AWHOLELOTTABULL
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 4,357
A friend of mine sent me this and asked if I would post it up here. He has been involved with mule deer conservation since before I shot my first gun. I trust his information and support it wholeheartedly. I honestly think this warrants some serious support from sportsmen and women across the state! For all you conservation organization opponents, this is what you've been asking for. It is a sportsmans voice for conservation without a fee or a free knife or a magazine for your membership. These sportsmen and women post this for one reason and one reason only. Read it and then you can decide what that reason is.
And I quote:
"Last year the sportsmen in South East and Southern Regions became alarmed at the continued decline of the deer herds on the public lands found in there regions. Some of these folks started asking each other if there was any chance anything could be done. Many were concerned that a new five year mule deer plan has been adopted but were still fearful the plan was not going to stop the decline in the southern herds. After much discussion with sportsmen from Price, GreenRiver, Mt. Pleasant, Moab, Monticello, Blanding, St. George, Kanab, Beaver, Cedar City, Delta, Richfield, Fillmore, Nephi, Salina, Monroe, Panguitch and Parawan it became clear that hunters concerns had shifted.
Back in the 1980 and 1900 the sportsmen from the communities were seeing thousands upon thousands of deer on the southern public lands. In Dec and January a trip from Nephi to Gunnison in early morning or late evening people could see between 2 and 3 thousand deer feeding east of the highway, against the foothills. The same was true between Fillmore and Cedar City. If there was 100 deer there were 2 to 4 thousand. A winter drive down highway 89 from Salina to Panguitch was the same give or take a few hundred deer. The winter range of the Fishlake and the Monroe held thousand of deer.
However, there was a problem, hunters were harvesting 60,000 to 80,000 bucks per year during those years. The herds of deer, by official counts done by the DWR, not computer models, but field counts, reported many of these areas held a ration of 1.5 to 5 buck per hundred doe and the fawn to doe ratios were falling. BLM and Forest Service biologist came to sportsmen and said: "the Federal Agencies are not allowed to give big game recommendations except to say if the habitat is been over used by big game but you should know that you have an unhealthy deer herd and you'd better put some pressure on your State Agency to correct these skewed ratios or you a going to loose your herds."
At the same time (remember Governor Leavitt completely re-organized the DWR right after he was elected, as a result of sportsmen dissatisfaction, he replaced the directors, reassigned the big game supervisor (Anis's position), in all some 30 or 40 DNR and DWR administrators and managers were forced to retire, leave or take a different job within the Agency. Hunting license sales had dropped from a high of 228,907 in 1983, to 140,701 in 1993. Remember, these 88,206 hunters quite hunting, not because they couldn't hunt but because they lost the desire to hunt. In those years deer tags were sold over the counter, the DWR sold a deer tag to anyone and everyone that had $15.00. Hunters were so dissatisfied they just "gave up". This took place for one reason, thousand of does, it could be argued there where over a million deer in Utah at that time, (not the 600,000 they use as the number we had, now) but there were so few bucks it was driving sportsmen crazy. If you think Utah is a pumpkin patch now, imagine 228,000 hunters, talk about a gauntlet for bucks to live through, it was impossible, and every one knew it. They knew it because they would see from 300 to 600 deer a day and "few or no bucks".
Now to the point. In those days sportsmen wanted more bucks, more bucks to breed the does and raise the falling fawn/doe ratio. More bucks to harvest.
That is not what Southern and Southeast sportsmen are asking the DWR for today, in spite of what their current campaign is claiming. Now, more harvest and higher buck doe ratios are the least is that what the sportsmen from these Southern communities are asking for.
These sportsmen went to the two Southern RAC and the Wildlife Board last year and basically said this.
We are very fearful that we are loosing our entire deer herd. We think there are so many things that are causing the decline that we cannot identify a single cause because we think it is because of a lot of different reasons. What's more, we think there are different reason for the decline in all the different herds. One herd my be loosing deer to highway/freeway traffic, another herd is not effected by highways at all. Another herd may have excess predation from coyotes, an other herd, not. One herd may have no areas to escape hunter pressure because the entire unit is covered in road and atv trails, another her, not. Therefore, we think the only way we can address this complicated environment is to attempt to address the unique needs of each herd independently, in other words, individual herd unit management.
