Here in southeastern Utah, when the white settlers came, there were very few deer and no elk. The grass was documented to be belly-deep to the horses. At the turn of the century, the cattle were brought in to eat all the old grass, and all the predators were managed as predators and shot on sight. Then a lot of the land was cleared of pinon and junipers and more grass was grown. In about the 1950's, the government started to lay down poison to further control the predators; at the same time, there were also paid government trappers in San Juan and Grand counties. Then from the 1950's to the 1970's, the deer herd just exploded. There were so many deer that there were periods when there were over 300,000 deer tags issued (along with all the poaching that was going on at this time, which is 100 times what happens now). Then in the 1980's, the division started the doe hunts to cut down the number of deer. And they also took the lions and bears off a shoot-on-sight to managing them..that was when our deer herd started to fall.
I read on this site where people state: look at the limited entries and how well they work. Show me a limited entry that is producing the deer numbers, and the top end deer, that were produced in the 70's, when we really managed predators. Look at the San Juan-Elk -Ridge unit; it is at 37% of the division objective, with only 50 hunters, so how in the world can you blame the deer herd on the hunters?
As I see it, the problems with the deer herd is the lack of habitat, and more importantly, the fawns survival rate. If you can't raise a fawn, you won't have a deer. This goes back to predators, which needs to include all predators. There has been a lot of talk about lions and coyotes, which is needed. Coyotes are one of the worst, but the state is putting lots of money into the management of them and anybody that wants to can shoot them on sight to help. As far as the lions, right now every doe is important to the herds growing to objective. Now let's talk about the bears, which in my belief, are the hardest predators on the fawns right now, and there is very little talk about what they are doing to the deer herds.
Just look back to the 1950's through the 1980's, when the predators were managed as predators, and kept way in control and the deer in the state of Utah were like none other. When the division started to manage lion and bears as sport hunting, our deer numbers went down accordingly.
I read on this site where people state: look at the limited entries and how well they work. Show me a limited entry that is producing the deer numbers, and the top end deer, that were produced in the 70's, when we really managed predators. Look at the San Juan-Elk -Ridge unit; it is at 37% of the division objective, with only 50 hunters, so how in the world can you blame the deer herd on the hunters?
As I see it, the problems with the deer herd is the lack of habitat, and more importantly, the fawns survival rate. If you can't raise a fawn, you won't have a deer. This goes back to predators, which needs to include all predators. There has been a lot of talk about lions and coyotes, which is needed. Coyotes are one of the worst, but the state is putting lots of money into the management of them and anybody that wants to can shoot them on sight to help. As far as the lions, right now every doe is important to the herds growing to objective. Now let's talk about the bears, which in my belief, are the hardest predators on the fawns right now, and there is very little talk about what they are doing to the deer herds.
Just look back to the 1950's through the 1980's, when the predators were managed as predators, and kept way in control and the deer in the state of Utah were like none other. When the division started to manage lion and bears as sport hunting, our deer numbers went down accordingly.