Fishon..........I am SURE elk populations on any given piece of real estate have an effect on the population of any other species that co-exist with them. I can't believe the DWR hasn't taken account of this in their studies, (and believe me, I have much less faith in the studies they do than the organization as a whole), but do you really think that would solve anything. The Henry's is a perfect example, as you pointed out. The deer are awesome, the class of North America, on a mountain that is definitely good Muley habitat, but we have mountains that are capable of the same thing with the same management. Yes, this proves your point, but should also for everyone else. I certainly don't have all the answers, but there is one thing I know. We kill too many every year to sustain a healthy population OBVIOUSLY. Is it the loss of winter ground due to encroachment from human sprawl, partly. Is it due to way too many killed on highways because of increased traffic on our roads, probably. Is it due to too many predators, maybe. Is it due to too many other animals living of the same ground, more than likely. Is it due to too many of us chasing them from August thru December and killing too many of them, definitely. Regardless of what everyone says, the easiest fix, and the one we have the most control over, is the amount of tags we give to hunters (us) every year, and it is far too many. Sure, we could go ahead and wipe the elk out on Fishlake (just about done AGAIN), and I believe it would be just like the Henry Mountains, without the Buffalo and with more Cattle, if they limited the deer harvest to under 100, not 9,000 or 7,000 or 3,000 or however many we take off the Fishlake each year. I feel, somewhere, the is a balance. I know it starts with killing fewer deer, many fewer deer. Buck to Doe ratio means nothing without actual population. You could have a 50:100 buck to doe ratio on a unit, but that doesn't do much good if you only 200 deer.
We need to start, somehow, dealing with what we can control, and do it. Sorry to the people that like to hunt every year (that would be me) and the people that count on the deer hunt as a family gathering (that would also be me), and do what needs to be done to save what little we have left.
Yep, this should've been in the "Latest and Greatest Utah Ideas for the Deer herd" but it ended up here, and probably for a reason. I am sure the elk and deer numbers do affect each other.
"We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all".
Theodore Roosevelt
