Proposed 2022 WY Seasons and Regulation Changes

[WyoDoug]

For those interested in input on Wyoming proposed season dates and regulation changes:

Public Input | Wyoming Game & Fish Department

We invite your feedback on proposed changes to our regulations. For inquiries about the proposed regulatory changes, reach out to your local Department Regional Office. Please note that questions submitted through the forum below will not receive a response.

wgfd.wyo.gov

 

[WyoDoug]

Main thoughts:

Moose resident type 1 tags increased by 5 where I plan to hunt. Maybe this is the year for me.

Antelope is the two main eastern areas are showing reduction in tags, exception is 38 where I expect to draw all my tags and hunt on FE Warren for a meat hunt. Looks like reduction in several areas which I contribute to severe winter kill, drought and EHD.

Increase of deer tags in some areas.

Increase in elk tags in many areas and reductions in a few.

Overall for my hunting goals I like the changes in quotas.

 

[WYelker]

Everyone should be speaking out about the damn CWD plan to kill mature bucks!

Everyone should make it clear they as we move forward we do not want anything to do with resident pick a region.

We need to end the one shot hunt and that BS.

We need to restrict more on antelope for a year or two.

 

[Thx1138]

One advantage of the November buck hunts are many of those units have a fairly large migratory herd which summers in Colorado then winters in Wyoming. Many of those bucks never actually get hunted as they migrate out of Colorado before first rifle season mid October and by then the Wyoming season is over. 25 licenses might be a bit high though to keep the harvest low and allow those bucks to pass along their genes, perhaps 15 licenses in each area might be a better balance to at least give Wyoming hunters a crack at some of those freeloading deer that winter in Wyoming but never in the past have been hunted.

 

[BuzzH]

One advantage of the November buck hunts are many of those units have a fairly large migratory herd which summers in Colorado then winters in Wyoming. Many of those bucks never actually get hunted as they migrate out of Colorado before first rifle season mid October and by then the Wyoming season is over. 25 licenses might be a bit high though to keep the harvest low and allow those bucks to pass along their genes, perhaps 15 licenses in each area might be a better balance to at least give Wyoming hunters a crack at some of those freeloading deer that winter in Wyoming but never in the past have been hunted.

Show me a deer herd in Colorado that isn't hunted...

Killing mature bucks and getting to 6 bucks per 100 does is the stated goal. Straight from the biologist...that's all we need to do to save mule deer.

This will be minimum a 5 year experiment and you heard it hear first, every one of those tag numbers will be increased in upcoming years until it's 6 bucks per 100 does.

Was stated last night, 25 tags per area probably won't be enough.

But the good thing is the pronghorn are doing like shit all over SE Wyoming and soon we will wreck a good LQ elk area by making it general.

It's truly unbelievable how quickly things are sliding...but there will be all kinds of "opportunity".

 

[WYelker]

Show me a deer herd in Colorado that isn't hunted...

Haha. There are early rifle hunts, all
Of September is Archery and 10 days worth of Muzzy hunts all in Sept.

So they are definitely hunted!!!

 

[BuzzH]

Haha. There are early rifle hunts, all
Of September is Archery and 10 days worth of Muzzy hunts all in Sept.

So they are definitely hunted!!!

I guess mule deer are only really considered to be hunted if they die in November...

 

[WyoDoug]

I am going to agree and disagree with statement on need to reduction of antelope licenses in eastern Wyoming and to a degree with deer. The game biologist for the Laramie region told me that both deer and antelope have been in a downward trend for the last 4 years. That tells me it will take longer than a few years for antelope to recover from effects of the winter kill, EHD and drought. So I favor reduction in quotas on both deer and antelope until the numbers are much higher, probably for around 5 years.

As for killing mature bucks due to CWD I do not know enough to really make a statement and I am not a biologist. However, that logic kind of bothers me. Why focus on bucks?

As for elk, the biologist told me that hunters will likely see above average success especially if they are meat hunters like me. So I like the increase in the quotas there.

As for general licenses, I favor doing away with most general licenses and make the ones that remain limited in the numbers they can sell rather than unlimited.

