Deer Debate
November 4, 2007 - 6:20am — brianm
Pennsylvania’s Rich Deer Hunting Heritage
Gone by the wayside?
I remember when I began hunting. The deer were thick. A restless twelve year old didn’t have a chance to get bored in the hunting woods. My Dad took me along for the hunt starting when I was ten. Even that was exciting. I played rabbit dog alongside our basset hound. I ran around the other side of tall trees to trick the squirrels into presenting a shot for Dad. I accompanied him on his trap line, often being sent into chilly waters with my new hip waders on to retrieve muskrats. The world was a fascinating place. I was learning about the type of mast and browse that deer sought out. I could make a dirt hole set for fox that Dad said was flawless (he may have been humoring me) when I was ten. I remember stirring that awful wort of black walnut shucks and maple bark to boil the traps, later adding paraffin to draw the newly blackened and scent free traps through. Dad got me my first bow and arrow (a Jennings Lightning) when I was eleven. Life was wonderful.
When I was finally twelve and got my license I was beside myself with anticipation. The Christmas tree had a new Remington 700 BDL in 6mm under it. My February birthday present was a Remington 1100 20 gauge. I was armed and ready! The old Crosman 760 was in retirement. When spring arrived I could be found out back making brush piles and cutting shooting lanes to create a rabbit haven. I was out in the woods scouting whenever possible and working odd jobs to buy more ammo and a couple dozen new Victor #1 ½ double coil traps. Seems kind of odd for a kid to wish the summer would go by a little faster doesn’t it? Dad and I fished for Perch and Walleye in Lake Erie to pass the time.
Finally! Fall is here! There wasn’t a safe place for a squirrel within a five mile radius. Dad and I had to invent squirrel recipes until he finally told me that we had to give them a rest and leave some for seed. Rabbits were next on the hit list. Dad liked rabbit hunting (a lot) so they deserved no rest. Besides, they tore up the garden. Ok, now deer (buck) season is drawing close. To the range to shoot the high powered rifles we went. Dad drew a doe tag but I didn’t. Life isn’t fair! I remember seeing about 50-60 deer per day buck hunting with my Dad near our camp in Warren County. No luck though. After the first few days, we hunted at home in Erie County. We saw maybe 15-20 deer per day. This place is boring, lets go back to camp, I would utter under my breath. Dad would have liked to, but alas, he had to work. The whitetail population remained in tact for my first year. I remember feeling like someone kicked me in the gut when Dad drove out heading for camp and the three day doe hunting season. Then I felt it even worse when he came home with his and others’ does in his truck to be processed in the garage.
The next year I got a doe tag! Now I’ll show these deer! Same results in buck season, no shooting. We saw as many deer and even saw a couple bucks but they were “cutting the mustard” as Dad would say. Doe season was a different story. On the first day at about 3pm, a few doe were standing a scant 100 yards away. Way too close to be safe from me and my 6mm. Bang! Dad about soiled himself! He was looking the other way and I didn’t want to risk talking or moving. We walked down and the doe was motionless. I could have whipped Mike Tyson I was so big. Then Dad said; “hope your knife is sharp boy.” I sank a little then, but dove right in. Yeah, I hit the gut. Lovely aroma of semi digested green putrid, disgusting, nasty, filth arriving at my nostrils. Dad standing ten feet upwind giggling while coaching me. I won’t make that mistake again!
I was hooked! I was now a fully involved thirteen year old youth hunter, trapper, fisherman. I needed no special “youth only” seasons to pique my interest. I didn’t have pheasants released just for me. It was enough just to have a lot of game, the company of my Dad, and the anticipation of turning twelve to compel me to investigate becoming an outdoorsman.
I hear people nowadays saying that we are losing new hunters to Play Station and Nintendo. The internet and 200 cable TV stations are taking them out of the woods. I say who is feeding us this B.S.? I’ll tell you what we are losing them to: No friggin’ deer! Maybe the tube and the computer and the game system is winning over our next generation of hunters. Why is that do you suppose? Because hunting is BORING! You don’t have to be pulling the trigger every ten minutes to be excited, but you have to be seeing game! Of course the video world is more exciting than hunting. A kid can stay home nice and warm with a drink, snacks, and real toilet close by and shoot a deer every five minutes playing Deer Hunter 2! What sane child would even want to go out and freeze their butt off, walk through miles of hills, ravines, and briars, only to come home having seen no action whatsoever? And let us not discount the influence of the anti-hunters who tell our children that hunting is cruel and wrong.
