Clint McCoy is an excellent person. I know him personally. I haven't known him long but there is no doubt in my mind that he has Ohio's deer herd in his best interest. I have had many conversations with Clint. He is very knowledgeable, honest, hard working and successful. He knows whitetail deer. Managing the deer herd in an entire state is a very difficult task. The Ohio Division of Natural Resources does an excellent job. They have worked hard to accomplish and maintain the excellent opportunities we have in Ohio. I realize people have differing opinions of how a deer herd should be managed, but from my experiences I have no complaints. Actually, I am thankful that God has provided me the opportunity to hunt this great state. I will do my best to preserve that opportunity and want to thank the ODNR for their hard work and dedication.
Is your name Clint?
The ODOW did an excellent job...20 years ago. Today, nah. I do differ from "their" way of managing the deer herd. Throwing crap on the wall to see what sticks is not proper management. Neither is relying on the natural predator-prey relationship. Thinking it is good management to shoot until we run out of deer so that hunters will quit and therefore the herd will rebound is insane. Estimating a deer herd by counting dead deer, is not good management. Relying on farmer attitude surveys when most farmers foolishly believe deer do the majority of damage to corn, is not good management. Not accounting for fawn mortality due to predation, is not good management. Not factoring that a rise in archery hunting equates to a higher loss per harvest, is not good management. Doing away with in-person check in stations, is not good management. Expanding opportunity to increase kill and falsely inflate herd numbers (due to being a moron that estimates herd size by harvest numbers), is not good management.
Ohio has fair deer hunting IN SPITE of the ODOW, not due to the ODOW. We once had GREAT deer hunting. It is entirely the fault of the ODOW that it is less than it once was. And BTW, it was not at it's peak when our harvest numbers were at their highest, it was at it's peak pre-2002. We had ample deer to hunt, no one was complaining then. If farmers were actually dealing with a measure of damage, they were issued permits. Problem solved. Policies put in place by none other than Mike Tonkovich (expanded opportunity, excessive tags) are to blame. But, what do I know, he's the one with the PHD...and the one who counts living deer by how many have died.
