Here are the facts: Looking at the preliminary results from the 9-day gun hunt (does not include bow,muzzleloader,doe-only,youth,or late season) on the DNR website, we will still harvest more deer than any other year previous to 1989. Add in all of those other hunts and we will still be in the top 10 harvests of all time, and will easily top that 1989 mark, the first year to ever go over 300,000. Many people talk about the good old days. Even in this down year we are blowing the good old days away. Memories fail, and people get spoiled very quickly.
I see what you are saying, but two more current issues come to the forefront:
[ol][*]The DNR had
INCREASED the number of units on the Earn-a-Buck "watchlist" for 2009 supposedly because the deer population was
HIGHER than last year in most units.[*]The above notwithstanding, the harvest this year was 20%
lower than last year, despite weather being reasonable, and slightly
more licenses being sold than in 2007.[/ol]
The bottom line is that the DNR grossly overestimated the deer population this year, and is now facing a backlash due to setting the expectation among hunters that there were a lot more deer out there.
...and frankly, they deserve the backlash by missing out on the population estimate by such a wide margin.