Secondly, sportsmen knew that some units might need reduced hunting pressure, they knew that that would reduce hunter opportunity. They also knew that fewer hunters would mean that we would have to hold harmless the revenue for the DWR and said as much, suggesting that the cost of hunting deer may have to increase if we were going to grow these herds. These sportsmen, with children and youth hunters too, decided it was worth the extra cost of a permit and the lost of some hunting opportunity, at least until the herds could be grown to produce more does, more fawns, which in turn would provide more bucks that could eventually be harvested.
It was not about more inches, more trophies, it was 100% about growing deer herds. While there may be less habitat in northern Utah due to development, there is not less habitat in the Southern and South East Regions. Southern sportsmen believe southern herds can and should be increased in numbers.
If the northern sportsmen, the northern landowners and the State's archery organizations are so sure there are surplus deer in northern Utah and if they accept the DWR claims, as they claim they do. If the northern sportsmen think that their units are not able to sustain more does and fawns, if they think they have enough bucks in their herds, the southern sportsmen have no quarrel with the northern sportsmen. The northern sportsmen know their environment and the conditions of their herds better than the southern sportsmen could possibly know. So if they have all they want and can have, they should continue to manage their herds and manage their hunters as they currently are.
As for the southern sportsmen, they want more deer, more natural ratios and sufficient fawn production and survival to increase our deer numbers.
Therefore we would call on all sportsmen in the State to support the southern sportsmen to petition the Wildlife Board to implement herd unit management of our deer. Let the northern unit alone, if that is best for them and for northern hunter but please support the southern regions in what they believe to be necessary to make sure we have a deer herd to hunt for our children and grandchildren.
There is no leadership in this movement, there are no meetings to attend or planning to be done, there are no memberships, no fees to pay, nothing to join or belong to, they are not a special interest group, you will not find anyone to approach or contact to get an "official statement" it has a nothing to do with SFW, MDF, or other organizations have not been contacted or asked for support, they are just a lot of people with a lot of different ideas that are convinced that we have come to a place in time when we must manage our deer more individually and more aggressively. The southern sportsmen will make that very clear to the southern RACs and to the Wildlife Board.
Southern sportsmen hope the northern sportsmen will accept our position as we accept and appreciate theirs. We look forward to a united effort at the remaining RAC meeting and the WildLife Board meeting in December.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
Utah's Unorganized and Undefined Sportsmen and Women"
And I quote:
"Last year the sportsmen in South East and Southern Regions became alarmed at the continued decline of the deer herds on the public lands found in there regions. Some of these folks started asking each other if there was any chance anything could be done. Many were concerned that a new five year mule deer plan has been adopted but were still fearful the plan was not going to stop the decline in the southern herds. After much discussion with sportsmen from Price, GreenRiver, Mt. Pleasant, Moab, Monticello, Blanding, St. George, Kanab, Beaver, Cedar City, Delta, Richfield, Fillmore, Nephi, Salina, Monroe, Panguitch and Parawan it became clear that hunters concerns had shifted.
Back in the 1980 and 1900 the sportsmen from the communities were seeing thousands upon thousands of deer on the southern public lands. In Dec and January a trip from Nephi to Gunnison in early morning or late evening people could see between 2 and 3 thousand deer feeding east of the highway, against the foothills. The same was true between Fillmore and Cedar City. If there was 100 deer there were 2 to 4 thousand. A winter drive down highway 89 from Salina to Panguitch was the same give or take a few hundred deer. The winter range of the Fishlake and the Monroe held thousand of deer.
However, there was a problem, hunters were harvesting 60,000 to 80,000 bucks per year during those years. The herds of deer, by official counts done by the DWR, not computer models, but field counts, reported many of these areas held a ration of 1.5 to 5 buck per hundred doe and the fawn to doe ratios were falling. BLM and Forest Service biologist came to sportsmen and said: "the Federal Agencies are not allowed to give big game recommendations except to say if the habitat is been over used by big game but you should know that you have an unhealthy deer herd and you'd better put some pressure on your State Agency to correct these skewed ratios or you a going to loose your herds."
