You don't need a crystal ball to see the writing on the wall.
The way you talk the harvest will just keep falling. Eventually it has to level off or rise. That may be this year. It may be next. It may not happen for five more years, but neither you nor I know it....hence the crystal ball.
Saying you have no interest in the numbers is either apathy or a cop out. Either way, it means sportsman not holding the commission accountable..... (is it any wonder we don't have all sportsman going in one direction in Pa?) and secondly it means hunters do not have the tools to make educated decisions on deer management if the numbers from our state employees are not believeable.
I actually do believe the numbers are the best estimate of the pgc staff. I usually only disagree with posters who want to believe them when they show something in one direction - then disbelieve them when the numbers go in the opposite!
I never said I have no interest in the PGC numbers. I said they aren't worth arguing over because they are all we have to go from. I said that I don't believe them. I don't believe the herd is increasing by the amounts the PGC suggests when just a couple of years ago they were telling us the herd was dropping. Almost everyone is seeing less deer in this state. Especially on public land. I think that's a good thing, but either the old model was WAY OFF or the new one is. How did we have a herd of 1.3m and declining just a couple of years ago and suddenly with a new model we have 1.6m and rising?
It surely is a boondoggle to say that you belive the PGC when they say we must cut the herd in half and then say 'oh but I do not believe the yearly harvest stats that show a declining buck harvest for the last 3 years or the total herd numbers' Its hypocrisy if you do....
The harvest stats I put more faith in than the overall herd estimate. I don't contest that the buck harvest is declining, but it won't decline forever. If the rest of the state is anything like my area there are more legal bucks around than I ever used to see any bucks, period. If that holds true then the harvest this year will increase. If it doesn't then it can decrease or remain similar. Again, we've had the last, what, four years of all-time-high harvest and yet the herd is growing tremendously and there aren't any bucks around. Make up your mind.....
Pa asked for better buck hunting and got doe tags as a consolation prize. Hunting in the smaller herd will lead to a coninuance of lower buck harvests than before we had ar/hr (with the emphasis on hr)
PA asked for QDM and we're getting it. A deer behind every tree and killing spikes and Y's is not better buck hunting, it's more killing of young deer. Once again, the buck harvests will drop, but not forever....therefore, not a continuance.
less deer equals l-e-s-s d-e-e-r. Get it?
I don't have a problem with less deer, you seem to though. HR is needed in this state. We have had too many deer for way too long in most parts of the state. I don't see the need for deer behind every tree or the need to kill the first tiny buck that wanders aimlessly by. If you can explain to me why the previous management plan was better than the current I will take the time to read and discuss and debate it with you, but until you have something to talk about I'm liking the new plan a whole lot more.