Kaibab deer article - good read

[nvmuley]

I just finished reading most of an article in Muley Crazy magazine written by Dr. Charles Kay. It contains information every hunter should be aware of, read it if you have access.
A quick summary would be: the Kaibab deer herd story that should be taught to all wildlife managers and to all deer hunters.
-- All predators removed from the forest and no hunting was allowed. The deer herd built form 4,000 to 100,000 in 18 years. Then it has a major die off and herd fell to less than 20,000.
-- The Kaibab story was used as an example of what over grazing can do to the rangeland, and how predator control can affect a deer herd.
-- A New Zealand biologist, Graeme Caughley, wrote a paper and used a computer model to show the die off was "natural and normal" and has nothing to do with hunting.
-- It turns out his computer model was fed fake information and manipulated to produce the outcome he wanted. Does this remind you of today's global warming controversy? (Manipulated, fake data feed into computer models.) Pro predator, anti-hunting people people loved this fake information and used it to manage wildlife on protected lands like Nat'l parks.
-- The article also has good information on the extremely low big game populations that existed in the country prior to the white man's arrival.

Final Thought: Are we returning to those low levels with our current range and wildlife management practices?


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Measure wealth by the things you have,, for which you would not take money.

 

[spcheuvront]

Dr. Kay has the right idea.

Research on the kaibab plateau, has been a joke for years.

We, the sportsman of Az. were told that the deer herd was way to large for the winter range to support. They said the fire removed a large portion of the winter range. Which it did.

The AZG&FD did nothing to increase the harvest for 3 years
after the fire. Ask yourself why not? Then when the total tags for the state were at an all time low, they said to themselves
where can we increase tags and not totally destroy the herd.
The kaibab was the only answer. So they started the doe hunts with as many as 2,000 tags per season.

The ADA fought this action for 10 plus years and made very little head way. The director of the AZG&FD retired and the Assistant director moved to another state and what do you know.
The data the AZG&FD were using for the doe slaughter was proven
false, by guess who, the AZG&FD research branch. No one, especially the ADA, made much of the fact that the information
gathered by the unit mgr. was out right false and way over stated. This was shown by the research branch of the AZG&FD,
which checked the same exact plants for quanity of use.

I have given my word not to mention a study by ASU, but it was investigated buy the fraud department of ASU, and being investigated by the Az. State Senate, for fraud.

The sportsman of Az. have been held for ransom in the case of the Kaibab.

With the appointment of the new director for the AZG&FD, a new breath of fresh air is being experienced. The old ways are changing rapidly, and kaibab is begining to rebound.

I was at the first meeting about the doe hunt, worked at many youth hunts for the kids in kaibab, and was there for the research projects.

Steve Cheuvront

 

[Longun]

I gotta call those guys...I haven't received my Jan/Feb issue yet..

 

[brownie]

I read the article, it was very informative. Basicaly, the two bioligists, fed the info into their models, to come up with the outcome that they wanted. Kinda like Global Warming. The Greenies have been at it alot longer then you thought.
Looks like Dr. Kay exposed some more funny business. Hope it makes the game managers open their eyes, Predators just might be a bigger problem than they think.
Brownie.

 

[nvmuley]

Some good information that should become more mainstream. I had read before how low deer numbers were when early explorers came through the west and this article touches on that subject also.
I know all of us are familiar when the stages of plant succession a piece of land goes through. The final stage is the climax stage. In timber country it would be certain species of trees commonly called old growth. Out west many lower precipitation areas the climax stage would be pinion/juniper forests. This article got me to thinking that maybe animals go through this same progressive, successional process. And if historically we had few deer before exploration, maybe high predator numbers and low deer numbers would be the climax stage. Seems to be right where we are headed with todays wildlife management practices.
Thoughts?

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Measure wealth by the things you have,, for which you would not take money.