Is it time to pull back on the deer throttle?
I had a short blog post last week about big game kill tallies for this past season.
My column on the topic ran today in The Roanoke Times. (It was supposed to run Sunday, but did not, due to, shall we say, a communication breakdown.)
Anyway, the deer kill was down this year to its second-lowest level since 2006, and was 9 percent below the 10-year average.
We all know (or I hope we do) that the DGIF’s deer management philosophy of late has been to stabilize the herd and, in some high deer population areas, reduce the herd. Only in a few areas have regulations been adjusted to provide additional protection to female deer, which can should increase the herd size.
It appears, after we hit a record high of nearly 260,000 in 2009, we are getting there.
I’m not going to rehash specifics numbers here. You can find more in my column, and much more than that on the DGIF site, including links to historical data.
It’s not all about us hunters, of course. The DGIF has to manage the population for the overall good of the commonwealth.
My question for hunters is, what do you think about where we are with deer hunting? And the deer population? Would you like to see antlerless regs tightened, which will likely lead to more drops in kill totals but ultimately should contribute to populations growing? Or should remain relatively liberal? Or something else?
February 26, 2013 - 3:30 PM
As a Hunter that pursues the sport strictly from a National Forest perspective, I would like to see a possible antler point restriction. A trail period of 5 years or less would benefit those who doubt that a point restriction would work, and help those of us that believe it could help the overall population see if it would work. Antler points are not the only reason we go to the woods, not by far. What a point restriction could do, is allow the younger deer to live a few years, thus increasing the amount of male deer available to breed the doe population. I for one am for that 100%. Now, will it get us huge bucks to hunt, who knows the real answer here. I believe that the more a buck matures, the harder he is to hunt, the bigger his headgear will be, which is proven year after year now that trail cameras have become commonplace. Where I hunt, there is an overabundance of does, yet the regulations pertaining to their harvest is very strict. In these same areas, the buck harvest is high, I can’t tell you how many forked horn, spike, and small racked 6′s & 8′s I have on camera before the season, only to be harvested within the first few weeks of muzzleloading season, what survives that, usually doesn’t make it through the first week of Rifle, then the breeding group shrinks tremendously. I know there are other ideas out there, so I will limit my response to this one item. Thanks for reading.
I think they need to be more liberal with the doe kill and tighten the buck kill. As we all know, if you want to have big bucks, you have to get your ratio in check. In my opinion, we need to have a “earn a buck” statewide and kill a lot more does than bucks. I hunt in Botetourt County and we have a lot of deer. We legally have one day to kill does during early muzzleloading and only 5 days in late muzzleloading. That is absurd. That philosophy goes against all deer management stategies. We need to kill more does and less bucks. Why would you want to kill a spike or a 4 pointer anyway, just shoot a doe, they will taste better. We need to manage our herds better.
I think VA should look at what Iowa is doing. Shorten Firearms seasons, lengthen archery seasons, make more counties an “EAB” county AND START GIVING THE DEER AND EVERY OTHER WILDLIFE SPECIES MORE FOOD AND HABITAT ON NATIONAL FOREST LANDS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Geez, most of the nat’l forests are deserts when it comes to food and habitat, with the majority of what is there being hard mast. Just a side note, the grouse population has gone to pot simply because they have no food and cover,so they get picked off easily by predators. Select cut more timber and use prescribed control burns to encourage growth on the forest floors. This provides more food and habitat for everything. If this is done, then I think we will see the VA deer population balance out instead of having pockets of high numbers near urban developments and private properties. AND in my opinion, the overall deer pop would grow and the bag limits could be left alone, just adjust how a hunter obtains that limit (EAB, one buck for each firearm season, promote shooting does over yearling and young bucks).
It’s time to kill off about HALF of the entire deer population in Virginia. Between record numbers hit on the roads, tens of thousands eating in yards and gardens, mismanagement by the VGIF morons that have more than doubled the numbers of deer in the past 30 years, and dummies feeding them in their yards, if you have to ask “Why?” then you must have flunked your I. Q. test in elementary school just like the wildlife “managers” of the VGIF did!
Everyone will have an opinion on this one I think and they will probably be all different! We are managing herds now by the number of doe days allowed in an area. Many states do this differently and manage by a total number of doe tags for each area. I think the latter gives you more control, especially over the weather in areas that have very limited number of doe days. You would need to have game management units (maybe on the county or 2 county size) and I think we would need to increase the budget of the DGIF to allow for this micromanagement!
My second suggestion would be to have a statewide antler restriction on your 2nd and 3rd bucks, maybe we shouldn’t have that third buck tag either!
I am not sure all areas of National Forest need to be EAB. I hunt two specific areas, approx 6-8 miles from one another. I have operated 8 or so trail cameras on each area for the past 3-4 years. Each area I monitor is a little larger than one square mile. In both of these locations the last several years, I have consistently marked a minimum of 15+ bucks. Each area has also held 3-4 very mature bucks (guesing by body size and headgear). These areas have hunting pressure, huge stands of 75+yr old oak groves as well as 10+ year old clearcuts. The Topography goes from riverbottom to Mountains. These locations are very diverse in topography and available cover and food. I realize that not all National Forest offers what I have successfully found. I used Topo maps to find these places, and I have used the last 8 years to key in on the deer herd and learn where and when to put up my cameras to get a good feel of the existing herd each year. EAB would not work in these areas, in fact, after most of the season was over, I successfully received pictures of11 of the 15 bucks I had mark in my favorite area. The other area, receives considerably more hunting pressure, but I still was able to get pictures of 9 bucks there that I had seen before the season. SO to some, I would ask, how are their hunting methods, to others, I realize conditions do not exist to bear optimum herd to chase. I am for point restrictions, just not sure EAB would be good in some areas.
Western VA had bad winters in 2009 & 2010 that killed a LOT of wildlife – except bears. The survivors were few everywhere but the suburbs & towns where food was plentiful in the “lowlands”. This was the second year of recovery and thing should improve slowly but the coyotes & HD disease are increasing. An 8 pt. restriction would work well on NF lands. Also, I bet many, many, many called in “bucks” this year were really does – how easy it is to do so and only have the cut up meat to HAVE to show.
You can still drive rural roads and see herds of 30,40, and 50 deer grazing meadows and rye fields. The deer have eaten the browse out of the mountains which is one reason they have moved out of the National Forest woodlands and have to rely on agricultural lands to feed. I believe the pressure should continue to lower the population to bring the herd into a long term equilibrium. It is hard to find young oak trees in the mountains today. What kind of forest will be here in 75 years.