Thursday, January 15, 2009
Hunter is steamed over decline of deer in national forest
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
Doyle Ritchie has been telling anyone who will listen that the number of deer on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia, where he hunts, has experienced a drastic decline.
“This year the hunting season was just terrible on the national forest,” said Ritchie, a veteran deer hunter of 40 years. He lives in Fulks Run on the edge of the national forest in Rockingham County.
“I scouted week after week all summer and fall. I hunted day in and day out during the archery, early muzzleloader and firearm’s seasons. I’ve been out during the late archery and muzzleloading season, but with the same results. There are few, if any, deer in the national forest in the many regions I hunted.”
You might think Ritchie’s message would be a tough sell, considering Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ officials are saying the 2008-09 deer season could go down as a record when the final count is made in a few weeks. Last season kill was a record.
Add to that, there are so many deer in some sections of the state that they end up in the grills of vehicles and they account for millions of dollars in crop damage.
But what Richie says about the national forest gets solid backing from many sportsmen who hunt public property, particularly the northern end of the forest.
“Hunter after hunter I spoke with reported the same,” he said.
Even DGIF wildlife biologists share the concern.
“I agree with him that we have low deer populations on United States Forest Service lands,” said Jay Jeffreys. He is the DGIF regional wildlife manager assigned to the northern Shenandoah Valley, including national forest property.
Where the differences occur, wildlife officials blame the national forest situation on declining deer habitat, mast failures and lower numbers of hunters. Richie puts the problem squarely on liberal hunting regulations that he says have resulted in a purging of too many does and young bucks.
“You won’t see mature deer if you shoot out the young ones,” Richie said. “You won’t have deer around here if you take the does.”
Richie, who calls himself “blunt,” is a newcomer to this debate, which has been going on for about four years and mostly has involved hunters in Rockingham, Augusta and Highland counties. He is more aggressive than most, leveling stinging criticism at Matt Knox, the DGIF deer project coordinator.
“Knox and his team seem to want to kill off the deer, no matter what,” said Richie. “If it is brown, it needs to go down. You never hear Knox or members of his team say good things about deer. The mentality is pest control.”
During a recent meeting with Knox, Jeffreys and Bob Ellis, chief of the DGIF wildlife division, Richie recommended a moratorium on shooting does in the national forest and a limit of two bucks that meet a minimum of six points.
Some restrictions are expected to be set this year, but Richie isn’t likely to get all he wants by a long shot. But officials are sympathetic.
Here’s the challenge, said Jeffreys: Deer don’t recognize boundaries. They range on both national forest and private land. When they come out of the national forest to forage for food they are confronted by more liberal seasons and bag limits. When they return to the forest there isn’t that much food available.
“Private land regulations may well have driven down deer numbers on adjoining public land,” he said.
One resolution would be to enhance deer habitat on the national forest, but state biologists are limited in what they can do.
“We as an agency can enact regulations but we have real limitations in managing deer habitat on U.S. Forest Service land,” said Jeffreys.
Just this week, Congress advanced legislation that would set aside 43,000 acres of additional wilderness in Virginia, and environmentalists are betting on the new president to move even further down that road. Wilderness and roadless areas prohibit the kind of forest management that provides the new growth necessary to advance the wellbeing of deer, especially during times of mast failure.
One factor the two sides agree on, deer are being impacted by the growing number of predators, namely coyotes and black bear.
“The talk out here where I live is not how many deer that hunters saw, but how many bears they saw,” said Ritchie. “The bear hunters brag about how they have brought the bears back, and they certainly have been successful. But the problem is the number of fawns the bears and coyotes are taking. Last summer, I found so much bear crap in the national forest containing fawn hair that it was hard not to step in it.”
PART II next week: No easy answer for improving deer herd on the national forest
