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Declining blacktail numbers at issue
09/18/03
BILL MONROE, The Oregonian
SALEM -- Western Oregon deer hunters won't be forced to draw for controlled hunt tags.
Yet.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, faced with plunging numbers of Western Oregon deer and those who hunt them, won't resort to lottery hunting on this side of the Cascades when it sets 2004 big-game seasons Oct. 10.
But blacktailed deer hunters this fall might see the last of hunting during the start of the rut.
"We need to do something," said commissioner Jeff Feldner of Newport. "We've got some very unhappy hunters."
Bow hunters probably will also feel a pinch next year, when commissioners consider shortening their season, perhaps ending a late-season archery hunt in November, the peak of the rut.
Blacktailed deer are suffering throughout Western Oregon from a combination of habitat loss, disease and changes in forest management.
The widespread cutback of most federal timber cutting reduced -- in fact, ended on most forests -- the mosaic of clearcuts that offer prime habitat for browsing deer.
Unlike grass-loving elk, blacktails are secretive animals with a taste for the buds and branches of tender deciduous trees, vine maple, blackberry and various forbs and weeds.
But as the state's wet country returns to primarily conifer stands on public land, deer are declining. Chemicals used to suppress vegetation on private timberlands also reduce forage for deer.
The relatively recent appearance of a parasitic disease, deer hair-loss syndrome, has significantly reduced deer herds in some Western Oregon units.
The result is a reduction in the blacktailed deer harvest from nearly 50,000 bucks and does in 1985 to about 23,000 in 2002, a 54 percent decline.
The number of hunters also is down in that period, about 29 percent from nearly 160,000 to 113,000 last year.
Blacktail hunting peaked between 1960 and 1980, when clearcuts were filled with deer and hunters shot 35,000 to 45,000 bucks a year.
Historically, blacktailed deer hunting has been a stopgap for those who don't draw one of the 70,000 to 100,000 controlled hunt tags for mule deer in Eastern Oregon during the spring lottery.
The west side tag is available for anyone to purchase before the deadline (Oct. 3 this year).
Thousands of other families and hunters prefer hunting west of the Cascades, many of them waiting until late October, when leaves start falling from trees, deer are easier to see, and bucks lose much of their caution as the annual rut (mating season) approaches.
That vulnerability, not forcing hunters into a controlled draw, seems to be the commission's target for October's meeting in Roseburg, when it will set season dates and rules for deer and elk hunting in 2004.
There is little the commission or the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife can do about disease and timberland management, even on public land.
"We really can't control habitat," said commissioner Paul McCracken of Portland, himself a private timberland owner. "We're looking at a bad trend."
The commission can, however, make changes that could improve the ratio of bucks to does, which also has dropped in the past two decades.
"I'm not sure we could ever get back to the way things were with reduced harvest," said Tom Thornton, the department's game program manager. "But we can do something about the ratios."
Among the options targeted by commissioners at their monthly meeting last week in Salem were late archery hunting and shaving days off the end of the rifle buck season, which usually extends into the first week of November.
Significant cuts or a temporary ban on doe hunting is another option, commissioners said.
Bow hunters also could be required to shoot only bucks during some periods instead of the any-deer rules this year.
Commissioners, however, were unanimous in telling Thornton and Ron Anglin, the department's wildlife division chief, not to propose controlled hunting for blacktailed deer in Western Oregon.
"I don't think we're ready to go there," said commissioner Don Denman of Medford.
09/18/03
BILL MONROE, The Oregonian
SALEM -- Western Oregon deer hunters won't be forced to draw for controlled hunt tags.
Yet.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, faced with plunging numbers of Western Oregon deer and those who hunt them, won't resort to lottery hunting on this side of the Cascades when it sets 2004 big-game seasons Oct. 10.
But blacktailed deer hunters this fall might see the last of hunting during the start of the rut.
"We need to do something," said commissioner Jeff Feldner of Newport. "We've got some very unhappy hunters."
Bow hunters probably will also feel a pinch next year, when commissioners consider shortening their season, perhaps ending a late-season archery hunt in November, the peak of the rut.
Blacktailed deer are suffering throughout Western Oregon from a combination of habitat loss, disease and changes in forest management.
The widespread cutback of most federal timber cutting reduced -- in fact, ended on most forests -- the mosaic of clearcuts that offer prime habitat for browsing deer.
Unlike grass-loving elk, blacktails are secretive animals with a taste for the buds and branches of tender deciduous trees, vine maple, blackberry and various forbs and weeds.
But as the state's wet country returns to primarily conifer stands on public land, deer are declining. Chemicals used to suppress vegetation on private timberlands also reduce forage for deer.
The relatively recent appearance of a parasitic disease, deer hair-loss syndrome, has significantly reduced deer herds in some Western Oregon units.
The result is a reduction in the blacktailed deer harvest from nearly 50,000 bucks and does in 1985 to about 23,000 in 2002, a 54 percent decline.
The number of hunters also is down in that period, about 29 percent from nearly 160,000 to 113,000 last year.
Blacktail hunting peaked between 1960 and 1980, when clearcuts were filled with deer and hunters shot 35,000 to 45,000 bucks a year.
Historically, blacktailed deer hunting has been a stopgap for those who don't draw one of the 70,000 to 100,000 controlled hunt tags for mule deer in Eastern Oregon during the spring lottery.
The west side tag is available for anyone to purchase before the deadline (Oct. 3 this year).
Thousands of other families and hunters prefer hunting west of the Cascades, many of them waiting until late October, when leaves start falling from trees, deer are easier to see, and bucks lose much of their caution as the annual rut (mating season) approaches.
That vulnerability, not forcing hunters into a controlled draw, seems to be the commission's target for October's meeting in Roseburg, when it will set season dates and rules for deer and elk hunting in 2004.
There is little the commission or the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife can do about disease and timberland management, even on public land.
"We really can't control habitat," said commissioner Paul McCracken of Portland, himself a private timberland owner. "We're looking at a bad trend."
The commission can, however, make changes that could improve the ratio of bucks to does, which also has dropped in the past two decades.
"I'm not sure we could ever get back to the way things were with reduced harvest," said Tom Thornton, the department's game program manager. "But we can do something about the ratios."
Among the options targeted by commissioners at their monthly meeting last week in Salem were late archery hunting and shaving days off the end of the rifle buck season, which usually extends into the first week of November.
Significant cuts or a temporary ban on doe hunting is another option, commissioners said.
Bow hunters also could be required to shoot only bucks during some periods instead of the any-deer rules this year.
Commissioners, however, were unanimous in telling Thornton and Ron Anglin, the department's wildlife division chief, not to propose controlled hunting for blacktailed deer in Western Oregon.
"I don't think we're ready to go there," said commissioner Don Denman of Medford.
