Each side in
the on-going roil regarding whether Ohio hunters are shooting too many does
will find ammunition in the preliminary final four-day statewide muzzle-loading
deer-hunting season.
This season
ran January 2 through 5 and a preliminary 13,726 animals were taken. That
figure represents a 16.63-percent decline from the same season’s 2014 season
total of 16,464 harvested deer. Which in itself was a marked decline from the
2013 season’s tallied harvest.
Least concerned
of all that a decline is being noted in the harvest statistics’ book is the
Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife.
All for one
simple, scientifically sound, biologically based reason; that being, all along
the Wildlife Division’s main goal has been to reduce the state’s deer herd
which numbered in the several hundreds of thousand before the starting gun –
and starting longbow/crossbow – were fired. Or at least that’s the agency’s
spin on the subject.
Yes, poor
weather played a factor in the muzzle-loading season’s harvest drop but then so
did an entire possibles’ bag of ingredients, Wildlife Division officials argue.
Among them
were expanding opportunities for deer hunters that included a two-day October
antlerless-only/muzzle-loading only deer-hunting season.
Thing is,
the just concluded statewide any-deer-goes muzzle-loading season continues to
demonstrate the Wildlife Division’s commitment and success in reigning in the
deer herd where necessary, the agency’s lead on Ohio’s deer management program.
“We set out
to do what we had to do: Get the deer populations within targeted goals,” said
Mike Tonkovich, the Wildlife Division’s deer management administrator. “The
bottom line is that we have fewer deer; there’s no magic about that.”
Nor secret
as the Wildlife Division has long maintained the necessity of aligning county-by-county
deer populations with landowner preferences, the desire to provide recreational
viewing and hunting opportunities as well as what is good for the herd.
“Part of the
problem,” Tonkovich says, is that for too many years the Wildlife Division
simply used a scalpel where a meat cleaver was more warranted. At least in much
of the state and at least at one time, anyway, says Tonkovich.
Tonkovich also
says that the agency, hunters and landowners all must note how change comes
about through a variety of means, each of which is a contributing factor in any
deer-herd reduction process.
And in Ohio
the entire package is working with Tonkovich noting that for the fifth year in
a row the Wildlife Division was able to reduce the number of deer-damage permits
it issues.
Such a cut
shows that farmers are experiencing less crop damage simply because fewer deer
are around to do the feasting, says Tonkovich.
And to help assure
that Ohio’s deer herd did not once more begin the climb to the glory days many
hunters pine for, the Wildlife Division was shooting for a five- to 10-percent
decline in the total 2014-2015 all-deer-seasons’ harvest.
“And we’re
pretty much right there now at nine percent,” also said John Windou, the Wildlife
Division’s designated media spokesman on deer.
Such then deer
management becomes a delicate balancing act: ensuring that farmers aren’t being
denied a profit because their grain and other crops are being eaten by an
over-abundant deer population, that fewer bucks are being struck by fewer
Buicks, and at the same time striving to provide enough animals so that hunters
don’t get bored while on their stands.
Thus,
accumulating scientific data, assembling opinions from the various constituencies
as well as gauging what is best for the deer herd’s health are all items that will
get stirred into the management policy pot later this year, says Tonkovich.
“I suspect I’m
going to be buying a lot of pencils to do a lot of figuring in the goal-setting
process,” Tonkovich says.
Even so,
Tonkovich says that “pressure has been building for a long time” by a pretty
substantial segment of the state’s deer-hunting community to put more animals
back into the woods and fields.
Yet let
everyone know that no one side will dominate the conversation, now or in the
months to come, Tonkovich cautions.
“The squeaky
wheel doesn’t always get the grease,” he said.
But squeak
the deer-hunting wheel does resonate, too. Among one issue that more than a few
deer hunters want the Wildlife Division to jettison is the early two-day, antlerless-only,
muzzle-loading-only deer-hunting season.
However, that
season’s future is “rock-solid,” says Tonkovich.
This sophomore
season is already becoming very popular, one where a lot of hunters would much
rather hunt during pleasant October than succumb to the cold, wind and snow
all-too often encountered in early January, says Tonkovich.
“We have a
changing population that isn’t hunting the way it did in 1985,” Tonkovich says.
“There is
high participation for this hunt,” Tonkovich said.
Still,
Tonkovich says this interest appears to have stalled with the statewide
four-day muzzle-loading season.
Maybe poor weather
played a factor this year, or perhaps hunters are just plum tuckered out after
participating in one of the nation’s longest archery deer-hunting season, an
(by some hunters’ opinion) accursed early muzzle-loading season, an early
youth-only firearms deer-hunting season, and a seven-day general firearms
deer-hunting season, says Tonkovich as well.
“We have a
changing population that isn’t hunting the way it did in 1985,” Tonkovich says.
Thus, the
statistics for this year’s statewide muzzle-loading deer-hunting season are
striking if only because “there was no rhyme or reason” as to why one county
saw an increase and another experienced a sharp decline, Tonkovich says.
