ORIGINAL: bluebird2
All anyone wanting to know what the truth is would have to do is look a the data and colors on the maps I provided and then think it through with some rational thoughts.
Obviously that eliminates you and BTB from the group wanting to know the truth because you definitely didn't think it through or apply some rational thought. Instead you deny the basic premise of deer management which is that antlerless harvests are used to control the herd and prevent it from expanding to the point where natural mortality equals recruitment.
No matter how much you don’t like the data and no matter how much you wish it weren’t true that data clearly proves you are wrong about hunter harvests being the only, or even the most influential, factor controlling deer populations.
I don't dislike the data,I love it since it proves you are wrong. I do not question the validity of the data, but I do question your misguided conclusions you reach based on the data.
is you who does the spinning. Explain to us just how providing real deer harvest data could be considered as spinning things. It is what it is and no one can change the facts it provides.
The only spin in the data you provided is the worthless five year averages which you use to disguise the true effect of the antlerless harvests. The real spin is when you claim the reduced antlerless harvests are due to the habitat controlling the herd. Now here are some facts you can't change.
Some of the antlerless harvests in Elk county occurred in 1988,89 and 90 and the PGC said the harvests during that period reduced the herd by 15%.
1988-4899
1989-4353
1990-5300
Now , just 10 years later the Elk Co harvests were:
1998-2600
1999-2100
2000-2969--- This was the start of the current HR effort.
Then we have 2002 and 2003!!!
2001-4387
2002-3200
Now ,everyone can see the second highest antlerless harvest in the last 20 years occurred in 2001, instead of 20 years ago!!! And that harvest occurred after the herd had been reduced to 14 or less OWD PSM!! Now inquiring minds might ask what was the OWDD in 1987 and the answer is 33 DPSM!!!!!!
Ok, so you figure, by using your yearly harvest data, that hunters harvesting half as many antler less deer in Elk County for nearly a decade means that hunters couldn’t harvest as many for as they did back in the eighties for even two year without causing the deer numbers to plummet for the next five years? That is interesting to say the least. It is very incorrect but interesting none the less. It sure doesn’t make even a lick of sense though unless there was something other then hunters reducing the deer numbers through all of those years when hunters weren’t harvesting but half as many as they had been for years before.
What do you suppose happened to all of those deer the hunters weren’t harvesting for all of those years when hunters were only harvesting half as many as they had been before? You don’t figure aliens where stealing the deer hunters didn’t harvest or that they were migrating from Elk to Allegheny or Greene County do you? Or, do you believe those deer are still hiding here somewhere in Elk County and the hunters just can’t see them?
The fact is the hunters didn’t harvest them when they reduced the antler less harvests to only half of what the harvests once were and the deer are now gone; so where did they go since your harvest results for Elk County clearly show the hunters didn’t harvest them? You don’t seem to think the environmental conditions result in reduced deer recruitment and naturally declining deer populations so explain why the deer numbers didn’t explode with nearly a decade of greatly reduced doe harvests here in Elk County.
Just keep on posting your nonsense it is getting easier for the reasonable people to see how far off base you are with your misguided agenda every day.
R.S. Bodenhorn