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Originally Posted by Deer Hunter
Attached is a letter I wrote regarding how the archery mule deer draw was imo improperly forced on resident hunters without first considering other users.
I thought some on here may like to read my take on the story. From the letter...
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Key Take Aways Based on the Proposed Wildlife Management Change – Antlered Mule Deer Archery to Draw -AESRD
1. ESRD is restricting resident harvest rates to manage antlered mule deer without first considering other groups in which some have “unlimited” quotas.
2. ESRD is using the 15% archery harvest hurdle to force resident archers into a mule deer draw on certain WMU’s but have not added other harvest groups to the “total harvest” denominator.
3. ERSD has not finalized the five year outfitter allocation process but is moving quickly to meet harvest goals by restricting resident harvest and or opportunity.
4. ESRD has not published or assembled harvest data for outfitters and landowners yet is quick to use the 25% participation GHS data to restrict resident archery harvest.
Further, 16,716 resident bowhunters hunted in mule deer in 2011 (under the general archery season). This compares to 13,454 succesful applicants in the antlered mule deer special license (- rifle season, out of 64,519 applications). This shows that there are more hunters utilizing the general bowhunting antlered mule deer opportunity than are currently successful in the resident/non-resident antlered mule deer (rifle) draw system.
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Also attached is the AESRD proposal that I quote numerous times in the letter.
Again, this is my interpretation of the injustice that has lead to this proposed change. |
The number of Bowhunters ESRD calculated to have hunted Mule Deer in 2011 was 8,130, not 16,716.
I question confidence levels on this number from ESRD for these reasons. ESRD is assuming that 100% of bowhunters that purchased a General Mule Deer licence actually bowhunted for Antlered Mule Deer with this tag. I highly doubt that is the case as people may not have hunted Mule deer at all, or used the tag in WMUs that do not have a draw for Antlered Mule deer. It seems to me that ESRD has chosen an unrealistic but simple method to show the highest possible number of bowhunters hunting Antlered mule deer.
From ESRD
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Licence Information
For the 2011 hunting season, there were 105,389 resident hunters (including resident youth), of which 6,928 only purchased the game bird licence which indicates there were 98,461 resident big game hunters in 2011. Of all resident big game hunters in 2011, 16,716 hunters also purchased bow hunting permits, which is 17% of big game hunters. Of the resident hunters which purchased bow hunting permits 8,130 also purchased either the Resident Mule Deer Licence (n=7,524) or the Youth Mule Deer Licence (n=606).
This indicates that in 2011, of the 16,716 resident bow hunters just under 50% (48.6%) hunted mule deer during a general archery season. Based on hunter licence data for
2011, approximately 8.3% of resident big game hunters, hunted mule deer during an archery season under the provisions of a General Mule Deer Licence. Information on hunting licences was obtained from licence sales through Alberta RELM.
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