ORIGINAL: bluebird2
Now that we haveestablished that fawn recruitment has been lower and proven, with valid statistical data,that both the number of antler less licenses and the antler less harvests have been lower, in recent years, all you need to do is explain why the fawn recruitment is obviously so much lower now then it was backwhen hunters were harvesting more does year after year.
That's easy. Fawn recruitment is lower because there are a lot fewer OW doe to produce fawns in the spring. Harvests that exceed recruitment reduce the number of OW doe resulting in a decrease in recruitment and lower harvests.
You are absolutely correct that the harvests have been higher then fawn recruitment. That is exactly what I have been telling you and everyone else for all this time; fawn recruitment has crashed and resulted in a deer population crash. That is how nature works when it come to deer populations that are out of balance with their habitat.
The herd is not obligated to produce enough fawns to match or exceed the harvest. It is the responsibility of the PGC to match the harvest with recruitment if the goal is to keep the herd stable. But the goal was to reduce the herd so they issued enough tags to produce a harvest that exceeded recruitment and the result has been fewer OW doe ,decreased recruitment and smaller harvests.
You just provided yet another example of how little you know about how nature and deer management really work.
Fawn recruitment is a determined not only by the number of does but by the ability of those does to produce fawns that are born at the correct weight to survive after they are born. The fawns, no matter how many are born, are of no value to the future of hunting or deer populations if they die within a day or two of being born.
That is why the professional deer managers work to get and then keep the deer her din balance with its food supply and total habitat. A deer herd living within the correct balance with its food supply and habitat will be MUCH more productive then a larger deer population that doesn’t have enough food in the correct places to use it during the critical winter and spring time periods.
You simple don’t know enough about how nature works to have even a basic working knowledge of how deer management REALLY works.
R.S. Bodenhorn