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How many deer in a woodlot?

Shoulder Blade said:
Establish a .org organizing people to sit a year or two out.
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My parents had a nice pond when I was a kid. The winter of 77 killed our fish. Dad wound up draining the pond, buying a backhoe and re-working the whole thing. I fished in a fishless pond for a year or two. I've done nearly the same in yrs past while deer hunting. I'm not setting out a year. :)
 
brock ratcliff said:
My parents had a nice pond when I was a kid. The winter of 77 killed our fish. Dad wound up draining the pond, buying a backhoe and re-working the whole thing. I fished in a fishless pond for a year or two. I've done nearly the same in yrs past while deer hunting. I'm not setting out a year. :)
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I'm sorry but I don't see the correlation.

Creating awareness and a movement could be quite powerful, we really hold the power.
 
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yotehunter said:
They just disappeared. Same way with the muskrats the rumor is they have went sterile, and I do know there isn't a muskrat to be caught in five miles of my house. So something is definatley going on . Is it the water in the ditches, is it the fertilizers we are putting on the fields is it the gene altered crops we are raising that the critters are eating?
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This thought has been floating around in my head. I haven't spoken it because I figured people would think it was absurd, tin foil hat kind of stuff. I also figured there was no way to know for sure and hate to speculate. Guess I am just saying, I am glad I am not the only one who has wondered about this possibility.
 
jagermeister said:
They are still obtaining all kinds of data... Still working at deer processors, probably more intently than ever, actually.
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Lundy said:
Mike T himself was at the deer processor in Athens both days I visited during gun season aging deer and doing whatever else he does when he checks them over.
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He told me personally in October that they're trying to work with processors for data but he is highly doubtful the data will be accurate. He stated his skepticism is due to the subset of individuals that get their deer processed. Your more diehard hunters are more likely to be at a point in their hobby where they process their own. They are also the ones who are more likely to harvest mature animals. He said they're trying to work on a method to replace the check station data but he wasn't hopeful processor data would work.
 
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Beentown said:
That predator/prey management is lazy bullshit. Why evenly them to manage it then?
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Dang auto-correct. Let me restate. Using a predator/prey relationship model to manage our herd shows me they are either inept, lazy or both. Why pay them if all we are doing is waiting for participation to drop to start the cycle again?
 
Hortontoter said:
If we held the power we wouldn't be discussing what we are.
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If everyone chose to exercise their power we wouldn't be discussing what we are.

Unfortunately most want to be a "bone collector".

There are consequences for everything in life.

What will be the tipping/turning point?
 
Shoulder Blade said:
If everyone chose to exercise their power we wouldn't be discussing what we are.

Unfortunately most want to be a "bone collector".

There are consequences for everything in life.

What will be the tipping/turning point?
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The DNR believes most of those weekend warrior bone collectors will up and quit when the tough gets going. Then the population will rise again. It's a 15 year cycle.
 
Ohiosam said:
Wait until all those guys quit buying tags. Should make for some interesting times at the DoW.
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That's been going on for 3 years now:

Tag sales
2012-13 ---- 588885
2011-12 ---- 603549
2010-11 ---- 609417

I wonder how far it will drop this year. The vibe from this and other hunting forums is that participation was down this year even though conditions were great for most of the regular gun week. I would be surprised if it were above 575000.

However, it would probably have to drop to below 400k for them to be concerned. Remember, they sell a lot more turkey tags now than they ever did back in 1995.
 
CritterGitterToo said:
That's been going on for 3 years now:

Tag sales
2012-13 ---- 588885
2011-12 ---- 603549
2010-11 ---- 609417

I wonder how far it will drop this year. The vibe from this and other hunting forums is that participation was down this year even though conditions were great for most of the regular gun week. I would be surprised if it were above 575000.

However, it would probably have to drop to below 400k for them to be concerned. Remember, they sell a lot more turkey tags now than they ever did back in 1995.
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Yeah but budgets are built on previous revenue. They ALWAYS spend the budget which will create a short fall.
 
CritterGitterToo said:
That's been going on for 3 years now:

Tag sales
2012-13 ---- 588885
2011-12 ---- 603549
2010-11 ---- 609417

I wonder how far it will drop this year. The vibe from this and other hunting forums is that participation was down this year even though conditions were great for most of the regular gun week. I would be surprised if it were above 575000.


However, it would probably have to drop to below 400k for them to be concerned. Remember, they sell a lot more turkey tags now than they ever did back in 1995.
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But it hasn't hurt much yet because a higher percent of the tags sold now are $24 tags not the $15 antlerless.
 
About 10.8 million comes from hunting licenses 10.5 million from deer tags bout 11.4 million from fishing license. The Department of wildlife's annual budget is about 59 million. It's safe to assume that Deer hunters account for about 30% of their budget.

But what their banking on is not that people quit altogether. The odds of someone not hunting a single day is pretty slim. Odds are they will still buy a license and a tag. They may of been a very heavy bow and gun hunter but don't go much anymore. I used to fish all the time. I might go 2-3 times a year now. The end result on revenue is the same wether I spend 1 day at the lake or 100, I still bought a license. We are going to see a price increase on license and tags to offset the lost revenue, in the next couple years you're also going to see a price increase for nonresidents. And something else that's been kicked around for a couple years is a pay for play permit for public land.

Who Is really going to suffer are the merchants the taxidermist and butchers etc. hunting in Ohio is a one billion-dollar generator for the private industry. That is who is going to really feel the pain when people stop hunting 100 days and hunt only one.
 
Jackalope said:
We are going to see a price increase on license and tags to offset the lost revenue, in the next couple years you're also going to see a price increase for nonresidents. And something else that's been kicked around for a couple years is a pay for play permit for public land.
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Indeed; Economics 101
 
I think we are at an 18 year low right now. The numbers show that to be the case. Strangely, Mike T took his position in 1995...the beginning of the 18 year down turn. Who knows how long he will continue to push the herd down.
 
hickslawns said:
This thought has been floating around in my head. I haven't spoken it because I figured people would think it was absurd, tin foil hat kind of stuff. I also figured there was no way to know for sure and hate to speculate. Guess I am just saying, I am glad I am not the only one who has wondered about this possibility.
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I hate to say it too Phil cuz I have been raised on or around a farm all my life. But when you drive across the auglaize river and the niehbor is pumping hog shit in the river bottom and the water in the river is brown because the hogcrap is running out of the tiles straight to the river, that can't be good for fish or wildlife. It just seems our deer in the county seems like they dissappeared over night and it seems like after last years hunting season. And it seems like everybody else is having the same problem. There has to be more to it then just hunters and coyotes IMO.
 
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