Kevin - who is the boogeyman? We have not positively ID'd him here in MN. Who is ultimately behind the deer herd reduction?
Yes, hunters are pulling the trigger... but its the IDNR who is responsible for managing our resource for hunting, in addition to all the stakeholders who want all the deer dead. Since 1991, in the infamous "I Took a Doe So The Herd Won't Grow" days... Paul Shelton has never seen a doe he didn't want killed. The IDNR pounded the overpopulation theory into everyone's heads. Ask any non-hunter... and they will probably tell you that there are way overpopulated. The IL deer herd was already headed downward when IDNR managed to pull off the Joint Task Force. They lined the committee with people who knew very little about how deer are/should be managed. They pulled the wool over everyone's eyes and got a license to kill more deer. They came up with the deer-vehicle accident metric to measure their success. But they never really told anyone that they were going to take way more deer than just a 14% reduction. Shelton's boss knew it... they admitted it to us in a meeting. Yet Director Miller, and all the biologists kept blaming the big, bad JTF for wanting more deer killed. It wasn't until EHD hit and hunters started seeing WAY less deer in the woods... and we started digging into their formulas to measure DVA's and reduce the herd. IDNR hadn't really told anyone the real truth to their reduction program. They hadn't updated anyone on where the DVA rates were. They just kept killing more and more deer. We hit our STATEWIDE reduction in 2012. And their foot was still on the gas. Hunters started complaining, and they kept their foot on the gas for another year. They waited until they had DVA data in the summer of 2014 before they took ANY action. And the action they did take, was less than underwhelming. The biologists are still making quotes in newspapers that the lower harvest numbers are NOT because of low deer herds, but rather bad weather keeping hunters at home on the couch. They still blame the JTF for their reduction goals, yet never mention all the counties that are below goal. They don't mention that the statewide goal was reached before EHD hit... and we've been under goal for 2 years. In the midst of removing counties from the LWS, they never ONCE actually used the words "growing the herd" or "increasing the population" in those areas. Actually... you can't GROW the population if you never pull back on the number of permits you sell to keep killing deer. The herd peaked over a decade ago, and we're still selling tend of thousands more deer permits (about 70,000 more) to kill 50,000 fewer deer! That's insane!!! We're beyond "maintenance... we should be talking about growing the herd in some areas, but you can't find a single IDNR official who will admit there's a problem ANYWHERE in the state.
The big eye opener for me was looking at actual numbers county by county. Pike County, for example, is a joke. The crown jewel of whitetail hunting in the world, and IDNR manages it based on freaking nuisance permits. Pike was targeted for something like a 36% herd reduction. They hit that 4 years ago. IDNR never backed off the slaughter. They went over 40%... no backing off. They're currently at a 46% reduction in the DVA rate, and IDNR refuses to back off yet. Pike County still had the late-winter season (LWS) and they are issuing thousands of permits for does to be killed outside the normal hunting season through nuisance permits. The JTF resolution specifically called for counties to be removed from the LWS when they reached their population goal. IDNR ignores any part of the JTF resolution that suits them. They claim that Pike County alone gets about 1/4 of the total STATEWIDE number of nuisance permits. Heck, the JTF also called for a committee to be formed, under IDNR control, to look into the nuisance permit system... and again, IDNR ignored that part of what lawmakers TOLD them to do. So... that goose that layed the golden egg in Pike County is getting kicked in the head by IDNR biologists over and over again. IDNR claims that they are bound by the constraints of the JTF resolution, yet they don't care when they break the law to ignore other parts of it. When we asked what the "goal" was for Pike County, IDNR biologists wouldn't answer us. They don't know. "We'll pull back when the number of nuisance permit requests become manageable." We asked, "what is that number?" They don't know.I think they stated that they issue over 100 permits... which all are good to kill 10 deer each. But they have no goal on what that number should be. And they sure aren't managing Pike County on DVA rates, like they are required by law to do. If so, Pike County would have come out of the LWS 4 years ago. If a 46% reduction in the deer herd doesn't even trigger the slightest bit of change... how much will? A 75% reduction? Nobody has the answer to that question... not even the biologists who are responsible for managing one of the best deer hunting areas in the world. It's sad, really.
So yes, hunters are still to blame for pulling the trigger over and over, but it's IDNR's job to apply the brakes every now and then. They need to be on OUR side every now and then. They can't manage to the absolute bare minimum number of deer in the the state. They have to ADMIT when they went too far, and be upfront with everyone when they need to raise herd levels back up. It's frustrating to hear people actually ask politicians to "let the biologists manage the herd." Well... the biologists in IL have absolutely no connection with hunters, or managing the herd for hunting. It's not politicians calling the IDNR director every day asking for more deer to be killed... it's our biologists who are still trapped in their 1991 mentality of trying to slow down herd growth, when we should be looking for ways to grow the herd back. They spend more time trying to discredit groups like IWA, and making us out to be the bad guys by saying we're a bunch of trophy-hunting elitests who only want the maximum carrying capacity.
Brooks and I have exchanged emails a few times since we started. He copies me on a lot of his emails that he sends out. A lot of what's going on in both states are similar. I think it will be important for us to keep in touch, and let each other know what works and what doesn't work. As each state makes progress, we can use the success of each organization to help move the other one forward.
