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Public Input Sought on Oregon’s Deer and Elk Management
ODFW
8/29/02
State wildlife officials are looking for public input through October to update existing mule deer and elk plans, and to develop management strategies for black-tailed deer. The final plans will guide deer and elk management for the next 10 years in Oregon.
The draft plans identify concerns and strategies to address:
Loss of deer and elk habitat;
Relations with private landowners;
Access to hunting lands;
Damage to agricultural crops;
Population size in some areas (too big or too small);
Predation and competition;
Hunting methods (e.g., bow, rifle) and hunter crowding;
Off-road vehicle use;
Disease;
Cervid ranching operations;
Scientific methods to inventory populations;
Enforcement; and
Hunter management and ethics.
Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife worked for several months with three working groups composed of wildlife conservation organizations, sportsmen groups, tribes, land management agencies and other constituents to update current population data and identify concerns with management of mule deer, black-tailed deer, Rocky Mountain elk and Roosevelt elk.
Throughout the state, elk population numbers have largely stabilized since 1995 with local population expansions or declines due to environmental conditions. Biologists estimate about 50,000 Rocky Mountain elk and 65,000 Roosevelt elk live in Oregon. Mule deer populations in eastern Oregon have grown about 11 percent in 10 years to 283,000, but still remain below the management objective of 317,000 animals. Black-tailed deer populations in western Oregon appear to be declining, partially due to habitat changes.
The working groups identified initial concerns and then developed recommendations to address each of the concerns. Some of the elk plan recommendations are to: continue cooperative efforts with land owners and land managers, streamline the process to issue tags to landowners, review population management objectives in future years, establish population objectives for predators, work with public land managers to limit off-road vehicle use to established roads and trails, increase penalties for game violations, and revise game ranching rules to protect wild herds from disease.
The mule deer plan includes recommendations to: identify the capacity of the land to support mule deer herds, standardize herd data collection methods, limit off-road vehicle use in wildlife ranges, and monitor disease prevalence. For black-tailed deer, the recommendations to deal with declining populations include improving data collection through hunter reports and reducing opportunity to harvest more than one black-tailed deer a year.
Copies of each plan may be found on the ODFW Web site at: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/InfoCn...t_deer_elk.html . Draft plans also may be obtained by calling (503) 872-5260.
ODFW
8/29/02
State wildlife officials are looking for public input through October to update existing mule deer and elk plans, and to develop management strategies for black-tailed deer. The final plans will guide deer and elk management for the next 10 years in Oregon.
The draft plans identify concerns and strategies to address:
Loss of deer and elk habitat;
Relations with private landowners;
Access to hunting lands;
Damage to agricultural crops;
Population size in some areas (too big or too small);
Predation and competition;
Hunting methods (e.g., bow, rifle) and hunter crowding;
Off-road vehicle use;
Disease;
Cervid ranching operations;
Scientific methods to inventory populations;
Enforcement; and
Hunter management and ethics.
Biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife worked for several months with three working groups composed of wildlife conservation organizations, sportsmen groups, tribes, land management agencies and other constituents to update current population data and identify concerns with management of mule deer, black-tailed deer, Rocky Mountain elk and Roosevelt elk.
Throughout the state, elk population numbers have largely stabilized since 1995 with local population expansions or declines due to environmental conditions. Biologists estimate about 50,000 Rocky Mountain elk and 65,000 Roosevelt elk live in Oregon. Mule deer populations in eastern Oregon have grown about 11 percent in 10 years to 283,000, but still remain below the management objective of 317,000 animals. Black-tailed deer populations in western Oregon appear to be declining, partially due to habitat changes.
The working groups identified initial concerns and then developed recommendations to address each of the concerns. Some of the elk plan recommendations are to: continue cooperative efforts with land owners and land managers, streamline the process to issue tags to landowners, review population management objectives in future years, establish population objectives for predators, work with public land managers to limit off-road vehicle use to established roads and trails, increase penalties for game violations, and revise game ranching rules to protect wild herds from disease.
The mule deer plan includes recommendations to: identify the capacity of the land to support mule deer herds, standardize herd data collection methods, limit off-road vehicle use in wildlife ranges, and monitor disease prevalence. For black-tailed deer, the recommendations to deal with declining populations include improving data collection through hunter reports and reducing opportunity to harvest more than one black-tailed deer a year.
Copies of each plan may be found on the ODFW Web site at: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/InfoCn...t_deer_elk.html . Draft plans also may be obtained by calling (503) 872-5260.
