ID Deer Managment Workshop?

[Daxter]

Can anybody that attended the deer management workshop in Pokey last weekend give me a summary of what was talked about and how the meetings went? I am really curious about how it was recieved by sportsmen and what kind of discussions took place. I had a baby blessing in the family and couldn't make it. Thanks.

Dax

 

[BrianID]

I don't really have the time to post all the details now. It was well worth the time IMO. There was a lot of talk about habitat improvement. They also talked about changing the mule deer season but there were no detailed plans presented at the meeting. State wide controlled hunts for mule deer is still on the table (no more OTC tags for residents or nonresidents). The mule deer survey results were presented at the meeting. Over half the hunters surveyed said controlled hunts would be acceptable. However, hunters contradicted themselves because most also responding that they wanted to hunt deer every year. It is just my opinion but I think the F&G is going to listen to what a majority of the hunters want for mule deer seasons. There will be MDI meetings held across the state over the next few months. At the end of the meeting they said they plan on having the new mule deer management strategy finalized by January. The head guy for Idaho?s MDI posted on monstermuleys a couple months ago. Maybe he will respond to this thread.

 

[SMOKESTICK]

BrianID,

Are you familiar with the proposal that was mentioned about allowing hunters to hunt every year, but restricting those that harvest a deer?

If you have a copy of it or know how I can get a copy of the proposal could you email me or send me pm?

Thanks

 

[BrianID]

The F&G made no formal regulation proposals at the meeting. The presenters at the meeting focused on various mule deer management studies and results of the state wide mule deer survey.

An older gentlemen from the audience suggested those who kill a deer one year will not be eligible to purchase a tag the following year. This was discussed for only a few minutes while the F&G were answering questions from the audience.

I think it is a great idea to reward those who do not kill a deer and restrict those who do kill deer. A minority of the hunters are killing a majority of the mule deer in Idaho. I know I wouldn't have pulled the trigger (or released the arrow) on the muley?s I've killed the last 4 years if tagging a deer one year resulted in being unable to buy a tag the next year.

I brought up this idea on Monstermuleys in 2004 and I took a real beating by other posters. There are certainly many hunters in Idaho that believe they should be able to put a tag on a muley every year.