>With all of us southern boys
>fighting about the decline of
>mule deer,I would like to
>ask you a couple of
>questions.
>
>I never here you talk about
>mule deer numbers declining in
>BC (maybe you have and
>I just missed it)but you
>have wolves, grizzlys,black bears and
>coyote up their, that's alot
>of predators for deer evade.
>Do you have a lot
>of deer fall victim to
>these preds. every year, and
>how does your DWR? handle
>preds. up their.
>
>What is the estimated # of
>muleys in BC and how
>many hunters out their chasing
>them?
>
>Have you seen a decline of
>muleys up their in the
>past 10 to 15 years?
>
>
>Again maybe you have already posted
>some of this stuff and
>I just missed it.
>
>I would just like to hear
>your take on the management
>of mule deer in in
>BC maybe we could take
>a few pointers.
Our mule deer population is estimated at 165,000. That estimate is old and comes from the year 2000. With a huge province covered in trees, arial counts are hard to do and very costly.
Our hunter numbers saw a peak of 180,000 back in 1981 and then has declined significantly since then to the current 85,000.
There are 4,573,000 people in the province with the vast majority of them living in the Greater Vancouver area (3,000,000+). The province is very large at 944,735 sq kms (364,800 sq miles). If you take the Vancouver area out of the picture, it really shows that we have a ton of room to roam. While we have resource extraction (forestry and mining) in a lot of our wilderness areas, we also have vast sections of wilderness that are intact ecosystems with little to no human development.
Mule deer populations are stable to growing in much of the province but there are areas where they are declining. The Kootenay area is one of these areas. There was a huge winter kill back in 96 and they really haven't been able to get back on their feet after that. Lots of reasons why. Booming whitetail populations, booming elk populations, booming wolf populations, forest ingrowth and poor winter range conditions ect... all play a role into why the mule deer aren't doing great in that area. The least of the problems has been hunter harvest, as the area has been on 4 point or better seasons for well over a decade with only recently opening up any buck season.
The province is broken up into 8 Regions and each of these regions have numerous management units. The Regional managers can micro-manage populations if they feel neccessary. There is a 3 deer Provincial baglimit which can be 3 mule/blacktail deer or 3 whitetail deer or a combination of species. Each Region has it's own baglimit, with most having a 1 mule deer buck limit. So to harvest 3 mule deer, a hunter has to travel throughout the different Regions. All mule deer bucks are GOS OTC tags. The only Limited Entry is for mule deer does. The managers use a combination of 4 point or better seasons and Any Buck seasons and season dates vary throughout the Regions. I live in Region 3 and we have a robust mule deer population with the most liberal seasons in the entire province. I can hunt mule deer from Sept 1 through till Dec 10th. Our 4 point or better seasons are not intended on as 'trophy' seasons but rather they restrict the amount of bucks harvested by making the hunter count points. 4 points excluding the eyeguard on one side makes the buck legal. With very little open country, counting points in timber is a tricky business and it gives the buck the edge to get out of dodge before the hunter can actually pull the trigger. We find that having a combination of 4 point or better and any buck seasons allows a harvest over all age classes and helps keep the herd healthy and actually produces bigger bucks.
