Originally Posted by fe2manz

It isn't that hunting isn't effective--the restrictions placed on hunting in urban areas IS not effective. that is why EVERYONE who is hunting is supplementing with sharpshooting--and if you are using money to sharpshoot, why spend it twice? THAT is why hunting is not adopted in these areas--if there was land enough for unmonitored or large-scale hunting it would work, but the plan for hunting that allows 14 hunters in 5 preserves will not work. Go to the meetings and look at the pans. All the sites are staffed by multiple paid people--those are the restrictions in the plans--it isn't sign-in, sigh-out take your animal home and be done with it hunting. Sorry guys, but that system of hunting will not work.
You can't do bounty hunting in the preserves, you can't go outside IDNR regs, you are restricted to larger buffer zones, fields of fire, partial season--so don't go spouting about educational deficiencies when you are ignorant of the issue at hand. this isn't about HUNTING---it is about deer management in urban areas and if ANYONE took the tiem to read the hundred or so pages the forest preserve put out, they would see that--and the costs are budgeted for--and it will not work. Call DuPage, Lake, McHenry (not a forest preserve, but a conservation district) and ask them why they don't hunt. It isn't because there is no interest. It isn't because they can't hunt. It is because that the restrictions of urban hunting as imposed by their governing bodies makes it not viable. Read all of that information and then preach the history of hunting effectiveness to someone who hasn't...with degrees in natural history of the Midwest, ecology, mammalogy and outdoor recreation, I am well-versed in what the books say--and since they have ruled out archery, and considering only very restrictive shotgun seasons, it won't work.
Even if you double the proposed numbers of hunters to 30--for 5 preserves--and they ALL get 3 deer each--you still have to come in and sharpshoot 300 or more deer--just this year. Not even taking into account that all versions of the plan would require between 15-24 staff for those 5 preserves during hunts--that is almost 1 staff member per hunter--these are all things people would know if they took the time to read all of the documents, not just the outlines and pamphlets that just list the high points. It is all available on their website.
Again, this is NOT about hunting, it is about highly regulated and monitored hunting in urban areas with shotguns--all of the people form every county around us are readily reached, and you can talk until you are blue in the face about what WILL work, but none of those workable solutions are on the table.