I agree with you to some extent shawn, but it is total BS that a national recognized deer organization can spew misinformation like that that and they must be called out on it when they do. I can't believe he said they had CWD in Buffalo and some of the outfitters up there did not call him out publicly on that fact. Sh!t like that can cut into a guys bottom line when your livelihood depends on a healthy, quality deer herd. Those QDMA a$$clowns are so far out of touch with anything north of Tennessee that it isn't even funny, oh they still are pretty active in MI, but that is the exception, not the rule.
I need to say upfront that I don't have strong, negative feelings for QDMA. In fact, I believe they have helped more than they have hurt. That said, they are a business. Like many businesses, they began by creating a need/problem and then sold themselves as the answer to satisfying that need/solving that problem. Also like many businesses, they built much of that "need/problem" on a foundation of, I'll be nice here, less than accurate info.
They partially sold QDMA on fallacies such as it being "unhealthy" for young bucks to breed, when they knew all along that it wasn't and that young bucks will breed even in the populations with the healthiest possible age dynamics. They indirectly promoted the beliefs of 1:10+ buck:doe ratios being not only being possible, but wide spread. No, I don't recall them every using numbers like that, but they sure pushed out of whack buck:doe ratios as being an issue and I sure never saw them even feebly attempt to dispel the notion that ratios were that badly out of whack until the last few years, when too many others called BS on ratios like those. They pushed the idea that does weren't being successfully bred during their first estrus cycle, because the ratios were too out of whack to be able to catch them that first go around, knowing full well that is a rarity in wild populations. Heck, they even went so far as trying to say that was why the southern rut is so drawn out, knowing darn well that it really stems from a bunch of factors, and ratios isn't one of them (the biggest is really that there is no biological reason for the majority of southern deer to breed within a tight window, as they don't experience "winter" like northern deer). The biggest one of all was selling that it was harder on/unhealthy for a mature buck to be the only one tending a glut of does than being in a population with numerous mature bucks that must pound the snot out of each other and compete like crazy for every breeding opportunity they could score.
I could go on, but I hope that's enough to make my point. QDMA was built on a foundation that contained more than just a little self serving "misinformation." To expect them to change that is like expecting companies to stop misleading potential clients with their ads. It's just not going to happen. As with most every business out there, within reason, their purpose is to do as little as they can for as much money as practically possible. I think where this is missed by most is that they take their "nonprofit" status seriously. QDMA is about as nonprofit as I am. Heck, I bet I do more pure "nonprofit" work than they do (if viewed as a percentage of the work I do), and would lay good $ that many "for profit" businesses do, as well. Accept that they are a business and their moves make a lot more sense.
