The herd was decreasing from 1987 to 1997?Do you really want to go there?I do,because you're so wrong it isn't even funny.Lets take a look.
In 1997 hunters killed 156,742 antlered deer.Jump ahead 10 years later to 1997 and you'll see that hunters killed 176,504 bucks.This clearly shows that the herd was increasing during that time frame.Jump ahead even more to 2001 when hunters killed 203,000 bucks and it's easy to see that the herd was still indeed increasing.
I did not say the herd was decreasing from 1987 to 1997 , I said it wasn't increasing. In1988 we harvested 163K buck and in 1996 the harvest was only 153K so the increase to 17K in 1997 can be contributed in part to the low harvest in 1996. There was no significant increase in the herd from 1988 to 1997.
The major increase in the herd occurred due to antlerless harvests that were below 200K in 1998 and 1999,which resulted in a 20% increase in the herd and a 15% in the buck harvest compared to 1997 and only a 20% increase in the buck harvest from 1988.