OHA's Blacktail Position

[Joe]

I was glad to see that the OHA is saying they don't want to lose any buck hunting opportunities if there is no biological basis to do so.

I had been told that they were the ones pushing for the cuts to bow season which had me very concerned. Apparantly there was no truth to that, at least as far as there official position.

[BrianMaguire]

As for the Bow limitations Brian Ferry (Prineville) with the ODFW has ben the biggest advocate I have seen. Basically making excuses and diversions so they don't have to do their real job and fight for habitat and large magagement objectives.

[Joe]

Thanks for the info Brian.

One other thing that concerns me is that one of the justifications for spliting bow season is that in would "Address public perception of excessive archery season". This is from the Draft Strategies for Black-tailed Deer. Gee wouldn't it make more sense to just tell people that bow hunters only harvest 5% of the blacktails and that in many units bow season is actually shorter than rifle season already.

[Drakeblake]

Believe me I love hunting as many days as possible throughout the season. But Joe you say that there is no Biological basis for cutting the seasons? Are you saying that our Blacktail populations are not in trouble with habitat loss and hairloss syndrome? [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] I think that if they don't do something to ensure that our Blacktail are not going to drop then in the next 10 years we are going to be in real big trouble. Maybe its time that we not think so much about ourselves and our present hunting opportunities and look more towards the future. More research does need to be done to establish no if but how much trouble the western deer populations are in. IMHO

-blake

[Joe]

Actually Blake I don't believe that the OHA is saying there is no biological basis to cut hunting. I believe the point is that should cuts be needed they be based on science not social perceptions.

My own biggest concern is that people are considering essentially cutting bow season in half in order to "Address public perception of excessive archery season". This is despite the fact that only a small fraction of buck harvest is from bow hunters. This is not a matter of guns verses bows to me as I rifle hunt deer more often than I bow hunt them. The problem is that if we base decisions on what people think we wont be hunting at all.

[Drakeblake]

Joe if there is a biological basis to cut hunting why wouldn't they be in support of it? I'm with you on the fact that if cuts are made they should be made for the right reasons.

-blake