Free: Contests & Raffles.
Looks like you can’t bone them out either. That stinks. 1 deer limit should greatly reduce the amount of people going up there that are on a tight budget.
The most likely reason to reduce the limit on Kodiak is that the deer herd is down. It's happened before and will happen again. Kodiak deer population fluctuates greatly with the biggest factor being bad snow years, not charter hunting. More deer die from starvation than get taken by hunters in a bad snow year. I have seen them extend the season a couple weeks to a month when they see they are going to have a bad winter kill. It's better to trim the herd early so the remaining deer aren't competing for available food with so many other deer. All areas in Alaska that have deer are subject to bad winter kill, but Kodiak especially has a problem in that there are few conifers and the the few conifers there are are mostly on the far north end of the island. Conifers create a canopy which helps keep snow off the ground, which makes it easier for deer to get around and to find food. One of the winter sources of food is Old Man's Beard, a lichen that grows on the local Spruce trees. I've watched deer pull it off of low hanging branches while feeding. Another important winter food is blueberry bushes. That might be their favorite when they can get at it, and there tends to be more blueberries where the spruce trees grow on Kodiak and especially Afognak and Shuyak Islands. The deer on those two islands generally survive a bad snow year better than on Kodiak itself. As the deer herd fluctuates, so do limits. I've seen the limit as high as 7 deer, either sex, down to two or three deer, bucks only. In 1981, my second year living in Kodiak, the limit was 7 and it wasn't uncommon to see a group of hunters come to town on a seiner or crabber with 40-50 deer hanging in the rigging or stacked on deck. But in the lean years following a die-off, Limits are cut and like most other States, non resident tags get cut more, to allow local hunters access to local meat. Those deer were planted on Kodiak and in Prince William Sound so the locals would have a local source of protein in a place where groceries are notoriously high. They don't mind sharing when times are good, but when hunting is lean, the locals are favored when setting limits. Understandably.
That was my 1st thought but it appears that's not the case. My understanding after reading the info today is that this had nothing to do with deer management, it was 100% people management, there were basically too many people (non residents), too many transporters and boats working the island. There was too much pressure and the easiest way to reduce the number of NR was to lower the tags available. I think it will work, I will go again, but less likely to make it a priority with only 1 tag in my pocket.
A lot of locals have been calling for this for awhile.
Quote from: Sundance on March 24, 2023, 07:08:17 AMA lot of locals have been calling for this for awhile.It's not going to do a thing about the Railbelt hunters coming down from Fairbanks, The Mat Valley and Anchorage though and that is where most off island hunters come from, not non residents.
At least we have strong blacktail numbers I guess.
