PSE, you are right that everyone has to do their part. I'm fed up with hearing about people who are "too proud" to shoot a doe, often those same people aren't too proud to shoot a scrubby little fork horn year after year, or to shoot multiple bucks for others in their party to tag (therefore they don't get to kill their own deer, and it effictively ends their hunt).
Unlimited doe tags have been proven not to work, but I bet if there were unlimited buck tags they would be flying over the counters at the local registration station. People don't see doe as a trophy, it doesn't make them a man, but that little six point who is dumber than dumb, is a big testosterone boost, something to brag about at the bar. I hunt with guys like that, they worry about nothing but their own ego and absolutely can't handle the thought of not getting a buck. We do an "8 point/outside the ears" on our farm, and a couple of guys always say they are going to hold out for something bigger (lots of 3 1/2's and older around) but each year they shoot that 15" 8 point and each year say "oh he looked so much bigger before I shot". B.S. the thought of NOT getting a buck because if they let this one walk is too much for their fragile egos to handle.
Fraley you are right too, each year for the last 10-15 we harvest around that 400K mark, yet anytime EAB is brought up people say there aren't any deer. I didn't see many deer in my stand location the past two years, but that doesn't mean there aren't deer 200 yards away. My area has grown from a semi-clearcut to a very brushy area with lots of 20' sapplings. I just can't see or shoot the deer from that spot anymore but we are crowded during gun season so I need to stay put and hope I get a shot. I don't think most "hunters" even think of the environmental changes, or even where crops are planted, when they talk about seeing deer or not.
The fact of the matter is that EAB is the only way to force hunters to shoot does. I'm all for it in the areas of the state that need it, and in most other places it wouldn't be a bad thing to do it once every 4-5 years. It will keep the herd in balance. I remember hunting in the 80's and have dozens of doe parade past, but you were extremely lucky to see a buck of any size. EAB helped change that.