Reg 3 Mule Deer Survey 2017

[Gamebuster]

For those who didn't receive a letter, they should email or call Ted Zimmerman, the Manager of Resource management in Kamloops. Bantering back and forth on here won't do any good. Let him know that a big picture approach to mule deer management is need and the knee jerk season tinkering is flaky at best.

Knee jerk season tinkering? Where is that occurring? And having regions adjacent to 3 extending their seasons a little bit (big picture thinking) to distribute pressure..is that knee jerk and flaky?

[one-shot-wonder]

I haven't seen the survey but it sounds like season tinkering is being considered and potentially used instead of dealing with the real issues and thinking big picture. An overall mule deer management plan needs to be actioned for the Southern Interior. The focus needs to be on more funding, ecosystem restoration and growing the resource.
Regions 4,5 and 8 are just as guilty in passed years/decades... Restrictions imposed on hunters and yet the mule deer declines continue to ebb along....

[Bugle M In]

Another issue, is not when the seasons are, or what the restrictions are etc.
The biggest change I see in all the regions is, the amount of logging that has happened.
All in the name of beetle kill, and the race to cut every tree down before it is hit by the beetle.
That along with the ever increasing wolves, are probably, in my opinion, the 2 main things that have
changed out there.
I have hunted a long time out there now, and those are the factors that are so obviously different from
years ago.
Even lakes, Roche Lake as an example, was impacted from the beetle kill and the extensive logging in the area.
Just an example of the impact this has had.
Not trying to put people down who are in the industry, it's not their fault, but, it has had an impact.
Some is good, but too much, is not.

That the ministry is considering playing around with the seasons yet again, makes me mad.
It's been shown that time after time...it does not work.
So you have to ask yourself...."what else has changed"?

It's not hard to see, and they need to change, not us.
As stated, now they are (logging) going into the main winter ranges to log that out....
It's just my opinion, but I think it is going to get worse all around.

[horshur]

Hunter pressure doesn't matter.

Sex ratios and fawn recruitment matter.

If they don't tell you what those are, then you have zero info to make an informed decision.

Hunter pressure is a social issue and has nothing to do with conservation or game management.

I think this is the real issue..we had it too good for a number of years things are more normal now and people are bitching...There are a few outlying areas that took a hit winterkill, predation, forest encroachment, longer winters but the majority of region 3 is still very productive but maybe not so good for larger bucks( be honest a stinky dink 4 point 99.8 % of time) with the increased pressure. This is mostly an "Ego" issue.

[Bugle M In]

So far, in Region 3 where I hunt, I can honestly say I can take a 4 point, in 4 point season, every year.
It's very doable.
What is hard, is to find a "trophy sized" buck, which was easier years ago, in that same area.
They are still there, but, I would have to say it is harder.
And as stated, I have noticed a "dramatic" increase in hunter #'s in this area, right when Reg 5 is closed!
I noticed it "right away", the 1st year it happened!
As soon as R5 opens, things go back to normal, as it was for years.
Open up 5, and you take that extra pressure of R3, especially in the areas close to R5.

As for 4 point restriction, does it really work??.....I don't think it does.
Same as 6pt restriction for elk in EK.....it hasn't helped.

As far as I am concerned, it has only put "more pressure" on "trophy sized" game.
I would take a 3 pt elk, if it crossed my path, but no, I have to chase down a 6pt, and usually the
"herd bull", which I think is deserving to be the "real breeding stock".

Ministry has got it all backwards if yo ask me.
How many would take a 2 or 3 point, when it is usually 4 pt restriction time, if it were open??
How many more 4 pt would not be taken, because someone already "tagged out" on a 3 pt??

[boxhitch]

I haven't seen the survey but it sounds like season tinkering is being considered and potentially used instead of dealing with the real issues and thinking big picture.

You would be wrong

An overall mule deer management plan needs to be actioned for the Southern Interior.

you would be right

That the ministry is considering playing around with the seasons yet again, makes me mad

Reg 3 has no plans of changing seasons at all, most due to no apparent reason.

As said, the survey is about hunter satisfaction, and no doubt info will be shared with other offices to maybe try and build a consensus and/or maybe more harmonization

[2chodi]

I haven't seen the survey but it sounds like season tinkering is being considered and potentially used instead of dealing with the real issues and thinking big picture. An overall mule deer management plan needs to be actioned for the Southern Interior. The focus needs to be on more funding, ecosystem restoration and growing the resource.
Regions 4,5 and 8 are just as guilty in passed years/decades... Restrictions imposed on hunters and yet the mule deer declines continue to ebb along....

You've got it. Question 18 of the survey gives the opportunity to choose this option.

[boxhitch]

Mule deer habitat, the rights and wrongs and fixes, is a whole other topic, that would make an interesting thread of itself. Fire it up.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Does anyone have any recent buck:doe ratios from region 3?
Are there any issues?

[Dannybuoy]

Does anyone have any recent buck:doe ratios from region 3?
Are there any issues?

I think we covered the irrelevance of that statistic on its own .