2020 Proposed Changes Video In Place of Public Meetings

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

Since ODFW can't hold their normal public meetings the districts have put together a series of videos to address the proposed changes. Here is my local districts contribution. I'm sort of excited about the prospect of a November rifle season. Since I've started elk hunting I've had a mild curiosity about why our season was so early compared to other states.

 

[WapitiBob]

It's been interesting as well as entertaining reading the sob stories on facechat.

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

It's been interesting as well as entertaining reading the sob stories on facechat.

I used to get great enjoyment out of it. I've tired of reading it from people who just want to criticize the agency and won't show up to help with anything though.

I run our local OHA Facebook page. We don't get a lot of traction, but I cringe every time I post something related to ODFW.

 

[WapitiBob]

They complain about ODFW letting hunters shoot the last dink in the unit then complain about "losing the opportunity" to shoot the last dink in the unit.

 

[rtraverdavis]

I missed this when you posted, @FI460. Thanks for putting it up.

FI460 and I have already talked about it, but I’m curious to hear what some other Oregon guys think about the proposal to move all eastern archery hunts for deer and elk to a controlled draw. I don’t archery hunt, so I don’t have much skin in the game. But it does seem like it would take some pressure off the herds and potentially move people through the draw system faster. @WapitiBob and other Oregon guys, what do you think about it?

 

[WapitiBob]

Some comments I've made elsewhere..

A common dig at ODFW posted on facebook or forums: "it's all about the money" (referring to the increase in app fees)

Oregon has A 5% cap on Deer and Elk controlled hunts; we have no NR cap on OTC hunts. Using the ODFW numbers, we would have 16,000 additional resident controlled archery Elk apps at $8 each (+ $128,000) and will lose 450 nr archery Elk license and tags at $700 each [- $315,000] because of that 5% cap. Clearly it isn't about the money.

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Two main goals of their proposals:

They want to remove the "inequities" between rifle and bow hunters; East side branch bull rifle hunters have to draw, archery is otc. To fix that they want to make it all controlled hunts.
They want to have the ability to manage hunter numbers on a per unit basis; they can only do that with controlled hunts or caps.

"Choose your weapon", a common suggestion, doesn't fix either of those. If a rifle hunter doesn’t draw he doesn’t hunt branch bulls, a bow hunter still hunts under that scenario as long as otc archery hunting is still allowed.

In my opinion, you can't manage the resource when you have unlimited OTC hunting. Currently, there could be 500 archery hunters in Starkey or 10,000 and they have A) no way to know how many there actually are and B) no way to limit them. I would be in favor of per unit caps but controlled hunts is their only option so far.

Unfortunately, ODFW is continuing their "opportunity" management style even with the new proposals; updated total Deer tags proposed for 2021 are up 20% and total Elk tags are up 23%. I think that's a mistake, I'd like to see drastic cuts to tags along with controlling hunter numbers. I'd also like to see a nr allotment of 15% per species.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Unfortunately, ODFW is continuing their "opportunity" management style even with the new proposals; updated total Deer tags proposed for 2021 are up 20% and total Elk tags are up 23%. I think that's a mistake, I'd like to see drastic cuts to tags along with controlling hunter numbers. I'd also like to see a nr allotment of 15% per species.

100% agree with you on this point. Thanks Bob.

 

[TheKnigit]

I am glad that ODFW has finally made some sort of change towards addressing the herd decline in the east side of Oregon, and I archery hunt for elk. The only thing about this change that I could see people having a reason to get upset about is if they live deep in the east. If you didn't draw a deer or elk tag then you might have a decent drive in order to get to an OTC tag area. However I think that is well worth it if this actually begins to repair the animal populations and allows ODFW to truly control the amount of hunters in any given unit.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Looks like the controlled archery elk proposal will be delayed until 2022, but eastern archery deer going to all controlled is still proposed for next year:

Potential archery elk season changes delayed until 2022, other proposed changes to 2021 hunting seasons move forward for Commission consideration

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Good to see that Oregon has woken up to the fact that their mule deer are in trouble and limiting hunter opportunities is needed for the species! But until they start reducing lion numbers, the deer will stay at low numbers.

Now, the archery elk proposal has merit and I believe that it will be the best decision for the future.....and this is coming from a nonresident archery hunter that has a few decades worth of experience chasing elk around in Oregon.

My views:

1) The number of archery elk hunters in Oregon has increased ten fold over the years and has extremely lessened the "in the field" enjoyment. Anything to reduce the hunting pressure in any given area would be a plus.

2) There are a bunch of resident Oregon rifle elk hunters that will purchase an archery elk tag each year that they are not successful in the rifle tag drawings. A good portion of these hunters do not take the time to become proficient with a bow and are only archery hunting due to being unsuccessful in the rifle draw. Placing the archery tags into the limited drawing would stop this practice.

3) Placing the archery tags into the limited drawing would also, as mentioned above, greatly reduce the nonresident hunter pressure. I'm guessing here, but from field observations, over half of the archers chasing elk in Oregon are nonresident hunters. The hunters from California, Nevada and Washington make up a good percentage of the nonresidents afield each fall. Oregon's limited nonresident percentage allotment for limited draw hunts would cure this.....once the "unlimited" tag opportunity is removed.

*NOTE*
The inevitable side effect of removing the unlimited archery elk opportunity in Oregon will be felt throughout the west. All those archery hunters that have been relying on Oregon's unlimited archery elk tags will want to be chasing elk somewhere each fall!

My thoughts,

Mtnhunter1