I think many people do not understand the impacts of a doe hunt, when done at the right time. The 1956 California doe hunt is probably one of the biggest misunderstood hunts in California. Here is what actually resulted.
A. Reduced pressure on heavily
browsed deer range so more
fawns could survive and produce
more bucks and does.
B. Resulted four years later in the
largest deer harvest on record in
California.
C. Was called ?criminal? and a
?slaughter? and resulted in legislation
that presently gives 37
California counties the authority
to veto proposed antlerless
hunts.
D. Has restricted, even to this day,
the number of antlerless deer
hunts in much of California?s
most important deer range.
For the entire ?56 season within the
special doe-hunt counties, reported
killed was 44,574 bucks and 38,081
does, for a reported total of 82,655
deer. The statewide deer kill that
year was 108,452, of which 38,081
were does. By comparison, the average
annual deer kill for the previous
five years was 68,763, about
4,000 of which were does.
In 1957, one year after the hunt, the
statewide buck kill hit 65,214, the
fourth highest on record in California.
The three high doe kill counties
in the state during the 1956
hunt?Lassen, Modoc and Siskiyou?
recorded a total kill of 11,682 bucks
in 1957, a 23 percent improvement
over the previous five-year average.
By comparison, Humboldt,
Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and
Marin counties, which had been left
out of the ?56 either-sex shoot, recorded a total buck kill of 8,233 in 1957, 21 percent below the previous
five-year average. But, the best was yet to come, for
this reason: any herd that experiences
significant reductions in adult
deer numbers in an environment of
stable habitat will strive to fill the
voids by producing more fawns that
survive to adulthood. One to two years later, of course, the
fawns become adults?roughly half
of which are does and half are bucks. In 1959 and 1960, when improved fawn survival did, in fact, translate
into more adult deer, California hunters experienced the highest
two-year buck harvest on record at 149,067.
With the exception of 1956, the 1960 season by itself resulted in the state?s highest total deer kill at
84,421 and a near record-tying buck kill of 75,584.
Joe