In 1990 ,with 806 K tags we harvested 245K anterless deer from a smaller herd in 3 days. Compare that with the anterless harvest for 2003 when they announce it and tell me if Alt's plan to reduce the herd is working as good as the previous plan.
You sound quite positive it's failing. I disagree....in 2002(first year for AR/second year for HR) we killed about 510k deer overall....165k bucks if memory serves. That tells me the herd is being reduced where it needs it....in the doe population. Of course the overall population will drop, but I don't see that as a bad thing. The ANF is severly overbrowsed and heavily hunted yet it still holds plenty of deer. Why is that? Timbering? Poor shooting? Lack of doe harvest? I have an idea that all apply to some degree, but logging in the ANF is what keeps the deer fed, IMO.
I will add that I am objective and will make decisions based on the numbers provided. Those numbers may be in question, but that's all we have to go by. We'll see what the 2003 harvest figures show us....they should be coming out really soon!
