[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/29/national/29DEER.html]States Adjust Rules to Curb Deer Herd[/url]

December 29, 2002
States Adjust Rules to Curb Deer Herd
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

MONTROSE, Pa. — For generations of deer hunters, a doe was the consolation
prize — something to fill a freezer, perhaps, but nothing to be proud of.
Hunters always set their sights on bucks, whether they were young and
sprouting first antlers, or rare 200-pounders with trophy racks.
State regulations, not just here in Pennsylvania but around the country,
encouraged the practice. And some landowners, eager to protect the next
generation of deer, posted signs reading "No Doe Hunting."
Now many states are starting to react to the disastrous consequence,
wildlife experts say. In much of the continent-spanning range of
white-tailed deer, and especially in the Midwest and Northeast,
populations have become hugely imbalanced, with the ratio of adult does to
bucks often exceeding 10 to 1.
The imbalance has contributed to a population explosion that has caused an
array of costly problems, including deer-car collisions, ruined crops and
forests stripped of seedlings. The nationwide population of white-tailed
deer has swelled to more than 20 million, up from just 500,000 in 1900.
"Every year, we've almost exterminated the adult bucks right out of the
population," said Dr. Gary L. Alt, a biologist who directs deer management
for the game commission of Pennsylvania. "It's been incredibly
disruptive."
Pennsylvania has joined a growing list of states where game agencies or
assemblages of private landowners are seeking to restore the balance. It
has expanded the hunting season for antlerless deer (most such deer are
female) and issued permits for killing does in places like farms that have
sustained the most damage from deer. Other states that have enacted such
rules or that are considering them include New York, Georgia, Arkansas,
Mississippi and Michigan.
Among other changes, Pennsylvania extended its doe season last year to two
weeks, from three days. In that first season, hunters killed about a third
of the state's 1.3 million deer, with bucks accounting for 42 percent of
the total.
This year, early counts are showing that only 26 percent of the deer
killed were bucks. "Three does for every buck," Dr. Alt said. "A few years
ago that would have been unthinkable."
It may sound callous, he and other experts say, but until someone develops
an effective birth-control program for deer — something that has succeeded
only under ideal conditions with isolated deer populations — hunters hold
the best hope of containing the population.
"We're finally starting to use hunters to manage deer rather than managing
deer for hunters," said Bryon P. Shissler, a biologist who is a consultant
for the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Audubon Society.
It is a hard shift to make, with many hunters resisting the new rules.
Some told local newspapers this fall that they were buying the $6 doe
permits and not using them, to prevent other hunters from killing does. On
a homemade plywood sign near Harrisburg, Dr. Alt was labeled "Osama bin
Alt."
" `Did you get your buck?' That was always the question," said Ed
Grasavage, 49, a longtime hunter with a 201-acre wooded tract near
Montrose, about 30 miles north of Scranton in the Endless Mountains
region.
But Mr. Grasavage is part of a growing national coalition of landowners
and hunters espousing what they call quality deer management, in which the
focus is shooting does and only older bucks.
"Hunters have essentially been takers," Mr. Grasavage said as he took Dr.
Alt on a tour of the last day of the rifle season, starting before dawn
with two father-son teams shooting on his property. "Now," Mr. Grasavage
said, "we're trying to return something to the resource."
[Pennsylvania's deer season for hunters wielding bows or muzzle loaders
began on Dec. 26 and will end on Jan. 11.]
Some critics say that notwithstanding the intentions of Dr. Alt and his
counterparts elsewhere, many practices by state game agencies and private
landowners could still increase deer numbers despite the shift in killing
patterns.
For example, some opponents of hunting say, Pennsylvania and other states
— often using millions of dollars in federal money collected through
firearms taxes — raise forests' carrying capacity for deer by clearing
patches in the woods and cultivating food plants like clover.
Sue Russell, a founder of the New Jersey League of Animal Protection
Voters, said quality deer management not only encouraged shooting does,
but also encouraged landowners to provide wild deer with food.
That practice was evident on Dr. Alt's tour. He and Mr. Grasavage passed a
600-acre tract owned by a deer hunter who had cleared wooded hills and
carpeted them with cornfields — all intended for deer.
A few miles away, Dr. Alt spent half an hour hearing complaints from the
Castrogiovanni family, whose 600-acre dairy farm is losing corn, tree
seedlings and sprouting seed to roving herds. In essence, the only
difference between the two nearby properties was that one was raising and
fattening livestock while the other was raising and fattening deer. The
goal of such practices, Ms. Russell said, is "to create more targets for
more hunters."
Dr. Alt and many other wildlife and forestry experts acknowledged that
providing extra food clashed with the long-term goal of reducing herds.
But they said that it was a necessary compromise to build hunters'
support.
For Dr. Alt, the visit to Montrose was like peeking from a front-line
foxhole during a tentative truce.
He had spent years trying to sell skeptical hunters on the proposed rule
changes. Now he was starting to see the fruits of that effort.
By late morning, fresh-killed deer were already piling up at Jeff
Scavazzo's venison-processing plant, where they would soon be turned into
vacuum-packed steaks, stew and kielbasa.
Eight were does. Only one was a buck. Dr. Alt took that as a sign of
victory.
The misty hills nearby cracked and popped with rifle fire.
Dozens of orange-vested hunters hiked roadsides, hunched against slushy
rain or crowded into pickups, and rushed to the woods to use their last
permits before sundown.
Many were still gunning for bucks, but many others were happy to focus on
does. Some told Dr. Alt of seeing significantly more bucks than they had
in past years. This was encouraging, he said, but the overall numbers were
still far too high.
Ben LaRue, the son of a dairy farmer with 700 acres, said he counted 84
deer that morning, including 31 bucks, two of which were "shooters,"
mature adults several years old.
"They've got to find a way to get after those does," Dr. Alt said.
Some hunters, when introduced, shook his hand as if he were a celebrity,
saying they had once stood in crowds shouting him down at sportsmen's
meetings.
"It's so nice to meet all these people and have them not want to punch
your teeth out," Dr. Alt said.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Alot of hunters here HATE Gary Alt. Supposedly he was in charge of the deer in VA and he fucked things up down there. I don't know how he screwed up in VA, that is just what I heard.

