Wow, I think this boy is mad.

Editor, CDT

Dear sir,

Recently I read with interest Mr.Mark Nale's column : Hunters Need To Discern Between Fact,Fiction In Deer Management Debate.
For a man of science who claims to be offering us the facts, his column is way off track. His embellishments of reality and omissions of the truth are blatantly obvious.
In his eyes the PGC,DCNR,Dr.Alt and yes, even J. Grace can do no harm, had nothing to do with and are now being falsely accused with being responsible for our dismal white tailed deer populations in this state.

If Mr. Nale spent as much time as he claims he has spent truely investigating all the facts of this matter, he would not make such outrageous claims.

He writes about selfishness being expressed by a "vocal minority" of hunters who are to be blamed with all this deer management controversy. The only selfishness I'm familiar with is the greed expressed by BIG LUMBER in this state who constantly lobby Capital Hill and apply pressure on DCNR and the PGC to eradicate our great State Animal. And how about the selfish greed of all those deer "killers" who were suckered into, fell for and perticipated in the PGC's deer massacre which was pushed by Alt by his promise of more and bigger bucks while we wiped out whole age classes of button bucks through liberal antlerless seasons. I guess Mr. Nale wouldn't consider one so-called deer hunter having the ablity to legally kill up to six deer per year through multiple antlerless tags,coupons,red tag permits,concurrent deer seasons,special and extended seasons,etc.Most of which took place on PUBLIC LAND.Multiply that by thousands of "hunters" and the results are obvious to anyone but Mr. Nale and his fellow fraternity of prapaganist outdoor writers.On top of that, he has the gall to write that he just dosen't understand why some "areas"have very few deer.
I'd also would like to know if Nale would be willing to enlighten all of us about forest certification on our State Forests and the effects of acid rain on the regeneration this state's hardwood species. He should know. He has all the "FACTS".
We do not have an honest, accurate deer management model in this state.
If Mr.Nale can claim this, he is a liar.The model the PGC is or was using is based on their claim of deer populations at 1.6 million[35.65d/sm] critters... this is simply not true.How can you run an accurate deer model without a solid, true base number ? The learned people i have talked to estimate our total deer herd at somewhere around 600,000. If Mr. Nale wants to dispute this, i would be more than willing to provide him with my data and sources.Can he do the same ?

It's interesting the DCNR [notPGC] took the initiative to do all these aerial surveys of carefully chosen areas of the state in order to obtain "hard data"as Mr.Nale puts it. My question is why this "tool" wasn't used five years ago BEFORE cramming Q.D.M. down our throats?

I would like to see the proof of Mr. Nale's claim that the buck to doe ratio is improving due to antler restrictions. He just throws out this" crap" hoping it sticks to something without showing us the proof....even the PGC hasn't been dumb enough to publicly make this claim.

Mr. Nale blantly failed to inform his readers that all those so-called large deer number sightings he and others are experiencing in his little corner of the world were on PRIVATE,POSTED and in at least one property, HEAVILY PATROLLED land.NOT public land where most of our lack of deer problems exist.By not giving us all the facts[only the ones he picks and chooses for us to read] he is disserving his reading public.After all, wasn't this column supposed to be about the "FACTS"?

I found it absolutely shocking that Nale would praise Commissioner Isabella for holding public meetings in his part of the state. I have to comment about Mr. Isabella. At the Seasons and Bag Limits meeting in Harrisburg this Jan., the commissioner showed up two hours late for the meeting. The reason: he was running his business's booth at a Shooting Show down in Philly.He missed two hours of very heartfelt, honest testimony at one of the most important meetings the Board ever attended.If that wasn't bad enough,in the middle of a testimonial,Isabella stands up and walks out of the room.Ten minutes later, he re-enters the room,sits down at his chair and writes something down on a scrap of paper. He then passes the note down the table to Vern Ross who reads everyone in the room the Eagle's football score off of Isabella's note! Now, thats a "FACT."..I know this because i was there and saw the whole thing. If this man considers his business and football scores more important that the serious job of Game Commissioner,then maybe he should resign. I ask you, is this acting respectfully,responsibly and professionally ? I think not. He is an embarassment to all who he represents which, by the way, is in South Eastern Pa. not S.Western Pa. as Nale writes...again misinformation... didn't get his "FACTS" straight.Maybe he got Isabella and Palone confused .... not too hard since both are "birds of a feather" only different genders.

As far as Nale griping about sportsmen contacting their elected officials to complain .... Just what does he propose we do, when we for the most part have a no response, "stay the course" Commission ? I suppose Nale would like us upset concerned hunters to sit back,don't get involved and let things take it's course , while he "strongly suggests"those who AGREE with him and the PGC to contact their elected officials and let them know where they stand.Unbelievable !

Mr. Nale says he has no answers as to why deer numbers appear to be in his words:"radically" low in some areas. Again he convienently fails to be specific about where deer are fewer and where deer are abundant. Instead he spews out more garbage about everywhere he looks there are deer,claiming the rest of us aren't seeing deer because we really aren't willing to do so. This is an insult !!
Starting in late Jan. of this year,my friend and I toured six different State Game Lands in Lebanon,Lancaster,Dauphin,Schuylkill,Berks and Perry Cos.spending an average of five hours walking[not just the roads]on each of these tracts in the snow looking for tracks and droppings.We wanted to see for ourselves what the situation was.The overall findings were pitiful. Unbelievably, we saw no deer! As far as tracks seen: somewhere around 22-25 sets total. Of those, some were probably made by the same deer.We saw more coyote sign than deer.Interestingly, most of the areas where we found tracks we noted that these tracts were adjacent to private posted land and the deer were entering and exiting the private property.Again, if Mr. Nale wants to dispute our findings, I would be more than willing to share our data... I took field notes.These are my "FACTS".
I'm getting sick and tired of the PGC, DCNR and those wildlife "copycat"writers accusing me[been hunting deer 35 years] and many other hard hunting outdoorsmen of not "going far enough in" to find all those phantom deer that are out there. No amount of "I see more deer than you because you don't truely look for them"is going to convince me and many others of that line of crap.

Mr. Nale would suggest we all step back, take a deep breath, study the information and separate the fact from fiction.I would strongly suggest he practice what he preaches, because he hasn't done all his "homework" before he writes.
It's bad enough he blindly supports the DCNR,PGC and the eco./biodversity crowd but he takes cheap shots at those he dosn't know anything about with no backup or evidence of "FACT".

In my opinion, Mr. Nale is a poor excuse for an outdoor writer and your paper
should be held responsible for allowing this biased, inaccurate diatribe to be released to the public domain.

Sincerely,