My daughter just turned twelve. She and I participated in the youth doe season. We hunted at our camp in Warren (the same one from my childhood). Do you think we saw 50-60 deer per day? Yeah, right. How about 8 deer in three days? We hunted harder to see those eight deer than my Dad and I did to see 80! We scouted a good spot for a blind and sat in it for the morning and evening hunts. We walked an average of 6-7 miles per day. We packed our lunches and never saw camp during daylight hours. We were miles and miles from a public road. In fact, we never saw another hunter in the woods. Yet the deer weren’t there. I have two more children, ages 10 and 5. It will be very hard to convince them to follow their Dad into the woods. Especially if I am losing my desire to go out there as well.
“Stay the course” we are told by the Game Commission. What course is that? Is it the same course that made seeing a deer track in the 30’s the talk of the town? Is it the same course that made shooting a buck front page news? I am sorry, but I don’t want to stay that course. I can’t imagine that the majority of sportsmen (non-gender specific) want to continue down this path either. So who does? The timber industry, the DCNR, the insurance industry, who? We are told that there is a goal to be reached that will be of great benefit. What goal is that? A deer density of less than 5 deer per square mile is not a goal, it is irreparable decimation of a species.
Let’s put that into perspective shall we? A square mile is 640 acres. If there are only 5 deer in that area, and the buck to doe ratio is 1 to 3, and at least ½ of the bucks are protected by antler restrictions, there will be only one harvestable buck for every 1000 acres of hunting land. Who has sole access to 1000 acres any more? That one buck will be the target of 10 or more hunters. Then lest we forget that there will be 20 doe tags available for that same piece of real estate where only 6 or 7 does reside. Does any of this make sense?
Now, here is another factor in the same equation: Sportsmen fed up with staying the course are banding together and leasing large tracts of land. It is immediately posted to all outsiders and deer are being managed to yield sustainable numbers. This has the effect of reducing the amount of land available for public hunting. Even though the PGC continues to purchase more land to add to the inventory, we are losing at a faster rate than we are gaining. Remember the PGC cooperative agreements? Landowners signed up with the PGC to allow public hunting. Those same landowners are seeing a more tangible benefit…CASH MONEY! They know their land is a sought after commodity. They get no tax relief for allowing public hunting. So, they lease it out for $3-$5 per acre to groups of sportsmen. Do you have an extra $500 per year in your hunting budget to have land (where there are deer) to hunt? Neither do I friends. If not, where is our hunting heritage heading? Now that same lonely buck and 6 or 7 does on that 1000 acres of public land are the target of 20 or more hunters who have been excluded from their traditional hunting grounds. And the problem escalates. The snowball is formed. It has begun its slow roll down the hill people. It is gaining speed. At the bottom is deer hunting purgatory!
We have been told that the deer herd needs reduced to allow for reforestation of timber land. “Deer are the enemy of our forests” said Gary Alt. “We need earlier, longer, consecutive seasons to kill the does.” “We need to get the buck to doe ration in line with Quality Deer Management guidelines.” “We will have bigger bucks and a healthier deer herd.” And lastly; “our forests will be able to regenerate” (when all of the sapling munching vermin we know as deer are dead)! What about the reports that our forests are incapable of regenerating due to poor soil conditions and excessive acidity? Did anyone try repairing the soil? Or did we just assume that the soil would take care of itself once all of the deer were gone? I have seen Gary Alt’s video and his little fenced in Deer exclusion area. There were lush green saplings growing within, yet on the outside there were only ferns. Aren’t ferns an acid loving plant? I noticed no ferns within the enclosure. Was the soil acidity treated in there? Do you feel like a mushroom people?
Are you aware that one of the largest forces driving our reduction in the deer herd comes from the DCNR? The timber harvested from our State Forests is worth far more on the international market if it receives a certification as being from a sustainable resource. One of the guidelines of this certification is a whitetail density of no more than five deer per square mile. Hmmmm, where have we seen that figure before? Things that make you go Hmmmm. Do you think that the current regime in the PGC has an ulterior motive? I forget, who appoints the Commissioners? Isn’t it the Governor? Is he a hunting and gun friendly type of person? Or is he an anti-hunting environmentalist? I am not sure.
In the past few years, I have seen more coyote and bear sign in the woods than deer. The PGC denies ever introducing any coyotes, but that is a lie. And now, we have mountain lions! Yes, you heard me, mountain lions. They have been seen in Warren and Erie County! They have taken livestock, pets, and yes, deer! Where did they come from? I have a reliable source that tells me they were released to further reduce the deer herd. A farmer less than ten miles from me had his black and tan coon hound killed and eaten on the chain. He took plaster casts and pictures of the tracks (lion) and a fisherman saw a lion along Conneaut Creek in Erie County. Yet they don’t exist. I think there is a lot of lion going on. How many fawns have you been seeing in the woods? I have seen almost none. A large adult doe is always accompanied by 1-3 fawns right? Not anymore. Where did they go? Can you say “predator excrement”? So, we have hunted the deer to unsustainable levels. They can no longer reproduce in sufficient numbers to replenish the herd due to fawn mortality from introduced predators. All of this, and for five years we have seen no action from the PGC to turn this awful tide. Quite the opposite actually, despite the outcry from Pennsylvania hunters, we are told that our deer population is flourishing and we need to continue reducing the herd. Well, sorry folks, but a mushroom can only take so much manure.
