LAST EDITED ON May-03-12 AT 04:00PM (MST)[p]>KLBZDAD,
>
> Your ideas are a
>little out there. On one
>hand you will say that
>you have never seen so
>many twin fawns than what
>you have seen this year
>on unit 28. Then you
>turn around and say that
>we need to kill does
>because there is not enough
>habitat. Makes no sense at
>the end of the day
>does will only have twin
>fawns if the conditions are
>prime. That includes both winter
>and summer. They will not
>have twins if there is
>not enough feed. END OF
>STORY.
>
>You and elk whatever are pretty
>excitable guys but you eat
>up what anyone tells you.
>Do some research outside of
>the state of Utah. No
>need to go off whatever
>Anis tells you. Also just
>because Jason feels that we
>need to have a doe
>hunt does not mean that
>is a unanimous feeling in
>the S. Utah area among
>the Biologist/DWR officials.
>
>This hunt is a joke and
>there is ample feed. Your
>biggest issue like I mentioned
>before is that Jason and
>the other biologist working on
>this project believe that 80%
>of the deer from unit
>28 winter in this area.
>That is false. No need
>for a boiology degree to
>understand that. This post that
>you guys keep draggin on
>is getting old. You are
>part of the minority that
>feels that we need to
>kill deer in this area.
>
>
>On this unit the areas that
>have been heavily fed are
>areas by water. You would
>be bettter served to introduce
>some guzzlers than just kill
>the deer. There are plenty
>of canyons and pockets that
>are not fed off on
>this winter range. If you
>put guzzlers in these areas
>you could spread the deer
>out and not have them
>concentrate in cetain areas.
>
>Killing does(POTENTIAL MOTHERS TO FAWNS) should
>be a last resort and
>we should turn to this
>when EVERYTHING else has failed.
>
>
>
Its not just DWR. Its not just me or "elk whatever" and the minority are those who cry foul about taking animals who haven't been out there to see what is really going on. Guzzlers always seem to be the answer to habitat issues. "Pop in a guzzler and the sum bitches scatter!" They definitely have their place and you're right, that is a reason they concentrate along this winter range and why we can't just move them to a new place with a bus ticket and some happy pills. Jason isn't my only source on this and neither is Gary. The BLM isn't the only person I've talked to. There was an NRCS person on the range ride with us but I decided that I needed to know more for myself so I had a long discussion with a person about range conditions who had no idea I was concerned about mule deer forage and in the end, he used them on his own as an example and concurred that the range will degrade from its current state unless there is some relief. Animals don't get nutrition from water and there efforts to establish brush forage on this winter range haven't be successful as you could tell if you'd make that trip. Its not that the BLM, Forest Service, and even the DWR haven't tried to work on the habitat its that the habitat itself cannot replenish its own resources when its being over used.
So explain to me how, if you have one cup of rice, and to feed ten people, you need exactly that one cup, but out of those ten people comes two sets of twins making it fourteen people the next time around and a stranger comes into the picture making it and even fifteen mouths to feed but you've still only got one cup of rice with 50% more mouths to feed, is it "out there" to need to remove mouths from the equation so as not to starve everyone? I tried to make it simple enough to understand. There are lots of twins this year because of less snow, so more fawns are coming back and on average that means half of them will be does and half of them will be bucks. We may need to take more animals next year than this year. Its simple math and nothing extreme or "out there" about it. Quality Deer Management as they do routinely with deer back East (yes, I know they are white tails but like white tails, mule deer are concentrated during winter months) in order to maximize nutrition and benefit of winter range, you have to manage the number of does that utilize your winter range. Again, this isn't Utah stuff either,
www.muledeerworkinggroup.com has THE BEST MINDS ON MULE DEER IN THE WORLD! Much smarter than any of us combined. Email one of them and get them to read this thread. I'm clearly a doe killing idiot (even though I've never taken a female of any species except cow elk.....people don't get pissed off about them though) who just wants a tag to shoot something (even though I probably have shot more coyotes this year alone that those giving me grief have in their lifetime).
Excitable, yeah.....just cause I get a kick out of the fact that it such a non issue and smart management but people are coming unglued about it. Some of you better check your emails for your BGF newsletters! SFW has committed to move 100 of them so there may only be 50 tags to worry about! Good grief....