there are a couple of more issues that cause serious problems with mule deer in this state that some of you are talking about. WA has a serious poaching problem mainly because of its large population base. It is a problem that I believe is worse here than in other less populated states. Large mule deer on the winter range, or anywhere else for that matter, have a much higher probablity of running into a human around here.
In addition, WA has a high number of indian reservations for a state this size and this has caused problems. I am not so familiar with other rez', but the Yakama indians are allowed to take whatever the want and are allowed to not only hunt on the rez, but also their "usual and accustomed" areas, which comprises a huge area surrounding the rez. Which means that they can definitely hunt anytime they want to on public lands, and while it hasn't been tested in court yet, it probably means that they can come on private land to hunt!
The DOW had made unit 342 a total draw unit quite a number of years ago, it is great mule deer habitat, but is relatively open. The quality of mule deer increased dramatically and it was a great success. But, very quietly, 2 years ago, the returned it back to a general hunt. No press releases, no explanation. From what I understand, the reason they did this was because there was huge amounts of indian hunting going on in this unit, there were reports after reports of truck loads of mature bucks being shot and hauled out of there. So, the DOW finally got sick of it and returned it to a general season. Unit 342 is out of the rez, but falls into the "usual and accustomed" hunting grounds. Now that the quality of the bucks has gone down, the indian hunting has decreased dramatically. What is strange is that almost every indian reservation I drive through in this state or another state, you very rarely see many deer or elk. Indian reservations in this state have great deer and elk habitat, they are large areas, and the number of people that can hunt them (enrolled indians) is very small, why the small number of animals?
The other issue in this state is one of predators. We live in a state that politically will not tolerate predator controls. Coyotes, lions, and now wolves have a strong political lobby behind them. This is a political problem in all western states, but especially WA. One of the major causes of the systemic mule deer decline in the Western US is the coyote populations. Most game dept's will not even touch this issue and prefer the argument to center on habitat. But, there are vast areas in the West that have been exactly the same for the last 50 years. No condos, do development, just plain old cattle ranches forever. But, it is much harder to control coyotes today than it was 20 years ago. Wolves and lions can cause havoc with adult deer and elk, but coyotes will devastate the fawns because they know when the does are about to drop them. That is why in many areas you see such poor fawn recruitment now. If you travel to areas in Montana and Wy and talk to the ranchers and people there, they will tell you how they have witnessed first hand how devasting coyotes can be to just born fawns.
There was a study done I belive in AZ about a year ago where they were able to take mule deer in a given area, a portion of the area was fenced off, and coyotes were kept out, other than that, everything was the same. The mule deer population in the predator free area had the fawn recruitments jump dramatically, more closer to historical norms. But, in the open area, the fawn recruitment was low and the overall population dropped. Apparantly, the results were so dramatic, that even the biologists where amazed.
You have to be very careful about what you read as a sportsmen on what is causing the mule deer declines in the West. It is much easier politically to say that overdevelopment, drought, habitat loss is causing these decliens. But, it is politically not possible for a game dept to come out with program for widespread coyote control. All you ever hear about is habitat loss, but there are millions of acres of land in montana and wyoming that are exactly the same as they always have been, but the mule deer declines are happening even in the good habitat areas.
Habitat is important, but there is more going on then just that.
So, those are three issues that WA faces that are problematic and they are having an impact on our deer herds. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done. We are stuck with our large population base, and the $$ just aren't there for extra wardens. Politically, this state will always lean more towards the PETA people than us sportsmen, so I don't see predator control, let alone someday having sanctioned wolfhunts being doable. And, indians are a sovereign people on sovereign lands and the courts have upheld their rights to hunt and fish even off of the rez, so not much we can do there.