I have glimpsed the future of outdoor recreation in Pennsylvania. Sadly, it doesn’t include sportsmen. If these trends continue unfettered, stick a fork in us, we’re done! So, who is to blame? The PGC? No, it isn’t. The PGC as an agency has a history of protecting our resources. It has accomplished sportsmen ownership of nearly 1.5 million acres of land. It has built a deer herd from near extinction in the early 1900’s to the fourth largest in the country (prior to Gary Alt of course). It works, and it used to work FOR us instead of AGAINST us. It needs an enema, and I have a few suggestion as to where the hose needs to be placed! We cannot be anti-PGC. The PGC is supposed to be our advocate, and it can be again. We need new leadership, and we need it now! We need a moratorium on doe hunting except for the youth hunters. I think the seniors will agree and abstain from doe hunting. We need to kill the coyotes through whatever means is necessary! We need to get rid of Mountain Lions before one of them eats a kid! Could be your kid, or mine, that ends up predator excrement! Can you envision that? I can’t, and since the PGC says that lions don’t exist in Pennsylvania I guess that it would be impossible to shoot one illegally.
Once the PGC’s budget goes into the red where are they going to gain revenue? Eco-tourism? Hotels and resorts? Hiking trails? Bird watching? Oh wait a minute, I forgot, they already accepted $1,000,000.00 from the Audubon society for a “deer study”! What lies before us? Will the PGC begin selling off the more valuable pieces of land for development? I can smell the fumes from the salt brine and oil trucks already. I can see the massive clear cuts done “to improve wildlife habitat”. And I can see it within the decade. Call me a rambling pessimist or whatever you like, but remember my ramblings!
This article will be condemned by the PGC and its supporters as far fetched, nay saying, or even gross exaggeration. If you agree, stay the course with them and watch your children refuse to hunt with you. Watch as the Game Commission plummets into unrecoverable debt. Watch as the PGC repeatedly asks for license increases to stabilize their shrinking revenue base as fewer and fewer hunters line up to buy a license. Watch as those increases are granted and even more hunters archive their gear. Watch as the gun shops fill up with used deer rifles that nobody is interested in. Watch as our billion dollar a year hunting tourism industry leaves the state. Watch as our family owned and operated campgrounds and other hunting related businesses fold up like cheap lawn chairs! Watch unemployment rise! Watch as your local sporting goods store becomes another gas station. Watch as Gander Mountain and Cabelas revert to catalog showrooms only. Watch as the anti-hunters begin to supplement the PGC budget and take control of our Game Lands. Watch as our share of Pittman Robertson funding dwindles. Watch as the PGC begins to rape the land to supplement its budget. Watch as our Game Lands are leased for farming, oil extraction, timber, and other recreation. And finally, watch as our Rich Pennsylvania Hunting Heritage passes into the history books.
OR, refuse to watch any longer and take charge of this situation by standing in front of every podium, on every street corner, and in front of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg screaming at the top of your lungs that we are through “staying this course!” Tell your elected representatives that enough is enough and if they want re-elected they had damn well better get the PGC under control! And plan to follow their progress, and to vote; either for them, or against them, depending on how they look after our interests as Pennsylvania hunters.
Brian Mills
Concerned Sportsman
Future Pennsylvania Hunting Historian
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Comments
You sound like me!
Here's the deal. I hunted black bear in PA for 3 days in 2007 on some State Game Lands. I met a few hunters along the trails and had some conversations with them. ALL of them agreed that the PGC is doing a TERRIBLE JOB at managing the deer herd in PA. One man's comments were so full of explitives that even I blushed. I think I've had just about enough of wasting both my time and money hunting in PA. I own a home in PA, but my legal residence is now in Maryland. Even though I pay property taxes in PA, I tow the line and do the right thing by purchasing a non-resident PA hunting license. With the bear tag and muzzle loader permit, it works-out to about $140. Well guess what? I have decided to just stay in MD and do all of my hunting for 2008-09 season. It's hard to believe! I've bought a PA hunting license (resident for 10 years and non-resident for anoher 20 years) my entire hunting life. This will be the first year I have no ambition to hunt my native Pennsylvania. A special think you to the PA Game Commission for ruining the deer herd with their multiple bonus tags and does hunting during the anterlered season.
no deer
I hunted all day on opening day, almost every evening after work, and both saturdays. During all those hours spent in the woods, i saw only 6 deer, no legal bucks. Thanks pgc for doing such a fine job!
