Blacktail Deer Harvest Lowest Ever

GutshotApe · 07-10-2003, 07:12 AM

This from Mike Stahlberg's column in todays Eugene R-G:

Oregon blacktail (rifle) deer hunters in 2002 experienced the lowest success rate since records have been kept...

ODFW's Bill Castillo of the Springfield office blames three things for the decline: 1) Hair-loss syndrome, 2) Adenovirus Hemorraghic Disease, and 3) Habitat reduction due to decreased forest clearcutting and regrowth of old clearcuts.

The Alsea Unit is typical of many areas. Ten to 15 years ago up to 13,000 buck hunters hunted there and success rates peaked at 40% for buck hunters (and more than 50% for doe hunters). Last year, of 5,367 general season hunters, only 15% killed a buck. Doe tags have been reduced to 500 and only 26% were filled.

Castillo said typically he would expect an inverse relationship between number of tags and the success ratio...if tags are reduced hunter success usually goes up. Now however, tags and hunter numbers have been reduced but harvest is still declining. :depressed:

Norm · 07-10-2003, 07:58 AM

Great story GSA. It makes sense to me, Alsea has lots of acres of Federal forest land which has seen lower logging rates. Less logging clearcuts = less feed, coupled with the disease problem can't be helping populations any. I've noticed lower blacktail populations in areas I hunt in Saddle MTN the last two years. No lack of clear cuts in the area, so it must be disease or over harvest(wich I highly doubt). Maybe shorter seasons are in our future

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Wreckless · 07-10-2003, 08:22 AM

The decline of the blacktails has been DRAMATIC in the areas I hunt and I don't believe that it's from over harvest....except for the occasional doe from the road!!!

.

I've been lucky enough to have permission on several pieces of private land in the Gaston/Cherry Grove area and we are just seeing less deer!! We have seen deer with the wasting "syndrome" and a couple with some hair loss, but I think the cougars that have taken up residence on those ridges are taking care of those!!

All I know is that we are seeing less and less Deer and there are STILL a BIZZILION doe tags for the Trask unit

Oh well my .02

redfish89 · 07-10-2003, 12:43 PM

I think there are two other factors that have not been mentioned that have an effect on success rates.

1. Dry weather conditions during rifle season.
2. an increase in cougar numbers.

winterkill · 07-10-2003, 04:53 PM

Norm, I'm curious to what part of saddle mtn unit you hunt. I hunt that unit as well and i have seen a drop off in numbers, but I think it is due to a park that was put in a little over 5 years ago. Its called Bergerson park, my hunch is people have been poaching out of it IMHO...
IAN

Joe · 07-10-2003, 08:20 PM

My observation in twenty five plus years of hunting the Coast Range for blacktails. In areas that have prime habitat (few and far between now) there seems to be healthy deer populations. I have to hunt about as hard now as in the past to kill a buck. It's just that there are a lot less places to hunt. :depressed:

I really don't think shortening the season will increase the harvest rate nor will it increase the deer populations. I would guess that the majority of public land never even gets hunted nowdays. It is just to thick. I really think it would be tough to overhunt blacktails in this jungle.

[ 07-10-2003, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Joe ]

gottafish · 07-10-2003, 11:10 PM

I think with all the road closers the guy's who hunt from the road are out of luck and that is a big part of harvest declines. Back when you could drive those roads the harvest was high but now you have to hoof it and I'm sorry to say there (beleve it or not) are not that many guys who will put on the miles, they keep checking out the same old clear cut and that aint going to put a buck in the freezer anymore. Now I bow hunt and I put the miles in and I have seen some nice bucks the last few years Many more 4 points than spikes now I think the buck to doe ratio is about correct and the deer I see have got some age on them I think you need to go into a area about 3 miles and then it can be awsome I use a big cart to haul my gear and my buck in and out and some guys use mountain bikes but the deer are there they just are not stupid, the Deer that hang out in those acsessable clear cuts are for the most part dead. Weather it be by poachers or hunters. and I have found if you can put on some miles and hunt the edges you will find some great deer. Just My two cents Rich