I live 5 miles from the border, about 35
 from Montrose.
I have hunted many seasons in PA and always
 saw bucks on opening day.
Anybody from around here will tell you there
 are more deer per square mile in PA than in
 NY.
I don't think taking a few more doe will
change that all by itself.

Things could be worse...

[b][url=http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=200&xlc=901568]Wisconsin Overreacts to CWD[/url][/b]

[i]Consider how Wisconsin reacted after one CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) infected deer was found in that state's wild herd in February. (Since that time, more than three dozen Wisconsin deer have been diagnosed with CWD.)

The state game department established a 255,000-acre "eradication zone" west of Madison and asked hunters and land owners to kill every deer in the zone — every deer, all of the estimated 25,000 bucks, does, yearlings and fawns.

Once those deer are gone, according to the Wisconsin plan, the huge eradication zone will be kept "deer free" for five years.

Sound impossible?

Well, on top of that plan, about 70,000 additional whitetails will be killed in the counties surrounding the zone.

Biologists, presumably, will then take and test brain tissue samples from the 95,000 deer before the carcasses are hauled to a dump for disposal.[/i]

We've been taking out does at the family farm for decades now (and the occasional buck)--and there are more deer running around here (even after firearms season) than ever.  Short of the return of market hunting or a severe reduction of habitat (or maybe disease...) Whitetails are gonna be around for awhile.

I believe the program most states will be using soon is an "Earn-A-Buck" system which requires every hunter to kill at least one doe before a Buck can be taken.  I think Wisconsin may use this system now, but I am not sure.

Other methods that improve kill productivity are using dogs (used in the eastern region of Virginia), and hunting over feeders (used in Texas, banned in Missouri).

[i]Among other changes, Pennsylvania extended its doe season last year to two
weeks, from three days. In that first season, hunters killed about a third
of the state's 1.3 million deer, with bucks accounting for 42 percent of
the total.[/i]

[:O] [shock]

I'm not so sure, does make more does and bucks alike.  Here in Eastern NC our gun deer season ranges from 10-12 to 1-1.  Either sex all year.  

Our Hunting club has rules that you cannot shoot any deer that does not have 4 points or more.  That is good for letting small bucks grow into larger ones, but our doe population is HUGE!