Quote:
Originally Posted by surhuntsalot
A few years ago when there was a severe winterkill in the Peace Country, and claims reported of up to 80% in some areas, licences alloted went virtually unchanged. Does this mean the winterkill wasn't that sever ? Was the original amount of tags much lower than it could have been ? Did someone drop the ball and forget to reduce the amount of tags given out ?
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I spoke with some F&W staff regarding this topic and what I heard is that they didn't want to be too quick to cut tag numbers b/c all it would take is a good winter and spring and mule deer #s would have been through the roof again causing all the same headaches as before. Seemed logical to me. There were, and still are plenty of mule deer to be found up here....not as many as 2005, 2006 but I don't think that's a bad thing.
It's interesting how 6 years ago many hunters complained that there is just too many damn muley does and no good bucks....now after some years of aggressive antlerless tag numbers many hunters complain that all the mule deer are gone. 'Round and 'round we go.
I too have more faith in our wildlife bios to trust that they are not creating situations to keep themselves employed.
I also like to get together with my hunting buddies and complain about how descisions made by "dem gov'ment folks"
aren't the best for me and my personal interests, but I can live with that, the resource is managed for more than just me.
Some earlier posts also hit the nail on the head that Fish and Wildlife needs more funding to conduct more surveys. I think this is very important. I also think that habitat degradation, loss, fragmentation (pick one) is and will continue to contribute to more lost opportunities than what some speculate as "mismanagement."
well, that's my piece...