Time for DNR to be Proactive and not reactive

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notrace

Active Member
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For far to long I see the DNR in most states act after the fact and not before.

This year is a case in point.
The DNR waits until the deer and elk are in bad shape before trying to stop shed hunting and start feeding.

I feel they should have areas that they want deer and elk to winter in closed to hunting etc from November until may every year and they should every year start placing feed in those areas in November so that animals can get accustomed to it especially the muledeer.

Waiting until its Jan Feb is too late for a lot of young and old animals and they can not just change over to pellets like that besides all the road kills.
 
Well all being said the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation, muledee foundation SCI SFW etc are all just as guilty.

They take the money and do a few things here and there but then when **** hits the fan they scream for more money more donations etc etc etc.

Just start being proactive and we won't loose 90% of the fawns and calfs or 60% of the mature deer and elk!

Sadly I see the DNR feeding on big parcels of private ground that most will never get to step foot on. Ya those are deer and elk from public ground but there getting use to being feed on private ground and that's where they will go from now on.

They should be feeding on WMA property to keep deer and elk alive from November to Jan and then if it gets bad jump up the amount of feed before they lose 50% of there body fat!

They have the funds to do it don't try and say they can't it's in the budget they just misappropriate the funs for other stuff.
 
notrace said:
For far to long I see the DNR in most states act after the fact and not before.

This year is a case in point.
The DNR waits until the deer and elk are in bad shape before trying to stop shed hunting and start feeding.

I feel they should have areas that they want deer and elk to winter in closed to hunting etc from November until may every year and they should every year start placing feed in those areas in November so that animals can get accustomed to it especially the muledeer.

Waiting until its Jan Feb is too late for a lot of young and old animals and they can not just change over to pellets like that besides all the road kills.
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It’s extremely expensive to feed deer and not much strong evidence that it makes much difference. It’s really a “feel good” project. Helps people sleep at night knowing they are doing something. At least that’s my understanding of why there’s not more of an effort to feed.
 
BuzzH said:
They just need to shoot more bucks so the fawns have more to eat.
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Come on, that makes zero sense! How possibly could there be more feed for fawns if there are less bucks competing for it? That’s like saying elk compete with deer for food. Never! :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO:
 
Feeding deer is very expensive. It can impact behavior, and congregate them creating disease outbreaks. The DWR is doing what it can and doing what is right. I do support your recommendation to put off shed hunting until a certain date every year, but feeding deer regularly is not good for their behavior or health. It should only be done when necessary. This year it’s certainly needed in some areas of the state.

Founder said:
Come on, that makes zero sense! How possibly could there be more feed for fawns if there are less bucks competing for it? That’s like saying elk compete with deer for food. Never! :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO:
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Deer and elk eat different things. Bucks and fawns eat similar things. I get where you’re coming from but when a farmer has a herd of cows does he prefer to feed 10 bulls and 10 cows, of which only the cows will yield calves to sell? Or do producers generally have 1 bull and 20 cows that will yield calves for their operations? Bucks are certainly what hunters want more more more of, and bigger, bigger, bigger, but it’s those does dropping the fawns and yes on winter ranges it’s best to have as much food as possible available for them.

People complain about the DWR but the truth is, especially in Utah we kill very few does in relation to overall population. Drought, harsh winters, development, Highway mortality, etc. are what is the blame for deer population issues. Killing bucks just isn’t a broad scale population impact like people rant and rave it is. If Sportsman spent as much time trying to solve the actual population size impacts on our deer vs bitching about the DWR handing out 800 or 1000 buck tags on a unit, we’d be further ahead.
 
Founder said:
It’s extremely expensive to feed deer and not much strong evidence that it makes much difference. It’s really a “feel good” project. Helps people sleep at night knowing they are doing something. At least that’s my understanding of why there’s not more of an effort to feed.
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Actually you ate correct but also wrong this is a when you start to feed thing.

If you start feeding in say January and the deer have been eating sticks and steams then the switch over to pellets is not much help as the digestive system in muledeer can't just switch over like that for muledeer but if they have been eating pellets and stick and twigs and then start eating more pellets when it gets harder for them then it can work incredibly well for them but now there feeding alfalfa hay to the elk and pellets for the deer and the deer can't change over and do not have any body fat to be able to make thar change over possible.

Like I said earlier in another post deer that eat apples all year or alfalfa all year can eat that stuff but when they go from browsing to apples and alfalfa all at once especially after starving its very low return rate.
 
Oneye said:
Deer and elk eat different things. Bucks and fawns eat similar things. I get where you’re coming from but when a farmer has a herd of cows does he prefer to feed 10 bulls and 10 cows, of which only the cows will yield calves to sell? Or do producers generally have 1 bull and 20 cows that will yield calves for their operations? Bucks are certainly what hunters want more more more of, and bigger, bigger, bigger, but it’s those does dropping the fawns and yes on winter ranges it’s best to have as much food as possible available for them.
Click to expand...

I agree. I was actually being sarcastic with part of my post in response to buzz.
 
notrace said:
Actually you ate correct but also wrong this is a when you start to feed thing.

If you start feeding in say January and the deer have been eating sticks and steams then the switch over to pellets is not much help as the digestive system in muledeer can't just switch over like that for muledeer but if they have been eating pellets and stick and twigs and then start eating more pellets when it gets harder for them then it can work incredibly well for them but now there feeding alfalfa hay to the elk and pellets for the deer and the deer can't change over and do not have any body fat to be able to make thar change over possible.

Like I said earlier in another post deer that eat apples all year or alfalfa all year can eat that stuff but when they go from browsing to apples and alfalfa all at once especially after starving its very low return rate.
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I have nothing against feeding deer if it works. I was just stating that it’s extremely expensive and when I’ve talked with biologists and the previous DWR head, they weren’t so sure it was worth it.
 
Sadly I'm am sure it ain't cheap but they do have plenty in there funds to do it.

I just hate seeing every time it looks like the deer might start rebounding they get hit by a bad winter.

But you should not just take what the DNR says about feeding without looking at other facts there not lies there just half truth.
 
SS! said:
ITS TIME TO GET RID OF THE GENERAL TAGS
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They dont have general tags. And what they need to do, is have 1 deer draw. Use your 20 points on Pauns or Wasatch East. It takes 3 or 4 points to draw that, so its not general. Those con orgs got us good with everything they do in the name of conservation. Millions in $$$ every year, and youd think Utah was the PRIME deer hunting spot in every unit in the West, but we are not.
 
Robiland said:
They dont have general tags. And what they need to do, is have 1 deer draw. Use your 20 points on Pauns or Wasatch East. It takes 3 or 4 points to draw that, so its not general. Those con orgs got us good with everything they do in the name of conservation. Millions in $$$ every year, and youd think Utah was the PRIME deer hunting spot in every unit in the West, but we are not.
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Oops I meant region tags. But I agree ?
 
There is a answer but so.e people will always disagree but kill more cow elk and start feeding deer sooner and feed elk away from deer so they don't compete for food.
 
I feel that resident and non resident have a say as good hell the non resident pays enough for the chance to hunt!!
 
lostinOregon said:
Isn’t it up to the Utah guys and non residents should just keep their mouth shut?
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That’s the point dumbbutt. I was mocking the Utah guys that are always on the WY forum trying to tell them they need to limit resident tags.
 
Tards pay 20 times the ? ? for the same tag the resident gets every year!! So Wyoming Residents got more then there fair share.
 

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