Norm · 07-11-2003, 08:01 AM

Winterkill, I hunt the SW side of Saddle MT. I have seen a steady population decline in the area and I'm sure it's not poachers. The roads are closed in the area except for rifle season(90% of wich road hunt the area). Five years ago we used to see 5-6 deer a day during bow season. Now we are lucky to see one deer a day. There are bears and coyotes in the area, but I've never seen cat tracks so I doubt cougers are impacting the population much. The only thing that makes any sense to me is disease casusing the population decline.

winterkill · 07-11-2003, 03:00 PM

Blue Tip Spinner...
I am talking about the park right off hwy 26 on timber road. With people living in there full time it seems very likely people are poaching animals whenever they want. They can just lock the gate and not have to worry about any cops. I have drove down there and looked around. I was astonished to see so many campers/ trailers (at least 30). I wonder what it does to the health of the river, plus I know that rural areas are becoming hotbeds for methanphetamine production. Which makes me suspect people are down there for illegitamite reasons. This is all my opinion, but I do know I have seen less deer since Bergerson Park was put in.
Ian
P.S. Norm this is the N.E. corner of the unit, but I agree with you, I haven't seen any cat tracks so I don't think they are affecting the population. I have seen numerous deer with disease though.

GutshotApe · 07-11-2003, 03:13 PM

winterkill - I worked for the timber co. that once owned most of the private land around Timber Rd/Hwy 26 jct...had a little HQ office & compound there (SW corner)and tracts of land scattered nearby and on out west on 26. I recall there was a local venison poaching ring that operated in the area...and I think OSP eventually caught them selling venison to restaurants in Portland. This was about 10 yrs ago. I had occasion to go door to door and met quite a few of our neighbors. Wouldn't surprise me if commercial poaching was still happening around there...not to mention regular, day-to-day poaching. The Illinois Valley ain't got nothin' on the upper Nehalem. Not everyone there is an outlaw, but more than enough are, it seems. :depressed:

Blue Tip Spinner · 07-11-2003, 11:23 PM

winterkill-
is the bergerson park located north of the intersection of hwy 26 and the vernonia/timber hwy? i used to hunt that area when i was younger and i had a key to the property during deer/elk season. we also called it the "park" because of the big meadow in there. just a question.

MrFish · 07-12-2003, 09:55 AM

GutShotApe,

Seems like ODFW needs to work on habitat imrprovements in the coast range and Willamette Valley. I understand those big industrial timber companies are pretty much nuking the understory with herbicide when they re-plant doug fir. Course that probably explains why there is at least some pretty good deer hunting when you drift the Willamette from Eugene down to Harrisburg (ag land not industrial forest land).

Mr.Fish

GutshotApe · 07-14-2003, 07:49 AM

Mr.Fish - Yeah, some private clearcuts don't have as much browse as they used to. Back when I was killing brush on a large scale, the herbicides weren't so effective for so long. Sometimes we had to spray the same clearcut 2 or 3 times killing or setting back only 2 or 3 brush species...and the net effect prolonged the usefulness for deer until canopy closure occurred. Now, the new forest dominates the site a lot faster.

Quit giving away my formerly secret spot.

Critr Gitr · 07-14-2003, 08:38 AM

Cats cats cats...... one more factor for the equation. Problem is that when Measure 18 passed it was the 1st step to a 10-20yr plan by the antis. I read some literature obtained from their groups (HSUS & PDI) where their plan was to increase the # of natural predators to the point that the deer and elk management folks will have to prove (in court) that hunting is justified. Unfortunately they want to exclude humans as predators. I've seen an unbelievable elk & deer decline since 1994 in the eastern Oregon units that I hunt. I've taken my share during spring bear on the east side. Just follow the cows & does - when fawning and calving starts - the bears and cats are close by.