Oh yeah. Your other question. The part about special hunts. I brought up the fact that many of the folks in DE who were complaining about excess deer, were the same people who did not allow hunting on their properties. Farmers in particular. My stand has always been, if you don't allow hunting to control the deer on your property, you have no right to complain.
Which brings me to another point.
This past year the legislature passed a bill allowing farmers to shoot deer, anytime during the year if they were causing "documentable damage" to crops. SeaNymph - If you want to call something BS, this is real BS. If ever there was something that was ripe for abuse, this is it. There are some provisions which must be met before a farmer can start shooting deer, but I'd be willing to wager most of 'em won't worry about a bunch of silly rules. They're going to start shooting deer. I hope it doesn't turn out to disastrous results like the PA deer situation.
To finish out my note here, DNREC stated at the meeting that many farmers and suburbanites would be open to the idea of allowing hunting provided the hunters had additional training and were "certified" by DNREC as being safe, ethical folks. Thus the idea of the Master Hunter program was born. It's not a new concept. Many European countries have used this approach for years. There are also similar programs in many other states. As I stated previously, my hope is that this past weeks hunt was a success both in deer reduction in the area, but more importantly, public perception of hunters as avaluable tool to maintain healthy wildlife populations.