RE: PA Deer Management
 

Just what did he do that was right? He was hired to reduce the herd but it has done nothing but increase since he was appointed. Ar was suppose to double the number of 8 pts. but that's pretty hard to do when the buck harvested decreased by 30% in just two years.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

MikeE just caught your apology. No apology necessary. It has been a myth perpetuated for years. Long enough that it will probably never go away.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

deaddeer, I'm now convinced that if every hunter scored on a booner next year and Gary Alt develpoed some wonder plant that would feed 5,000,000 deer in Pa and a 200 lb deer was behind every tree, you would still find fault with him. Is your real name Silinsky?

RE: PA Deer Management
 

All he has to do is manage the herd at the true carrying capacity of the habitat and i would be happy. It would also please me if he told the truth about AR for a change. This years buck harvest stats make him look silly.

Although they didn't release that stats , I guarantee you we harvested more 2.5+ buck in 2002 than we did in 2003. That wasn't suppose to happen.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

CoyotePup,
That would mean that you saw 27 bucks that had spikes less than three inches! Who aged your buck and what method was used. Where are you hunting....county, WMU, public or private? What was the weight of that deer? When did you kill it? Since you're a junior hunter, why did you pass on all those bucks and then kill a 3 point?

RE: PA Deer Management
 

BT, notice he did not reply to that??? Maybe you hit the nail on the head.

IF I see any more freakin harvest numbers I am gonna Puke:D

I would like to know if the weather was better the first day how many more legal buck would have been shot. Hell the first saturday they predicited a huge snowstorm (that never came up here) and all the flatlanders beat feet home (you know bread milk and toilet paper) on Friday AM.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

Cheer up. The buck harvest in Wyoming Co. actually increased in 2003. Your county was one of the few lucky ones.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

I have no doubt that the buck harvest increased in Wyoming county.Their antlerless allocations haven't been enough to decrease the herd.Plus,with the exception of sgl 57,the entire county in privately owned.I grew up in Wyoming county and am fortunate to make it back there a few times a year to hunt.I have no problems with some of the theories behind this management plan.I just can't except the ridiculous deer density goals for each unit.I hunt in Wyoming county where the deer density is 3 times it's goal.Save some 1.5 year old bucks and the hunting is bound to be better.The problem is,once the deer densities goals are met,none of Alt's claims will come true.I live in the southern portion of 2g.Currently,this is the only area that has reached the deer density goals.Let me tell you,there is a world of difference between hunting at this deer density and one that's three times the goal.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

as a bystander on this arguement, and with QDM raising it's godawful head here in VT, i have to ask a few questions: if there is so much land, (and by the sounds of it they are really big parcells), that is private, how does your dept. expect to effectively manage the herd if hunters can't get to the herd? the ideal c.c. for a QDM program should be around 60%, is alt heading for that? i know here in VT, and i believe NH is the same way, relatively little land is posted, and if it isn't posted, as long as you respect the property, you can just park alongside the road and go hunting, why does the residents down there feel they have to shut off access, up here you are considered a game hog for doing so, especially if you post your land, then hunt elsewhere. yes, you have more hunters, about 10 times the amount we do, but your landmass is probably 10x ours also. does the dept. have in place a management plan for those areas that have blocked access to hunters, heck, just through natural dispersion, the herd is going to remain close to the same level i would think. just some questions and observations for you all.

RE: PA Deer Management
 

PA has no plan in place that addresses managing the herd where harvests are controled by limited access . Their only solution they have is to issue more anterless tags and several counties have over 80 tags PFSM and they still can't control the herd. So we have very high deer densities on private land and low deer densities on public land.