If you managed a ranch ?

[cocinaelktaco]

If you Managed a ranch with a decreasing heard of deer. how would you change the management of it ?


"Now" if you managed The public land would you want it managed the same ?

Would you be willing to lower the opportunity (Tag Numbers) to improve your area's herd and success of your hunting area's tag holders?

Why or Why Not !

Have you ever asked for tag reductions from your Game and Fish meetings ?

 

[30inchbuck]

1st I would want to know why the herd is decreasing -

predators
too much hunting
feed
water
cover

If the reason was the hunting pressure - then I would decrease the tags.

As far as the reason for some areas in NM to have a decreasing deer numbers there are several factors involved depending on the area. Each area has its own issues.

Coyotes I think are becoming more and more of an issue in NM at least. Fawn survival rates are low in certain areas because of this. Look at the best herd in NM - the Jic. They have a full time coyote killer and they put on a large trapping competition every year with big $ going to the winner.

Every fawning area in the state would benifit from a bounty placed on there heads or tails.

PJ thinning, Sage treatments, water projects ect needs to be part of the plan as well, along with keeping certain corridors open without housing developemnts.

 

[Snapshot]

I would hire a wildlife biologist(if possible) as a consultant to determine and make reccomendations on:

Supportable habitat as it relates to the max number of animals it could contain.

Predator control

determine harvest quota allowed on property to sustain a long term management objective as to quality and quantity, and also determine how many animals are true residents of the property vs. migrant animals during hunting seasons would make a difference in sustainability.

 

[cocinaelktaco]

Great posts !



What about the public side?

Should Game and Fish change from opportunities to corrective practices to help give a boost ?
or let nature take it's course and keep the high quota's on the herd?

Unit 21

Game and Fish population Estimates

Estimated Herd size 2,000 Animals +/- 2,400 tags issued each year 2006, 2007.

Average success from all weapons types 14% to 19%, Muzzloader 6%


Good or Bad ?

 

[Snapshot]

I am an Arizona resident and we have some of the same situations over here as far as management objectives for opportunity vs. quality.
The determining factor is also buck to doe ratios and what they consider as a minimum acceptable limit. If there are 2000 deer in a unit and say a 15/100 ratio that means there would be 300 bucks available. If there is an antler point restriction and lets say 30% of the bucks are not legal then you have 210 bucks that are legal to kill. If an average hunter sucess rate is 15% of that 2400 hunters the kill total would be 360 bucks which would be more than the total available at 15/100 minimum so the buck/doe ratio would have to be very high in that unit to support a 15% harvest rate on a deer polulation of 2000 or is that 2000 bucks?
I have read that a unit has to have at least a 30 to 40 bucks per hundred does to be able to sustain a quality buck population. I may be wrong on some points, but I have just read info on some of this and it can get quite complicated when they figure in predation,poaching,natural mortality,drought and fawn survival rates. One of the most important factors is fawn survival rates which I have read needs to be around 60% to get the type of recruitment needed for healthy herds.
In arizona the game fish publishes a book with alot of this type of info, I don't know if New Mexico has that available to the public or not?

 

[cocinaelktaco]

The estimates on their data states around 230 Bucks per 2000,
Of course these are just there estimates New Mexico doesn't do many population studies on deer it's kind of like blind hope, No money for it.

Now "wolves" that's a different thing. Lot's of money in the preditor business?

My opinion is that 21 is in trouble from long drought and mis-management of resource. Even with a large margin of error the 2400 hunters is heavy. 10 hunters for every buck alive !

To many kids saying that they do not want to go anymore they never see anything but people.

Would like to see better quality opportunity for the future of our public lands in New Mexico.

 

[Snapshot]

Based on those numbers that would mean a 11/100 ratio. That seems very low for that many hunters in a unit.