 

[BuzzH]

I am going to agree and disagree with statement on need to reduction of antelope licenses in eastern Wyoming and to a degree with deer. The game biologist for the Laramie region told me that both deer and antelope have been in a downward trend for the last 4 years. That tells me it will take longer than a few years for antelope to recover from effects of the winter kill, EHD and drought. So I favor reduction in quotas on both deer and antelope until the numbers are much higher, probably for around 5 years.

As for killing mature bucks due to CWD I do not know enough to really make a statement and I am not a biologist. However, that logic kind of bothers me. Why focus on bucks?

As for elk, the biologist told me that hunters will likely see above average success especially if they are meat hunters like me. So I like the increase in the quotas there.

As for general licenses, I favor doing away with most general licenses and make the ones that remain limited in the numbers they can sell rather than unlimited.

I told the Laramie region biologist that pronghorn were doing like shit about 4 years ago as well in one area I hunt often.

The fact is there's been a downward trend for longer than that, I'm not blind.

If there was a downward trend for 4 years, then why continue to issue 1100 tags in that 4 year stretch in one of the areas I spend a lot of time in?

Slashed 700 tags this year...I guess it takes 4 years of downward trends before a need to adjust. Seems irresponsible and reactive management rather than proactive management.

Now that the landowners are complaining about low numbers it's ok to slash 700 tags.

 

[Big Fin]

@BuzzH - is there much that non-residents can do/say/advocate for that would be considered by your game managers?

 

[Thx1138]

Show me a deer herd in Colorado that isn't hunted...

Killing mature bucks and getting to 6 bucks per 100 does is the stated goal. Straight from the biologist...that's all we need to do to save mule deer.

This will be minimum a 5 year experiment and you heard it hear first, every one of those tag numbers will be increased in upcoming years until it's 6 bucks per 100 does.

Was stated last night, 25 tags per area probably won't be enough.

But the good thing is the pronghorn are doing like shit all over SE Wyoming and soon we will wreck a good LQ elk area by making it general.

It's truly unbelievable how quickly things are sliding...but there will be all kinds of "opportunity".

I get what you’re saying and agree the G&F is railroading this proposal. Some of these deer receive very little pressure though in Colorado other than archery or Colorado‘s restricted primitive muzzleloader season which doesn’t allow scopes. They then migrate into Wyoming before the opening date of First rifle in Colorado and arrive in Wyoming after all the deer hunts have ended. Many elk hunters see some amazing bucks in the Snowies but there are no open deer seasons when those deer migrate in from Colorado into Wyoming. Wyoming sportsmen now will get a chance at some of these big bucks that have learned to dodge the seasons between the two states and were never able to be hunted in Wyoming. I agree and think 25 is too high a number, maybe 15 and as far as antelope hunting goes your assessment is spot on, no doe hunting and they should have been more restrictive a long time ago on the antelope herds.

 

[BuzzH]

I get what you’re saying and agree the G&F is railroading this proposal. Some of these deer receive very little pressure though in Colorado other than archery or Colorado‘s restricted primitive muzzleloader season which doesn’t allow scopes. They then migrate into Wyoming before the opening date of First rifle in Colorado and arrive in Wyoming after all the deer hunts have ended. Many elk hunters see some amazing bucks in the Snowies but there are no open deer seasons when those deer migrate in from Colorado into Wyoming. Wyoming sportsmen now will get a chance at some of these big bucks that have learned to dodge the seasons and were never able to be hunted in Wyoming. I agree and think 25 is too high a number, maybe 15 and as far as antelope hunting goes your assessment is spot on, no doe hunting and they should have been more restrictive a long time ago on the antelope herds.

I fail to understand the logic for having to kill deer that have developed behaviors to allow them to become "amazing" as you put it.

Is it so horrible to not hunt a small sub-set of a deer herd?

What's the harm in not hunting them?

 

[WyoDoug]

I told the Laramie region biologist that pronghorn were doing like shit about 4 years ago as well in one area I hunt often.

The fact is there's been a downward trend for longer than that, I'm not blind.

If there was a downward trend for 4 years, then why continue to issue 1100 tags in that 4 year stretch in one of the areas I spend a lot of time in?

Slashed 700 tags this year...I guess it takes 4 years of downward trends before a need to adjust. Seems irresponsible and reactive management rather than proactive management.

Now that the landowners are complaining about low numbers it's ok to slash 700 tags.

I am in full agreement here. Kind of bugs me why it takes 4 years for WGF to act.