At the same time (remember Governor Leavitt completely re-organized the DWR right after he was elected, as a result of sportsmen dissatisfaction, he replaced the directors, reassigned the big game supervisor (Anis's position), in all some 30 or 40 DNR and DWR administrators and managers were forced to retire, leave or take a different job within the Agency. Hunting license sales had dropped from a high of 228,907 in 1983, to 140,701 in 1993. Remember, these 88,206 hunters quite hunting, not because they couldn't hunt but because they lost the desire to hunt. In those years deer tags were sold over the counter, the DWR sold a deer tag to anyone and everyone that had $15.00. Hunters were so dissatisfied they just "gave up". This took place for one reason, thousand of does, it could be argued there where over a million deer in Utah at that time, (not the 600,000 they use as the number we had, now) but there were so few bucks it was driving sportsmen crazy. If you think Utah is a pumpkin patch now, imagine 228,000 hunters, talk about a gauntlet for bucks to live through, it was impossible, and every one knew it. They knew it because they would see from 300 to 600 deer a day and "few or no bucks".
Now to the point. In those days sportsmen wanted more bucks, more bucks to breed the does and raise the falling fawn/doe ratio. More bucks to harvest.
That is not what Southern and Southeast sportsmen are asking the DWR for today, in spite of what their current campaign is claiming. Now, more harvest and higher buck doe ratios are the least is that what the sportsmen from these Southern communities are asking for.
These sportsmen went to the two Southern RAC and the Wildlife Board last year and basically said this.
We are very fearful that we are loosing our entire deer herd. We think there are so many things that are causing the decline that we cannot identify a single cause because we think it is because of a lot of different reasons. What's more, we think there are different reason for the decline in all the different herds. One herd my be loosing deer to highway/freeway traffic, another herd is not effected by highways at all. Another herd may have excess predation from coyotes, an other herd, not. One herd may have no areas to escape hunter pressure because the entire unit is covered in road and atv trails, another her, not. Therefore, we think the only way we can address this complicated environment is to attempt to address the unique needs of each herd independently, in other words, individual herd unit management.
Secondly, sportsmen knew that some units might need reduced hunting pressure, they knew that that would reduce hunter opportunity. They also knew that fewer hunters would mean that we would have to hold harmless the revenue for the DWR and said as much, suggesting that the cost of hunting deer may have to increase if we were going to grow these herds. These sportsmen, with children and youth hunters too, decided it was worth the extra cost of a permit and the lost of some hunting opportunity, at least until the herds could be grown to produce more does, more fawns, which in turn would provide more bucks that could eventually be harvested.
It was not about more inches, more trophies, it was 100% about growing deer herds. While there may be less habitat in northern Utah due to development, there is not less habitat in the Southern and South East Regions. Southern sportsmen believe southern herds can and should be increased in numbers.
If the northern sportsmen, the northern landowners and the State's archery organizations are so sure there are surplus deer in northern Utah and if they accept the DWR claims, as they claim they do. If the northern sportsmen think that their units are not able to sustain more does and fawns, if they think they have enough bucks in their herds, the southern sportsmen have no quarrel with the northern sportsmen. The northern sportsmen know their environment and the conditions of their herds better than the southern sportsmen could possibly know. So if they have all they want and can have, they should continue to manage their herds and manage their hunters as they currently are.
As for the southern sportsmen, they want more deer, more natural ratios and sufficient fawn production and survival to increase our deer numbers.
Therefore we would call on all sportsmen in the State to support the southern sportsmen to petition the Wildlife Board to implement herd unit management of our deer. Let the northern unit alone, if that is best for them and for northern hunter but please support the southern regions in what they believe to be necessary to make sure we have a deer herd to hunt for our children and grandchildren.
There is no leadership in this movement, there are no meetings to attend or planning to be done, there are no memberships, no fees to pay, nothing to join or belong to, they are not a special interest group, you will not find anyone to approach or contact to get an "official statement" it has a nothing to do with SFW, MDF, or other organizations have not been contacted or asked for support, they are just a lot of people with a lot of different ideas that are convinced that we have come to a place in time when we must manage our deer more individually and more aggressively. The southern sportsmen will make that very clear to the southern RACs and to the Wildlife Board.
Southern sportsmen hope the northern sportsmen will accept our position as we accept and appreciate theirs. We look forward to a united effort at the remaining RAC meeting and the WildLife Board meeting in December.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
Utah's Unorganized and Undefined Sportsmen and Women"
