A challenge to the Alt naysayers

[BTBowhunter]

Ok guys, You have pointed out every misstep Gary Alt has made, every possible downside to AR, increased doe kills, and the PGC's management plan in general. You certainly have a self proclaimed expert on the facts and figures among you.

So, we know you dont like whats being done. Lets pretend that we all wake up tomorrow and you are the official grand poobah of deer management and your wish is our command.

What would you do with or deer herd, habitat, farmers, foresters, hunters and the non hunting public?

[dvdegeorge]

4 pt AR state wide and ALLOW SUNDAY HUNTING

[deerslayer223]

DVD are you nuts? 4pt restriction?? Heck it's hard as heck with 3pt restrictions so why go to 4pt! In my opinion that would be the stupidest thing that they could possibly do!! I do like sunday hunting though good idea!

[BTBowhunter]

Slayer, He did add a at the end!

[MikeE51848]

1> Propose a 25% license fee hike.
2> Poll hunters on AR, yea or nay.
3> Shrink WMU's to at least county size, or smaller.
4> Limit tags (or seasons) on sgl's, state parks, and state forests.
5> Have independent deer survey taken.
6> Consider again, mandatory check stations. Difficult because seasons are too long and spread out. Possibly $500 fine for not reporting a deer kill or make same penalty as poaching.

[BTBowhunter]

Ok here's my (just mine) response

1 Woul leave even fewer hunters. Bad for our cause on the political front

2 Been done, AR won!

3 I AGREE, I hope it happens with time

4 Maybe a good idea in selected spots, but how would it be accomplished with existing manpower and resources.

5 unnecessary but if it happened, you don't trust the PGC, would you trust someone they hired

6 One I totally agree with. I've hunted other states and all of them had mandatory check stations

Some problems with your solutions. They are completely one sided in terms of who they serve. Your plan seems oriented toward one thing more deer. That doesn't even serve the majortiy of hunters. Not to mention the fact that you've ignored the interests of property owners who feed the herd and provide cover.

[DougE]

1.I'd love to see suday hunting but that's a legistature issue not a pgc issue.

2.The first thing I would do is manage each area according to the current population density and habitat.In doing so I would adjust the allocations,season length,and bag limit accordingly.The management units would be much smaller.It can be done,just look at states like Colorado.

3.I would also hand out a seperate doe tag with each muzzleloader stamp and each archery stamp.I doubt this would effect the resource much but it would increase hunting opportunities.

4.I would make it mandatory for each hunter to report how many deer they killed even if they didn't kill any.

[MikeE51848]

Ok, so umm, I guess you are the expert.

[Dale/PA]

Bt as for #2 I hardly call 750 people a true representation of hunters in PA. The better thing to do would have been hand out a survey with every license bought and make it mandatory to fill out. Place a fine if not. They would have all the info needed to do just that off the license application. But to say that 750 is a fair survey is wrong. In some areas some may not feel that way while in others they do. Was the survey a random sampling all over the state or just one gegraphic area? This all needs to be taken into consideration.

[BGfisher]

Allow sunday hunting.
Separate license for each season (rifle, muzzleloader, archery, etc) $40/per
Crossbow gets to share two week season with muzzleloaders (last two weeks of Nov.)
No season overlaps (no muzzleloader during archery)

And the most important: Moratorium on bucks for 2 years. Fine for illegal buck goes to $1000. No exceptions.