What do you think?

[JamesM]

After reading the post on youngbucks thread and seeing the responses from fellow mm it got me thinking. Deer, elk, moose, or whatever the species may be that struggle in the winter months are in a critical stage of survival. Need not to be disturbed or harassed in there weak stage in there life cycle. So here is my story three sundays ago it was overcast breezy and on the cold side. I decide to go for a drive that I have wanted to check out for awhile now. I take the old lund highway from beryl ut to enoch ut, I live in southern utah by the way. Instead of taking the freeway home I took highway 56. When I was about ten miles or so from new castle I noticed a helicopter flying and landing and taking off in my horizon. I saw it do this several times before I got to new castle. Stopped off at the gas station and there was a dwr vehicle there. Me being curious I struck up a conversation with the guy in it and made a comment about the chopper. He than told me that they were catching deer on the winter range and putting collars on them for research. Chatted for min than headed home. So my question why is it frowned on to hunt horns in late jan early feb but dwr chases down deer with a helicopter nets them takes samples than place a collar and turn them loose. On there winter range In these critical months of winter? But going out and picking up a little bone is bad?

 

[idahoan]

I totally see what your saying But they do that because they can collar deer that go back to areas that make it very difficult for them to collar deer at other times of the year. But it is a very stressful I would imagine for them?

 

[hornhunter247]

it's because the animals are not hurting or weak like some people try to say. the point the anti sheders started trying to make years ago is shed hunting pushes the animals off the winter range before there is an adequate food supply in their summer range. but there is far worse problems apparently than shed hunters, maybe we should start protesting the dwr!

 

[PrestigeWorldWide]

Thats a good thing you bring up,I think most of these guys on this site side with the fish and game,I on the other hand dont ,My opinion is that nobody on Foot can harass deer enuff to cause stress that they would kill over,I too am from so.utah and most of the time we have mild winters Now snow mobiles and four wheelers, I believe you can push them to the extreme, but until the fish and game have some type of reward system that rewards the guy who calls in the idiots that harass, its not going to stop, not even if you close it off to a season for sheds,The solution is reward 50% of the fine to the guy who reports it and shows proof of the person harassing and that will end it fast, I myself would have made more this weekend then I do all week working, What a pretty good side job,

 

[PrestigeWorldWide]

I forgot that last year I reported to arizona game and fish that there were people blazing ass thru the trees , I gave them the exact area and told them what camps were doing it , they replied back, that it was the forest service's job to catch them driving off road and trails, and that they were totaly not even interested, Now it doesnt take too many brain cells to figure out that all the Twig Pigs are working in the National Parks during the winter ,so unless you drive off road in the middle of a national park they are never going to catch you outside of a park, most of these guys they hire during the summer months ,

 

[Longun]

Typical Marxism.......DON'T DO AS I DO...DO AS I SAY....

 

[Daxter]

The fish and game might go put collars on deer or do survey work in a specific area one day a year. Is it stressful to deer? You bet, but once a year is a lot different than hard core shedders hounding deer from mid-January to May. Also, wildlife management activities that can stress animals are done to help the herd in the long run, not just so biologists can have a good time. Any extra stress on animals in the winter is a bad thing, but sometimes it is justifiable, other times it isn't.

Dax

 

[IDBoneCollector]

Ok just my two cents. I agree that not ever the most intense shed hunter "on foot" can even come close to putting enough stress on a herd of deer or elk to the point they leave or die from stress because of someone walking around in the hill every day. As for what the F&G are doing I would agree is more stressfull but I still see quite a few deer still alive with radio collars so i assume they must even be able to survive such an encounter. As I see it the information they get from collard deer is a very valuable tool in manageing and tracking wild life. As for you people who think their should be a shed season starting April 1st that is exactly what we need more government involvement, ohh joy! The only animal up here in Idaho that I have seen "winter kill" from human activity on the deer and elk's winter range is the wonderful wolf, which I might add I have been hearing they have had a real bad winter this year Ohh poor things, just too much lead in their diet! Now people get off your motorised vehicles and do some walking. OK I feel better now.

 

[PrestigeWorldWide]

Daxter thinks that all studys on wildlife from the fish and game have a positive out come, Dude what dream did you just wake up from. Id say at best the out come gets covered up if its negative just like all other gov. agency's..

 

[Daxter]

Hey BoatsandHoes,
Yeah I never said that "all FnG studies have a positive outcome". I just think trying to learn more about animals so they can be better managed is more easily justified than going shed hunting during a hard winter. But hey I'm just dreaming! Maybe wildlife management is just a big conspiracy, probably the same guys that faked Obama's birth certificate are running the FnG studies.

 

[Pooner]

+1 Daxter, well put