Thursday, December 10, 2009
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Earn-a-buck can earn you a headache ... but it works
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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Spending hours in a tree stand watching for a deer can give you an abundance of time to think. So Chris Vaughn, an avid hunter and banker from the Roanoke Valley, got to thinking about the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ earn-a-buck regulation.
“I sat there and wondered what was legal and what was not,” Vaughn said.
“Yes, EAB is complicated,” said Matt Knox, the DGIF deer project leader and a huge advocate of the concept. “It can be very, very complicated. It was not the intent, but it was the outcome.”
Knox estimates that he has answered more than 100 e-mail questions about EAB since the program began with the 2008-09 season. You might figure by now that all the bugs would have been worked out, and most have. But Vaughn and another hunter, Nino Ripepi of Blacksburg, recently pointed out that some issues are yet to be resolved.
The goal of EAB is to increase the doe kill in an effort to help keep the deer herd in proper balance. It applies to bowhunters, muzzleloaders and modern firearms hunters pursing deer in Bedford, Fairfax, Fauquier, Franklin, Loudoun, Patrick, Prince William and Roanoke counties.
Wildlife officials have urged hunters to kill more does under regular hunting rules, but that hasn’t worked as well as needed, Knox said. Deer populations have grown, rather then declined. EAB is designed to force the issue of shooting does. If you want a second buck, you shoot a doe first.
The Virginia hunting regulation book has this to say on how EAB works:
“Hunters hunting on private lands in EAB counties will be required to shoot at least one antlerless deer before they can kill their second antlered buck. East of the Blue Ridge, they will be required to kill a second antlerless deer on private land in an EAB county before they can kill their third antlered buck of the season.”
“If you just hunt on private land in one EAB county, like me, it is actually pretty simple,” said Knox.
Things get complicated when you hunt in several counties, or hunt on private as well as public land, or hunt both east and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Here are a couple scenarios Vaughn uses to points out the complexities of the program:
- If you hunt in Bedford and Craig counties and you kill a buck in Craig first, you must kill a doe in Bedford before you can kill a buck in Bedford.
- However, if you hunt in Bedford and Craig counties and you kill a buck in Bedford first, you can kill a second buck in Craig without killing a doe first.
- If you hunt in Bedford, Roanoke and Craig counties, killing a doe in Roanoke entitles you to kill a second buck in Roanoke or Bedford.
However, if you hunt in Bedford, Roanoke and Craig counties, killing a second doe in Roanoke does not earn you the right to take a third buck in Bedford because Roanoke does not allow three bucks to be taken.
“I like the EAB program, and I think it can help with population control,” said Vaughn. “But I think it’s virtually impossible to enforce. I guess it really comes down to the honor system. I hope the rules can become more refined and defined as time passes.”
So does Knox, who agrees EAB isn’t just difficult to enforce, it can be difficult to understand.
The big question, has it worked?
“Keep in mind, our EAB objective was simple,” said Knox. “We wanted to raise the amount of does kill to equal 50 percent of the total deer kill in EAB counties and maintain it above that level over time. Yes, it has worked better than we could have ever expected.
“The doe kill [last season] in the four southwest EAB counties was 50 percent -- higher than I would have expected without EAB. None had ever reached that level prior to EAB. It will be interesting to see if it continues over time.”
In the meanwhile, Knox says there are a couple of EAB issues that need to be revaluated and refined.
