I have been looking for a forum of Florida deer hunters whom seem to be a good cross section and this one seems good.

Are you aware the FWC is in the midst of a reveiw of "deer management" in Florida which could result in a new "program" by mid summer?

Some facts to consider. Deer hunting drives license sales in most states. Florida license sales have declined from about 250,000 a few years ago to 135,000. Although most states have some degree of decline, stillhighly populated states, even in the north such as Ohio, put 400,000 to 1 million LICENSE BUYING hunters in the field on opening day of deer season. The Florida decline is in the face of a almost doubling of the population....We all know the "retirement" demographics of Florida, but many of the new residents are young and do (or did) hunt.

Why the rapid decline in deer hunters in Florida?

The "antis" are on the march, placing anti hunting measures on state ballots...ie: the elimination of dove hunting in Michigan by a two to one margin this Nov. (and Michigan has a lot of hunters!). What do you think could happen if "hunting" was on the Florida ballot with such low sales of licenses?

Now the hard question...how do we get at least a new batch of 100,000 license buyers in Florida pronto (five years orless)to stop the decline and begin to rebuild political clout?

In other words, since deer hunting drives sales....how does the current program in Florida need to be changed?

There will be a period of "public comment" before the new plan is put in place...set for July.