ORIGINAL: Sylvan
Sylvan, those are EXACTLY the reasons I would rather put my faith in the F&G biologists to know their job and set the seasons/limit CORRECTLY.
I think you should be very carefull here. Game commisions in MANY states are controlled POLITICALLY not by professional wildlife biologists. Here in NY the DEC makes no bones about AR being experimented with in Ulster and Sullivan counties as a direct result of hunter pressure to do so. All you have to do is go to a few meetings to find out that they are interested in what they term "hunter satisfaction" more than the health of the deer herd. Game commisions need to sell hunting licenses and keep their politician supervisors happy. So when the hunters are pushing for AR (not QDM) so they can get their big buck and the insurance companies are pushing the politicians to reduce the deer numbers, what do you think the priority is for the health of the deer? No, we can't just sit back and be ignorant of how game management works. That's a cop out. There is tons of literature available and anybody with average intellegence can read and understand it.
that's why I listen to the F&G biologists in NH, not the F&G commission. I go to the hearings, i talk with the biologists to get the real info, then try and use this at the hearings against the commission suggestions if appropriate.
Never said "blind faith" just may naive a bit [8D]
Our biologists have been doing things recently to REDUCE our deer kill in most of the state, the commission usually STARTS with those recommendations at the hearings then gets some of them changed. Two recent issues: doe permits rather than "doe days" and changing muzzleloader to bucks only in many areas came from F&G biologists, then were eventually changed by the commission.
--Bob