 

[BuzzH]

@BuzzH - is there much that non-residents can do/say/advocate for that would be considered by your game managers?

Nope...Lee Knox and Martin Hicks are not going to listen. Those seasons are recommended and they made it abundantly clear they aren't changing their minds. This is the something they "have" to do.

Only stop gap left is commenting to the GF commission before April's season setting meeting.

 

[BuzzH]

@BuzzH - is there much that non-residents can do/say/advocate for that would be considered by your game managers?

Nope...Lee Knox and Martin Hicks are not going to listen. Those seasons are recommended and they made it abundantly clear they aren't changing their minds. This is the something they "have" to do.

Only stop gap left is commenting to the GF commission before April's season setting meeting.

 

[Thx1138]

I fail to understand the logic for having to kill deer that have developed behaviors to allow them to become "amazing" as you put it.

Is it so horrible to not hunt a small sub-set of a deer herd?

What's the harm in not hunting them?

There actually used to be a late hunt on the west side of the range but they closed it down about a decade ago as the Platte River herd diminished.

To answer your question, “What’s the harm in not hunting them?”

Nothing at all. Thats the way it’s been for a long time. According to the G&F rationale though the harm is those older bucks are spreading CWD which is flawed Science at best. One small advantage of a late hunt though would be at least a few Wyoming sportsmen would have a chance at those bucks but it would be advantageous to the overall herd to keep the hunt to a very small number like 10-15 only. If they plan on increasing it in the future then it would most certainly harm the overall herd. It sounds like it’s a foregone conclusion the season will be implemented as such but maybe we can guard the resource to at least try and keep the number down to 10-15 and never increase it.

 

[NECALI]

I’m not in favor of killing off the mature bucks to a 6 per 100 doe ratio at all. When did the science that there needs to be at least 25 per 100 go by the wayside. When the numbers are less the bucks use way more energy to breed the available does. Run themselves ragged, then winter die off is substantially more for those bucks. This is what I’ve read in the past anyway. Also in the Cody area their claiming about 40% of the local deer herd has CWD. Therefore they are wanting to kill off most of the herd. How are they going to know which deer have CWD and all the ones they let live don’t have it. It’s crazy.

 

[RobertD]

Disappointed to hear this about mule deer bucks. I've looked to Wyoming as a place to plan and conduct an awesome hunt for a nice buck one day and it's disappointing to know CWD policy severely jeopardizes that. It settles in amongst other indicators that more than anything, big old mule deer bucks are only going to get more scarce and not just in one particular state. Things look grim for mule deer in so many places.

As for antelope, as an NR who has wanted to chase antelope in Wyoming or forever and not yet done so, I would happily continue waiting due to tag cuts for that species.

When you look at their population levels over time, you can see the current decline. But the demand for hunting opportunities is trending in the opposite direction. I think a big portion of the DIY hunting community takes antelope for granted and hope Wyoming and Wyoming G&F will continue towards changes that challenge that view.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

Nope...Lee Knox and Martin Hicks are not going to listen. Those seasons are recommended and they made it abundantly clear they aren't changing their minds. This is the something they "have" to do.

Only stop gap left is commenting to the GF commission before April's season setting meeting.

BuzzH,

Are Knox and Hicks able to produce facts that shows these bucks hunts work? Every Bio I have talked to on this side of the state is saying that this plan is proven to slow the prevalence. But they admit they have not directly looked at the facts behind it. They are taking your side of the states word for it. They end with the same line, "we have to do something".

 

[BuzzH]

BuzzH,

Are Knox and Hicks able to produce facts that shows these bucks hunts work? Every Bio I have talked to on this side of the state is saying that this plan is proven to slow the prevalence. But they admit they have not directly looked at the facts behind it. They are taking your side of the states word for it. They end with the same line, "we have to do something".

One very inconclusive study out of Colorado is what they're hanging their hat on...and the fact the cwd working group is on board.

This same depopulation has been tried in Canada and other states with cwd and has not worked.

The excuse given is because the depopulation didn't go on long enough and was abandoned before the results could be truly known.

I've tried really hard to be supportive of their killing the living shit out if bucks and willing to give up 20 years of any kind of decent hunting if that's what is best for the resource.

But in my opinion the science they provide is full of holes, maybes, perhaps, etc for me to conclude that this idea of "having to do something" is not the answer at this time.