly now.
Exactly. That is the end result of WDFW's inexcusable refusal to manage predators. The NE today the rest of the state tomorrow. :bash:
The doe hunts will be back in a couple years. They did the same thing after the bad winters in 09-11. No big deal....
Predators are not going to kill all the deer.
I personally believe it is a big deal, but not simply because we cannot hunt antlerless deer for a while. I believe it is a big deal because WDFW sees limiting hunting opportunity as a viable management method, but not increased predator harvest. It is a mindset that truly disturbs me. Now if you would add in OTC spring bear, hound hunting cats, much larger cougar quotas, and for the love of sanity let us hunt/trap wolves then I would agree with your statement.
Post by: Grizman on June 01, 2016, 07:42:01 AM
Post by: Southpole on June 01, 2016, 08:05:23 AM
Not long ago I talked with an Idaho game warden about predator control. He summed up the situation pretty well I thought. He said the "administrators have restricted predator control on bear, cougar, and wolves to the point that the only predator they can now control is the hunter". We are now raising deer and elk to feed the Bears, Cougars, and Wolves. The hunters can find something else to eat!!:yeah: Try and tell that to some of the guy's on the "Grizzly Meeting in Darrington" thread :rolleyes:
Post by: hunter399 on June 01, 2016, 08:28:42 AM
Post by: bobcat on June 01, 2016, 08:43:54 AM
I'm assuming if this proposal passes, and I assume it will, that there will be a lot of antlerless whitetail deer harvested illegally this year.
However, I do have to say, I'm glad they're doing it, if that's what needs to be done in order to bring the numbers back up. It's just unfortunate they couldn't have done this before the hunting regulation pamphlet was printed.
Post by: hunter399 on June 01, 2016, 08:46:12 AM
Post by: Southpole on June 01, 2016, 09:40:32 AM
That's the problem I have with this. How are people supposed to know that the seasons have been changed? Lots of hunters don't participate in Internet forums like this one.I've heard this song before somewhere... Oh, I know, the salmon closures >:(
I'm assuming if this proposal passes, and I assume it will, that there will be a lot of antlerless whitetail deer harvested illegally this year.
However, I do have to say, I'm glad they're doing it, if that's what needs to be done in order to bring the numbers back up. It's just unfortunate they couldn't have done this before the hunting regulation pamphlet was printed.
Post by: buglebrush on June 01, 2016, 01:16:02 PM
Not long ago I talked with an Idaho game warden about predator control. He summed up the situation pretty well I thought. He said the "administrators have restricted predator control on bear, cougar, and wolves to the point that the only predator they can now control is the hunter". We are now raising deer and elk to feed the Bears, Cougars, and Wolves. The hunters can find something else to eat!!
:yeah:. :bdid:
Post by: KFhunter on June 01, 2016, 01:29:19 PM
leaning towards blue tongue being a scape goat for too many predators issue
68 city deer in Colville dying to blue tongue doesn't = we need to stop anterless hunts :rolleyes:
Post by: hunter399 on June 01, 2016, 04:43:35 PM
Post by: JLS on June 01, 2016, 05:10:51 PM
leaning towards blue tongue being a scape goat for too many predators issue
Maybe. However, Montana FWP did some really good research on mountain whitetail population dynamics and found that you absolutely can impact the population by doe harvest. Agricultural and prairie whitetail populations are not impacted much, if at all by doe harvest. However, mountainous populations are very sensitive to the level of doe harvest.
Post by: KFhunter on June 01, 2016, 05:46:11 PM
The die offs are very localized too, around a stagnant water source usually where the gnats hover and breed. The 'mountain deer' are much less effected by blue tongue with better water sources (less biting gnats)
My concerns is that this blue tongue outbreak is being used to restrict hunting due to alarming population drops from other factors like too many predators. No one at WDFW wants to name the true culprit. Predators.
I've seen about a dozen cats this year, that's not normal.
Post by: BAR C3 on June 01, 2016, 06:00:57 PM
we were significantly hit with blue tongue.
I've seen many nice to large bucks found. It will change my hunting for the next several years. If you happen to put in for the Palouse hunt, :bdid: not only is it hard to find places to hunt, you will be lucky to shoot a quality buck.
I would have been good with them reducing these tags for the next few years as well.
Post by: hunter399 on June 01, 2016, 06:12:19 PM