Genius yes,,, degree in forestry? no,,, why, do you need one to comment on this thread Stan? or whatever your name is.... Logged for 20 years in the Valley so must qualify me to state the obvious, or its obvious to me anyways.
Printable View
Genius yes,,, degree in forestry? no,,, why, do you need one to comment on this thread Stan? or whatever your name is.... Logged for 20 years in the Valley so must qualify me to state the obvious, or its obvious to me anyways.
Bugle M In;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust this finds you well and kudos on the thoughtful post.
As a reasonably long time resident of the south Okanagan - 34 years and counting - I would opine that your assessment of human development is the major cause of lower overall mule deer numbers.
Since the late '90's too, we've seen many hay fields converted into vineyard.
I don't for one moment blame the land owners for doing that, but here's an example of lost wintering habitat. Ten years back our girls and I used to commute between Penticton and OK Falls on Eastside Road, running up onto McLean Creek Road, then down Oliver Ranch Road to Vaseaux Lake and finally north again into the Falls - all the while counting mulies. I want to say our record count was 125, but over 100 was common enough that it hardly was mentioned. My best count this year was 8..... Many of the hay fields where we used to count deer are now high fenced vineyards, so that's just a very small example.
At last count, the mulie herd in Penticton city limits was 250 +. As mentioned by many other posters, it's easier to make a living where there's a steady food supply and relatively few predators.
Honestly I don't believe hunters are the issue - Native, non-Native or Alien beings - I believe it's habitat loss and too much year round access into the shrinking remainder of habitat. Whether we can address that in a meaningful way remains to be seen. I for one certainly hope so.
Thanks again and all the best to you as we head into the spring.
Dwayne
I completely agree with you Dwayne...the main cause of mule deer declines in reg8 is development on critical winter range - then what peeves me off is morons like that guy in Kelowna want to then cull them...they were always traditionally here, and like you say, fences, highways, habitat fragmentation are making it harder for them to survive...a few more fires would help as well..I asked Jesse Zeman in April what he recommends as to how to stop all this development...and there isn't really a solution, because people want to move here because of our nice weather and nice warm lake, it's too bad...I guess all we can do is educate the public..
Okanagan Timber Supply Review is open for public comment
Anyone interested in wildlife considerations should make an informed comment
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/i...ble-annual-cut