What in tarnation...

[dawson29]

Just wanted to get something off my chest so maybe I can understand it a bit better from other hunters input. So we all go to the MNR service counter and purchase our deer licences for 2014 and Im sure we were all a bit concerned/p***ed off when we found out that one tag per hunter was all that was issued for 2014. Im reading the news this morning and southwestern ontario has had record numbers this year for number of deer involved automobile accidents. Who on the tail end is directly responsible for conducting and issuing white tailed deer tags. Surely somebody that hasnt a clue on how the heard must be managed.

 

[trky chsr]

I talked to a fellow who noticed he didn't have an antlerless designation on his tag even though he applied (for 90). When he inquired he was told the archery antlerless tags were reduced by 1200 this year. TC

 

[Paul Hodges]

well, everyone has an opinion of what the numbers are for deer hunting and also saying more are killed by cars lately, well my opnion, half those deer are killed in and around close to town , where they can,t be hunted, I listen to police scanner and a lot of collisions are in town and also a lot of more cars on road than there used to be, but I also believe that there are certain areas that have plenty of deer and others that don,t , just that some posters might live in areas that are plentiful and the rest that are not, so we can,t always blame it on the MNR

 

[ch312]

The MNRF offered 17,500 additional deer tags across the province with some WMU's offering up to 6 additional tags per hunter. Just because the deer and tag numbers are down for your specific WMU does not mean that other WMU's are in the same boat.

Why be concerned or pissed off? Be thankful the MNRF cares more about the health of the herd than hunters filling their freezers. It would be a disaster if they didn't monitor deer populations and continued to offer additional tags in WMU's that cannot support the harvest.

 

[dawson29]

I definetly see that as a valid point but when people are literally dodging deer nightly on rural roads, I dont see that as a yearly coincidence. I see that as a flaw in our management system and Im not saying lets reinvent the wheel; just take a closer look at whats going on here. And heaven forbid a deer lands into the lap of somebody close to me or any of you awesome hunters out there, I see the herd management irrelevant at that point.

 

[ch312]

Managing a deer herd province wide is far more sophisticated than saying "Well, we've had a bunch of collisions this year. Let's offer 6 additional tags across the board to get those numbers down". You cannot rely on deer/vehicle collisions to get an accurate number of deer as it's nothing more than luck if you hit a deer or not.

What's going on here is the MNRF is doing their job properly. Last winter was severe and many area's had significant winter kill which prompted the MNRF to lower the number of additional tags for specific WMU's.