"The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."
in the Vernon area I know the mule deer and whitetail numbers have dropped dramatically. my house is just below one of the muledeers wintering range and spring fawn range and 20 years ago we could count ( and not accurately, just rough guessing with groups of 10, 20 etc) 350 to 400 mules deer come spring when the first green hits the hillside. about 15 years ago it was still good but down to 200 animals on the hill side. now 3 years ago I was on my porch with a spotting scope and counted 65 at the most and that was looking In the bluffs and gulley's etc, 2 years ago it was just over 40 and this last spring I managed to count 35.... really sad to see the decline, it used to be a treat to watch in the spring see all the fawns, and young deer coming up.... but so miss managed both on the hunting regulation side and the predator management side it makes me sick, I wont even hunt my local mule deer anymore. but our government still allows a month long any mule deer buck season..... and the stupid whitetail doe season is still going. they need to wake up or we wont have a deer recovery for 10 years.... even Cherryville was a danger to drive through come first and last light from worrying about hitting a whitey and now I make that drive weekly and you see a few in the fields but nothing near what it used to be....
The land use in the area of that slope has changed over the years, the holding capacity for the surrounding is not what it used to be either, no wonder there is less usage of the wintering grounds
and blaming hunting and regs is still a false narrative
Never say whoa in the middle of a mud hole
Three are going to be a lot of factors as to why, especially in regards to changing landscape.
And yes, a fire is a fantastic thing, for many years to come.
The only issue is, is that so much of the landscape (talking more about the Bonaparte Plateau), is that there are no trees left really to speak
about.
Yes, the fire can come thru it and do a great job burning up all the crap (something failing from our logging practices) etc.
But, there still need to be treed areas.
Fires don't necessarily burn every tree, but logging removes them all.
My interest would be to see the actual movements of deer as they migrate and what routes they use and when.
Are they using the open country, and during the day, or only a night or are they looking for those few areas that are treed to move up and
down in.
Where are they hanging to avoid preds?
This could be very important to the future.
Mind, most of those changes would have to be taken outside of the hunting spectrum.
Wonder how well that is going to work when trying to implement a better management program.
Not like those issues can be just fixed thru hunting regs.
The cat collaring is great to hear.
I almost feel guilt taking a poke at a big buck now. I don’t believe the regs were the cause of mule deer declines, however; I do feel restricted regs would help until numbers recover. I truly believe implementing a 4 point only year round regulation in selected areas would help. Also foot access areas only as well. It wouldn’t be hard to set boundaries using roads and creeks height of land ect. But if how we manage our salmon runs is any indication our deer have no hope in hell. I for one would welcome shortening seasons and antler restrictions. I couldn’t imagine a more depressing thing than loosing our deer. Theirs a lot of talk including myself about bad management but maybe I need to not worry about filling my freezer and just go for quality deer and let the small fellas grow up. I’ve got 30 white oak trees in my house growing and will transplant this spring. My way of helping. Bear is also a great eating critter two a year would satisfy my needs and save some deer in the mean while. Hunting isn’t always about killing it’s so much more than that. But if change is what we want we really do need to start with our selves. I no longer fish salmon in the south Thompson river for this reason I’d like to be apart of the solution and not a part of the problem. I ice fish for Kokanee now and spend more time targeting whitetail.
Good move Pauly if you really think there is a lack of bucks around to get the breeding done
Never say whoa in the middle of a mud hole
Pauly
do some research into why most of North America stopped the practice of antler restrictions. The one is hunters shoot short deer and this happens more then hunters want to admit. 3-32 even made the paper one season because of the amount of short deer COs were finding left or reported.
I believe BC made a right call going one MD. A next positive would be follow suit with most other jurisdictions in North America and ditch the point restriction deer season. There is a benefit to using either shorter seasons or weapons restrictions instead of 4pt season for both genetics and eliminating the short deer issues
Either way changes to buck harvest won’t have a large impact in population growth
Guys that make point mistakes are just morons who shouldn’t be packing a riffle or even hunting. Those are the type who got to kill no matter what they make us tru sportsman look bad to all others. Manage for big bucks to keep pesky whitetail from chasing down slow mulie does. As with everything it’s always a people problem. I’ve never made a mistake and I never will. If I’m not sure I let it walk .. big deal it’s only a deer. Better that than be a F*****g idiot