Thursday, January 22, 2009
Grousing about deer decline in national forests
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: I just read your column (last week’s column) and have to agree with Doyle Ritchie regarding lack of deer in the George Washington National Forest. I hunt in Augusta County around Great North Mountain/Elliot Knob. I have hiked up the mountain ridges until my legs couldn't go any farther. Honest, I saw nothing. No deer, no rubs, no tracks, no anything.
Then it occurred to me: check the lower fields. Sure enough, as soon as the sun was setting, only a few does came out to the edges of the fields. The big bucks were no where to be found. And this was during archery season. When muzzleloader season came it was worse; when rifle season came in, everything vanished. It was as if the deer asked "Scotty" from Star Trek to beam them somewhere!
BUTCH AMMON
Richmond
BILL: I read with interest the article on deer in the national forest and agree with it. Also I think that the coyotes are having a major impact on deer along with a little impact from the bear.
The national forest has few deer but the private land has an overabundance of them. I believe that the main thing affecting them is a four letter word -- FOOD. The national forest has no food for the biggest part of the year. The culprits in my opinion are wilderness areas, of which we are heading for an increase. They always turn into a dead forest except for mature and dying tress after a few years. Nothing in them for hiding places or food for browse, which all wildlife requires.
The heavy population of deer that most people remember in the national forest was when there was a lot of young growth timber and plenty of logging going on providing protection and browse. At that time you could see at the most 50 yards into the woods, now it's hundreds of yards. No protection, no browse equal no game.
As the rules and regulations that we have now are brought on by the know-nots and their agendas, you can further expect the national forest to turn into nothing but pretty big trees for looking at but a dead forest as far as any wildlife is concerned.
VAN HUMPHREYS
Paint Bank
BILL: I found your column on the decline of deer on national forest land and thought I’d chime in about grouse. I spent a day last weekend following my setter through the George Washington National Forest in Augusta County with the hope of flushing a few birds. After about three hours of walking, I had enough and packed up and drove home. This was my third grouse outing in as many different areas without a single flush and it may very well be my last not just for this season, but forever.
It’s not just deer that are suffering from misguided environmentalists who fight every effort to cut a tree, but all game and even many non-game species. I have written extensively about the benefits of timber harvest for various magazines and your column sort of hit home with me.
For the record, I saw very, very little deer sign where I walked. As much as we hunters want to blame our own game depart, their hands are tied when it comes to habitat management on national forest land. In a way, I blame hunters -- ourselves -- for not fighting for sound management on the land that we use as much as any other recreation group.
By the way, what happens to that $4 national forest permit money we have to fork over every season?
DAVID HART
BILL: It is kind of funny how people complain about this cold weather we are having. [Years ago], when I was duck hunting the New River, we prayed for weather like this. I remember following the snow scraper from Blacksburg to the river in 12 inches of snow when it was 10 degrees only to have to turn around and come back because the road to Whitethorn had 10-foot snow drifts over it.
Also remember leaving Roanoke at 4 a.m. with my hunting buddies that I worked with at GE. It was 2 degrees. We got to the New River and it was frozen all the way across with ice about 2 inches thick. I had an axe in the truck and we took turns and broke ice all the way across the river to get to our duck blind by boat. We broke a circle in the ice to put out the decoys and had our limit in 20 minutes. My lab lost his whiskers and hair on his front feet breaking the ice to get the downed ducks. They never grew back. We killed two drake canvasbacks, which made the trip.
The bad news was that water released from Claytor Lake started down the river. There was a wall of ice about 6 feet high. The starter cord of my 9.5 hp outboard had frozen. We had a small charcoal fire burning in a container, so we just put the motor over it, rotating it like roasting a pig. Finally it thawed and the motor started.
As we went back across the river, we were within 50 feet of the wall of ice coming down the river. When we reached the bank, the wall of ice passed by us hitting the upper ends of the islands, breaking off trees like toothpicks.
I took off my gloves and attempted to hand a wooden paddle to my partner and it stuck to my hands. When I pulled it free it took a layer of skin with it. Then when we went to open the truck, the doors were frozen. So we used a cigarette lighter to heat the key and finally got them open.
We headed home, very happy we had a good day, then we went to work on second shift at 3:30 p.m. To this day, my sons say, “Dad, you were crazy over duck hunting.” I guess I was, but I think you understand as many other duck hunters would. You have to be a special breed.
Also many people don’t remember that Smith Mountain Lake would freeze solid all the way down to Hales Ford Bride. People were driving Jeeps on the ice at Hardy. I won’t go into the stories about striper fishing back in those cold days. I just thank the good Lord for a reliable 9.5 hp outboard that started almost every time in cold weather.
My coldest day of fishing was 3 above and 20 mph wind. Caught one striper and within 5 minutes he was frozen to the bottom of the boat.
MIKE SMITH
Boones Mill
