Year……………….1 ½ year old buck harvest……………….2 ½ and older bucks harvested
1998.……………………146,700.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.......34,749
1999.……………………155,429.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.......38,942
2000.……………………165,960.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.......37,261
2001.……………………159,392.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.......43,855
2002.……………………112,809.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.......52,607
2003.…………………….80,276.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........61,994
2004.…………………….62,011.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........62,399
2005.…………………….62,540.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........57,961
2006.…………………….75,762.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........59,528
2007.…………………….61,152.…………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦........48,048
As anyone being objective can see from the comparison of the number of 1 ½ year old bucks being harvested in the years prior to 2002 and those harvested during the 2002 season it is simply not realistic to believe that 50% of the 1 ½ year old bucks were protected from harvest in that 2002 season.
We harvested 52.6K 2.5+ buck in 2002 so at least 65K buck had to be carried over from 2001. If you add the 65K buck carried over to the 1.5 buck harvested of 159K you get a PS 1.5 buck population of 224K 1.5 buck. if we had the same number of PS 1.5 buck in 2002 as in 2001 then the 2002 harvest did in fact protect 50% of the 1.5 buck.
One other thing that any objective person should be able to see is just how Bluebird cherry picks data and misrepresents it in order to make it seem like it supports his misguided agenda when in reality it doesn’t support his point if you fully evaluate and understand the real facts and the rest of the story along with the data.
Any objective person would also note how RSB tries to use data from 2G with the lowest harvest rates in the state as representative of the entire state. The simple fact is that the NC counties of 2G constitute a small percentage of the buck killed statewide and the conditions that effect the buck harvest in 2G are not representative of the rest of the state.