Montana Mule Deer Mismanagement
- Thread starter rogerthat
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Eric Albus
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Any report on the meeting? I was unable to attend due to the weather.
406huntermt
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There was 25 or so people there lots of good ideas thrown around I think Schaaf will be able to fill you in with better insight and more professional wording then I will be able to haha
Schaaf
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@406huntermt is right, there were about 25 people there. Mostly the same couple dozen that attend about every meeting.
The meeting started off by going into what the Adaptive Harvest Management is and how long it’s been used. The plan may have worked with the landscape 30 years ago but it's obvious that the plan is too slow to react and not nearly proactive enough to realistically provide for solid management. The staff dove into total deer numbers, buck:doe ratios, and fawn recruitment around Region 6. Most recent survey was post-season so this was obviously was before the majority of this winter and the brutal March we’ve had so far. Region wide, the numbers aren’t bad. Very good numbers in 640 are masking drastic decreases in 630, 621, 690. Fawn recruitment is what you would expect after two years of historic drought- not great but manageable. The staff chose to look at the Region level rather than breaking it down by district but we were able to bring up the buck:doe ratios of 7:100 in 630 and the ~12:100 ratio in 621. Staff deflected and admitted that while those aren’t ideal, they felt those are more hunter concerns and not necessarlily herd concerns and that there was no mechanism in the Adaptive Harvest Management plan that called forbuck:doe ratios in general areas.
The presentation then moved into total number of hunters on the landscape and the trends they are seeing.
Quite frankly, it was shocking. According to their data, the total number of Resident deer hunters inRegion 6 is relatively stable at about 12,000. Total non resident deer hunters averaged about 3500 from 2001 until about 2017. From 2017 to 2021, the number doubled to 7,000. They also dove into data about hunter days on the landscape. Data shows that both Residents and Non Residents are spending more time on the landscape. Residents spent about 78,000 days hunting in Region 6, the highest since 2010. Nonresidents spent about 38,000 days on the landscape. Twice the amount of nonresidents since 2013.
Mule Deer harvest has also more than doubled from 2015. One comment that stood out was “this was the first time in decades that I’ve been coming to these meetings that the data FWP shows is exactly what we’re all seeing on the landscape.” The staff was very clear to point out that the number of licenses on the landscape has been set by the legislature but it felt like they were almost begging people to urge the commission, or legislature for that matter to start placing caps either by district or region. Someone wisely brought up how Wyoming has general licenses capped on a regional level.
They brought up the more recent season structure survey with the same canned responses. 5,000 surveys were sent to deer hunters, 2,000 returned.
(Staff pointed out the lowest priority on a select all that apply question haha)
The survey basically mirrored the results from 2001 and 2011 supporting the current season structure. I can’t help but think a few orgs, (maybe Hunt Talk even) could raise the funding to make their own survey without the spoon-fed answers that only seek to validate the status quo.
The meeting moved toward a CWD Update confirming what a lot of us already know. CWD is still growing and prevalence is highest along the Canadian border. They didn’t provide much clear information about what their desired next steps would be for 600, 640, 670 that are seeing the highest prevalence rates. I can’t help but think this is unbelievably bad timing for the situation when the most educated and reasonable hunters on the landscape have lost faith in the department to manage mule deer for the health of the herd are now going to be asked to trust them as they implement more drastic CWD measures.
TL;DR: The amount of hunters on the landscape has exploded in both numbers and number of days. The deer population is holding on in some areas while being exploited in other areas and it feels like the department is ready to start limiting hunting pressure.They do not have an appetite for the anger that would come from eliminating the ability to whack mule deer for 11 straight weeks through Thanksgiving.
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Knight.54
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Thanks for the synopsis Schaaf
Schaaf
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Just a brief slide. 652 is fine.
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Tough to see a game agency let mule deer go the way of the dodo birds. They have been warned, they can’t see it but mule deer hunting will only lend itself to large private land holdings. It’s not hard for me to see. If numbers truly are ok in region 6 it won’t be for long. Maybe we need an influencer to make a YouTube video on it.
I think one did make some videos about eastern MT deer hunting just before that doubling in harvest
8andcounting
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^^^^^^^^^^
Eric Albus
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Thanks for the rundown on the meeting. Wish I could’ve attended, but doubt I would’ve made a big difference.
I still hold hope that if we get enough R hunters on board to end the rut hunt the commission will do something. When I get done calving/seeding/branding/spraying/haying, around July 4 and have a day off lets get together(before I get busy with harvest and hunters) and draw up a petition to place around R6 to take to the commission and see if we can get traction to end the rut hunting insanity.
I still hold hope that if we get enough R hunters on board to end the rut hunt the commission will do something. When I get done calving/seeding/branding/spraying/haying, around July 4 and have a day off lets get together(before I get busy with harvest and hunters) and draw up a petition to place around R6 to take to the commission and see if we can get traction to end the rut hunting insanity.
406huntermt
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Not to overstep but I think we need to add in the whole spreading the non res out and capping hunting districts kinda like how Wyo does and on how many of them can be in one and also capping how long they can stay. It’s not the fix all but will definitely help.
Nick87
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I would think R spend a significant amount more days afield and in different units than NR. Could be totally wrong.
406huntermt
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They are both up for amount of days spent
Nick87
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Either way I agree with with making it unit specific, are you saying just that way for NR or both?
cgasner1
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Should be for both but peoples heads would explode
Look at the fits people throw when they actually manage the antelope and cut tags on bad years.
cgasner1
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A guy I work with was bitching the other day about how expensive our tags are and how the price just keeps going up. I had to just walk away
Nick87
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Just a No good NR spitballing here but the biggest thing that most bitch about not wanting to give up is the Thanksgiving weekend tradition, correct? @brockel? @antlerradar ?
