"I believe the internet message boards also make it appear as though there is more opposition to the present management objectives then there was in the past"
Your joking right? In the past the head of the pgc deer program didnt need to wear bullet proof vests! (LOLOLOLOL)
Nope not joking at all.
For one thing the past head of the deer management programs never went out to the public to explain the need for new deer management goals and objectives. For most of my career the WCOs didn’t wear vests either but we do now because we have them available. Any officer, ordeer management spokes person,who doesn’t wear one is taking unnecessary chances that they will not encounter some nut case.
Pgc wasnt being sued by sportsments groups.
I guess you don’t know much about past deer management history. The Court was compelled to provide a ruling that the Game Commission could and should proceed with antler less deer harvests back in the thirties or forties. I will have to dig up the exact year.
This is not the first time a group of misguided sportsmen thought they knew more about deer management then the professionals and took the matter before the court. They didn’t win the last time and they aren’t going to win this time either because the evidence is there to support the scientific deer management program we have in place.
and not only those things, but at the same time have 1000's contacting legislators having legislators step in and do the only thing they could, prevent license fee increase to stop the fraud and irresponsibility.
Apparently you have not stayed on top of that history very well either. I have been around this very debate for over thirty years and it has been continuously taken to the Legislators by some hunters. Over twelve years ago I was at a meeting where a high powered legislature flat out made the statement that if the Game Commission didn’t reduce the allocations he would introduce legislation to take their regulator powers away and they would decide how many license to issue.
For decades the only thing that stood between the hunters demanding that the Game Commission provide more deer then the habitat could support was the voice of the farmers cancelling them out with their demands to legislature for fewer deer. The Legislature was smart enough to stay out of deer management between the demands for more from one the demands for fewer from the other because it was a no win situation for them politically. But the Game Commission made what might actually have been a political mistake when they provided the farmers with the green tag and red tag programs that basically allowed them to more affectively use hunters to solve most of their deer damage problems. Once that happened the farmers were satisfied so they no longer went to the Legislature complaining about too many deer. All that left then was the normal and typical demands from the hunters for more deer. Without the farmers complaining of too many deer that opened the political arena wide open for the Legislators to win votes by jumping into the deer management topic without first finding out what the correct management direction should be.
Just because politicians have picked a side that will win them votes it certainly doesn’t mean they are doing the correct honorable thing for the best future of our Commonwealth, our resources or hunting. Far from it.
Also throw in mandated audit....
The Game Commission is all for the audit. There is no reason in the world for the Game Commission to fear an audit of the deer management program.
If you look into "history" you'll see the well documented "DEER WARS" Did not occur in 1776, but are NOW.
Actually if you really look into the history you will find that the Deer Wars started back in the late twenties and early thirties. That is almost eighty years ago. This is not something new. Hunters have typically thought they knew more about deer management then the professionals simply because they have always wanted more of them, even when the deer them selves were actively reducing their own numbers because the habitat couldn’t support more deer for more then short term periods of ideal conditions.
Hunters really have failed to become educated on the facts and the “Deer Wars” will continue as long as we still have trained professionals willing to stand up and do the right thing for the future of our resources and our hunters even when they are getting beat up for doing the right thing.
Hunters have been the largest stumbling block toward better deer management and having more deer in much of this state then we presently have for many decades. That need to change so that the real professionals can lead us into a better future then the past has been.
R.S. Bodenhorn