I used to be a member of the MDF, but I chose to let my membership expire when they insisted on throwing money away on coyote control. If there ever has been a waste of money, that's it. It is a short-term, stopgap measure that has few long term benefits. Kinda like using a can of fix-a-flat on a flat tire. If hunters believe in coyote control so much, then every hunter should set a goal of killing one coyote every year, and put as much effort into it as they do on Bessy's pisscutter hunts. That would be much cheaper and gain much more.
It was really amazing to see how people came forward with volunteer time and money donations for feeding last year in CO and UT. Once again, a short term fix to a long term problem. And I'm not sure feeding is even a short term fix.
I believe there are three issues that are having the greatest effect on mule deer populations throughout the west: loss of winter range, poor condition of the range that is left, and too many elk.
Hunters should be looking at the long term consequences of throwing their time and money at a short term fix like feeding programs, and overlooking the bigger picture.
Instead of donating to feeding programs, hunters should be donating to organizations that are working to protect winter range in perpetuity.
Hunters should be volunteering their time to range improvement projects. A couple of recent studies by the CDOW have shown how nutrition enhancement and winter range treatments increase over-winter survival of fawns. Look for the work by Chad Bishop and Eric Bergman.
Hunters should be attending game commission and wildlife department meetings and voicing their opinions on mule deer and elk management. Elk are the money-makers for many wildlife departments. Hunters need to let these people know how important mule deer are to them, and do their best to get managers to manage for better mule deer herds.
Hunters need to be vocal in opposition to other activities that are affecting mule deer range. Currently, hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines are being cut into valuable mule deer range throughout Wyoming, Colorado and Utah by the natural gas industry. These disturbances reduce the capacity and quality of the range. Every one of these projects on federal land goes through a public comment period. Hunters need to comment, and push for plans that have the least impact on mule deer and other wildlife.
The majority of hunters like to jump on the bandwagon in that one bad winter out of ten and help with feed programs, but fail to realize that managing and protecting herds takes a long term commitment to improving and protecting habitat. It feels good to send in your $20 for 5 bags of deer pellets every 10 years. The reality is that it will take a lot more time and money to protect mule deer populations and their habitat for the long term.
This is JMHO. Maybe feeding is the answer.