I don't understand how you can claim the game check numbers are total garbage b/c 50% of people aren't even using it and then in the same sentence rely on it for some kind of hardcore evidence of anything.
The same way a timber cruise only samples 10% to get an estimate for the entire stand.....You dont have to sample 100% to get a good idea of what is occurring.
Ummm, doesnt work that way. When you cruise a property, you make estimates but your basing it on what you see with your eyes and measure and it is far more scientific than anything the state is doing with deer data. Areas for the cruise are established, plots are designated, BA and TPA are determined as well at the timber type make-up and age. Then that is statistically extrapolated across the different plots to determine the merchantable value. LOL It's a whole lot different and a whole lot more accurate than what the state does with our deer.
I'll summarize it for you. How scientific and accurate does this sound?
Question: How many deer to we have?
State Answer: Plenty
Question: How do you know?
Answer: Well hunters kill them all the time so there must be plenty of them around.
Question: How many deer are killed illegally or by unlicensed hunters?
Answer: Well we dont really know but we dont think that it is very many
Question: Well why do you think that?
Answer: Because there are not a whole lot of tickets written for that
Question: Okay, well do you think that you catch the majority of people breaking the law
Answer: Oh no, there's just no way. The state has 67 counties and we only have about 60 GWs for the entire state. That would be impossible. Just too much land and nowhere near enough manpower to patrol it. We'd need probably 250-300 GWs to do it effectively.
Question: Well why dont you hire more GWs and enforce the rules that are on the books
Answer: Dead silence. Crickets chirping quietly in the background.
Question: What % of hunters actually participate in checking deer?
State Answer: Well.........we really have no idea, but we think it's somewhere between 40-70%
Question: Why do you think it is that much?
State Answer: Because that is our best guess and that's what we think it is
Question: How many deer were killed this year?
State Answer: Game Check says 200,000 were killed
Question: Well if Game Check says 200,000, why does the annual harvest report produced by the state say over 300,000 were killed?
State Answer: Well we know that not everyone participates in Game Check so we just arbitrarily add some additional kills to the total actually reported to get it to where we think it should be.
Question: So you dont know how many deer are available for harvest and you just admitted you really dont have any idea about how many are actually being harvested. So how in the hell do you make your wildlife management decisions
State Answer: Well we have this thing called the CAB. It's made up of a bunch of political appointees. Mostly elites and politician's friends that dont have wildlife biology degrees or any formal wildlife training and they vote on the rules.
Thank you for making my point for me.
