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Old 02-19-2007 | 08:24 AM
  #116  
R.S.B.
Typical Buck
 
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Default RE: PGC SAYS DEER ARE STARVING
ORIGINAL: sproulman

ORIGINAL: germain

If it's close to williamsport sproul it could simply be one of those areas with easy access near a populated area that gets hammered keeping the number of deer very low.That does happen.
this is where sproul disagrees with r.s.b..you can have best habitat in elk county butifoverharvest of the older doe and hunters are shooting fawns, you will not have much of a recuritment next year..

habitat and weather are notonly factors, OVERHARVEST OF OLDERDOE/FAWNS is the main reason, i feel that we are seeing less fawns..

Certainly an over harvest of does will result in fewer deer but the facts of the scientific research indicate that the does were not over harvested and were much more likely to have seriously under harvested.

Elk County is much like the area where they have been doing one of the doe mortality studies in the fact it has large remote areas. Where they had the does collared, with mortality sensor collars, and could prove if they were still living or dead it was determined that the hunters in the remote areas were harvesting less then 11 out of every 100 does. That hardly sounds like an over harvest of the does.

In the easy access area of the state where they are also monitoring the doe harvests with mortality sensor collars the hunters are harvesting less then 19 out of every 100 does. So it doesn’t appear that hunters are over harvesting the deer in that area either.

In the areas of the state with unlimited antlerless license and where hunters have been legally permitted to harvest more does then they can squirrels the deer populations and deer harvests have both been steadily increasing. The deer populations have been increasing there because they have harvested enough deer for the past fifteen to twenty years to protect the food supply, which keeps the deer healthy enough to have high fawn recruitment.

Here let me show you the antlerless harvests for a few counties over the past twenty years or so and then you tell us how they have over harvested the does in your home county of Clinton or in my area of Elk County.

All of the data is in harvests per square mile so it can be compared in an equal manner.

County………….…….82-86…….……87-91………..….92-96………..….97-01

Allegheny……………..1.5……………..2.5â €¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦6.8……………...8.1
Elk…………………….3.3……………..5. 3………………4.0……………...3.2
Cameron………………3.2……………..5.4†¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦2.0……………...1.5
Clinton………………...2.4……………..4. 0………………1.8……………...1.9

Go ahead and explain to use how they have been able to harvest three or four times as many does per square mile in and around the city street of Pittsburgh for over ten years, without over harvesting the does, while harvesting less then two does per square mile is an over harvest in the remote areas of Clinton and Cameron County.

The plain and simple fact is that all of the real evidence of the matter indicates that you can’t over harvest the deer populations where they live in suitable habitat to support more deer. The facts of the evidence also prove that hunters are not over harvesting the deer in the remote counties of this state and most likely aren’t over harvesting the deer anywhere in the state. The facts of the evidence go on to further prove that where hunters fail, or refuse, to harvest enough does the deer will damage their own food supply and then lower their own populations with reduced fawn survival rates.

It is also very obvious, to those willing to pull their head out of the sand, that the under harvesting of the does has been the greatest folly and mistake in the history of deer management in this state. If we had spent the past half century protecting the food supply instead of the does we would have a lot more deer then we have today. If we don’t start protecting the habitat and food supply now we are also going to have even fewer deer in the future then we have now.

Those are the facts the deer are telling us; we just need to be smart enough to listen to all of the facts they have been proving to us over the years. If we refuse to be that smart we will have fewer deer and less hunting opportunity in the future.

R.S. Bodenhorn

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