So while a few
major deer-hunting players saw gains in their respective muzzle-loading season
harvests - Ashtabula County (up 3.19 percent), Trumbull County (up 5.41 percent), and Brown
(up 5.15 percent) to name three, other counties did not. For example: Guernsey
County’s kill was down 39.42 percent); Tuscarawas County’s was down 38.68
percent; and Harrison County’s was down 37.43 percent).
All of which
means the Wildlife Division will once more be shuffling the deck chairs as it
works to tweak the 2015-2016 deer-hunting regulations with an eye on what to do
thereafter.
“Some counties
may see fewer antlerless tags or fewer deer damage permits, or maybe a reduction
in bag limits,” says Tonkovich.
Ah, but some
sportsmen are not at all happy with a snip here and other nip there.
One can count
Dennis Malloy as one of the disgruntled Ohio deer hunters who is unhappy with
the Wildlife Division’s current deer management program.
Speaking for
himself and not as an employee of a deer advocating organization, Malloy said in
an open electronic exchange with a number of Ohio outdoors writers that “Sometimes
no action is best… (W)e are tinkering Deer management to death.”
Importantly,
says Malloy also, if the Wildlife Division is under pressure by politicians to
reduce the state’s deer herd instead of it being based on science “… then tell us
– let us – the Sportsmen who pay the bills and vote – battle the Governor and
(Natural Resources’) Director.”
“I have one
main issue that is on top of them all,” Malloy said in the electronic string. “We
need to find a way for more hunters to harvest one deer, before exploring ways for
landowners or their designees to harvest multiple deer.”
While Malloy
did say he lacks the final and defining solution to Ohio’s deer herd management
strategy he is convinced that deer population control, agricultural assistance,
“or whatever new-fangled name” the Natural Resources Department comes up with
are equally without weight.
And so this
exchange of conflicting views may come to a head Saturday, January 24. That is
when the Wildlife Division will conduct public-participation “deer summit” open
houses at its district One, Two, Three, and Four offices and a location to be
named in District Five. All sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Here is the
county-by-county breakdown of the just concluded four-day, muzzle-loading
deer-hunting season with their respective 2014 figures in parentheses:
Adams: 277 (296); Allen: 57 (46);
Ashland: 253 (283); Ashtabula: 323 (313); Athens: 335 (485); Auglaize: 38 (41);
Belmont: 393 (561); Brown: 245 (233); Butler: 85 (104); Carroll: 341 (458);
Champaign: 85 (83); Clark: 33 (55); Clermont: 168 (153); Clinton: 64 (52); Columbiana:
206 (379); Coshocton: 553 (630); Crawford: 59 (53); Cuyahoga: 3 (1); Darke: 28
(22); Defiance: 97 (74); Delaware: 53 (101); Erie: 37 (27); Fairfield: 141
(192); Fayette: 20 (27); Franklin: 29 (31); Fulton: 23 (30); Gallia: 281 (283);
Geauga: 94 (96); Greene: 48 (58); Guernsey: 395 (652); Hamilton: 40 (60);
Hancock: 63 (42); Hardin: 99 (80); Harrison: 321 (513); Henry: 32 (16);
Highland: 243 (254); Hocking: 284 (362); Holmes: 264 (336); Huron: 147 (150);
Jackson: 249 (265); Jefferson: 266 (472); Knox: 311 (391); Lake: 30 (20);
Lawrence: 173 (229); Licking: 390 (511); Logan: 128 (130); Lorain: 126 (142);
Lucas: 23 (16); Madison: 31 (27); Mahoning: 141 (162); Marion: 45 (42); Medina:
114 (137); Meigs: 404 (425); Mercer: 29 (28); Miami: 37 (45); Monroe: 244
(278); Montgomery: 33 (24); Morgan: 316 (361); Morrow: 88 (90); Muskingum: 445
(593); Noble: 272 (341); Ottawa: 24 (17); Paulding: 62 (51); Perry: 229 (294);
Pickaway: 77 (47); Pike: 180 (187); Portage: 81 (109); Preble: 55 (100);
Putnam: 26 (22); Richland: 241 (227); Ross: 301 (287); Sandusky: 51 (43);
Scioto: 199 (196); Seneca: 122 (98); Shelby: 60 (82); Stark: 167 (202); Summit:
30 (48); Trumbull: 234 (222); Tuscarawas: 363 (592); Union: 41 (57); Van Wert:
22 (25); Vinton: 243 (392); Warren: 65 (91); Washington: 340 (402); Wayne: 137
(140); Williams: 86 (69); Wood: 47 (34) and Wyandot: 91 (69). State Total: 13,726 (16,464).
UPDATE: After frequent swipes at the Ohio Division of Wildlife by me and many others for its steadfast use of SurveyMonkey.com the agency has finally seen the light. After January 15 the Wildlife Division will no longer subscribe to the survey-gathering entity, which faithfully and in full knowledge and approval of, donates to the radically anti-hunting/fishing/trapping organization the Humane Society of the United States. YES!About this blogger:
Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the
Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.
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