RE: ohio proposes rules to thin herd
It sounds like Ohio is going to follow suit w/ PA. You may want to investigate the reasoning behind the additional tags. Ohio has very rich soil compared to PA. Our problem is habitat degredation by overbrowsing.
Some areas like Allegheny co. have way too many deer and they hire sharpshooters to cull the herd because access is limited and bowhunters can't kill enough does. You can get 10 doe tags there.
Other Northern big woods counties have had the habitat destroyed by deer and PA. issued additional tags to bring the herd and habitat in balance,(much to the dismay of some hunters). The problem is that it will take many years for the habitat to rebound and deer numbers are less than some hunters want. Once the habitat repairs itself it will then have the ability to hold more deer.Carrying capacity is very low in some northern areas.
The other thing Oh. does not have is 2 weeks of concurrent buck/doe rifle season. It seems to be mostly gun hunters that compain the most here in PA. My point bieng that bowhunters in PA don't complain about lack of deer so much even w/ the herd here bieng less than it was. It's because of the time spent and the methods we use.I really don't think you'll notice much difference, if statewide, Oh takes 10 or 20,000 additional does out of the herd.Because of the fertile farm land,fawn recruitment will remain good.
The Oh. div. of wildlife knows something we don't. I would check it out.
There may be habitat problems or something of that nature to prompt such a move.
Whatever you do ...don't let it become a bickering match like here in PA.