Another joke of a deer season
Well folks, here we are putting another Pa deer season in the history books. We hunted the first two days. There were 6 people in my camp and we all hunted daylight to dark. Between all of us we saw 11 deer. None were bucks, all were running like they had been shot out of a cannon, and my daughter couldn't get a bead on any of them. We did hunt the last day with good snow and saw many more (8) than we did the first two days. I saw two more during an afternoon hunt at home. One was a spike. So: 21 deer for the season, oh I did see 4 in archery season. One buck that wasn't legal for an adult. I was probably in the woods for a total of about 100 hours. In that time I didn't see enough squirrels to fill a limit. I saw three turkeys, one rabbit, and 3 coyotes. I did see a number of grouse. My daughter asked if "she HAD to go hunting again next year."
Thanks PGC...enough said.
Excellent article Brian.Â
Excellent article Brian. Every sportsman should read this and stop believing the PGC's propaganda and lies. By allowing so many doe licenses and long seasons, the PGC has decimated the deer herd in Pennsylvania during the last few years. I hope that the hunters that buy as many doe tags as they can with intentions of filling them realize that they are only helping the game commission achieve their goal, which apparently is to eliminate the deer herd. The pgc's definition of a "healthy deer herd" must be no deer herd at all. Something needs to be done to stop them soon before the future of deer hunting is totally ruined.
I QUIT HUNTING (AND BUYING A LICENSE) FOR NOW
I haven't hunted or bought a PA Hunting License in two years. I did go to W. Va. and New York though. I'm thinking about Illinois next year. I am sick and tired of the bologna the Politico's are trying to feed us. By allowing everyone and their siblings to shoot three deer per season, the Powers that Be have essentially ruined Deer Hunting in PA. I think the insurance companies are to blame as much as anyone else. I read somewhere that 47,000 deer where killed annually on PA highways. So THAT'S where all the deer are. A moritorium on Doe Hunting for anyone but juniors and seniors sounds like a good start. Don't laugh when you hear about a non-existent Mountain Lion being struck by a car in northern Blair County. I have several reliable sources that have seen them and reported the sightings to the PGC. The PGC said it was probably a Bobcat or a Deer. The reporter asked if Bobcats and/or Deer had a tail 4 feet long with a black tip and climbed trees. The PGC said they don't exist. When asked by the reporter if he could then shoot the non-existent critter, the PGC said "No, they are protected." I smell what they're stepping in and I don't like it or trust them. Period.
Good letter Brian
Good job Brian, you hit the nail pretty squarely on the head. The only way Hunting, Deer and The PGC will survive is if the TRUE Sportsmen and women unite to fight the politics - hope all will consider joining Unified Sportsmen in this fight.
http://www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org/
DEER AND THE OLD WAYS
THANK THE GAME COMM. AND TERRY THEY HAVE A DREAM NO DEER IN PA. CHECK HIS BANK ACC. THE ISS. COMPANYS AND LUMBER CO. MUST HAVE PAYED HIM A LOT HE LEAVES AND THE BIG MESS. ASK A OLD TIMER ABOUT HUNTING IN THE 20'S GO BACK TO WHEN IT WAS EXCITING AND NOT
IF IT IS BROWN IT IS DOWN
food for thought...
you've given a lot of information, well stated and condensed. I'm not in the circle enough to comment, but as a biology teacher am interested and when i get some more info, will come back to discuss.
Thanks for taking the time to add your article here at StoryTrax!
no deer
you got it and you are seeing what ive been seeing ,i hope the dcnr and the game commission both go into money problems its their wrong doings and its only hurting us the hunters ,
thanks for an exallent article and hope to see alot of people read this ,my grandson already says he doent want to hunt ,
so let me see if I
so let me see if I understand this.
you don't like it that deer are being killed by mountain lion. you'd prefer that the deer are taken down by a gun, preferably your own gun intead.
so I ask, who is actually looking out for the deer? doesn't sound like anyone is. you want more deer on the land, so it's easier for you to hunt them down, so you don't have to stay out in the woods for 3 days to only see a few. that's mighty nice of you to care so much about this issue.
I think most sportsmen would
I think most sportsmen would like to see sustainable harvest levels again rather than a decimated herd. I haven't taken a doe in four years and as I stated in my article, I would be willing to put my rifle down until which time we have achieved a healthy herd once again. I also stated that I was most concerned with the future of hunting for my children. I would "prefer" that any harvested deer were taken by THEIR rifles. You have completely misconstrued the intent of the article. You must not be a sportsman. I would therefore not expect you to understand.