bearklr

I wish him well and think there are some little changes that need to be made but I have to agree that there are some people who will never be happy until they can shoot any brown four legged animal that walks by them. As far as private land I think it will be hard to differentiate between managing that land vs. public. I think they should concentrate on public land for the time being. I also think that some of the DPSM goals are a little rediculous. I hunt Lancaster county where they want to get it to 3 !!! I guess developments are more important [:@]

bowhunterlimerick

poor guy i hope he continues with the antler restrictions and does not listen to the people who arent happy till they see 100 deer a day even if there does they dont care, stupid people

adams

Having grown up and hunted lands that only hold 5-10 dpsm I can assure you it's not a problem. It may test the skills of a person who is use to hunting an area with 25-30 dpsm. It is certainly more difficult to be consistent but it is also much better for the herd. Winter kills will be fewer, the habitat will have a chance to recover and ultimately the carring capacity of the land will be restored in time.

I see quite a bit of division in PA between pro and anti alt supporters. From an outisder looking in it appears Alt was doing a good job of wildlife management contrary to what some believe. I wouldn't be heart broken at all to have Alt show up looking for a job in Maine or New Hampshire. His expertise would be welcome with open arms.

bigdog02

Just happened to wander back into this forum looking for some PA 3D shoots info, and saw this post.

He is a pretty cool young guy, I had talked to him before and worked with him a small amount when I was with the PGC. He seems like a pretty tough cookie and is very professional.

He does hunt, so no worries there.

He has a really good understanding of PA wildlife and population control/methods (at least i gathered that much from talking to him, I just knew him as a Biometrician)


I too wish him the best of luck and will be rooting for him.
(Plus he and I are both Juniata alums as well lol)

ddear

I agree it is not a problem if you grew up hunting those DD's , and that is all the deer the habitat will support due to severe winters. But, in PA most hunters grew up hunting over 20 DPSM and adjusting to hunting and seeing half as many deer as there are accustomed to , is not a pleasant experince. furthermore, the deer have proven the habitat can support 1M healthy OWD, but the PGC wants to cut that number by 50%.

Buck harvests have declined by 39% in just 3 years ,even though the PGC claims our herd has not been reduced . That is why PA hunters are unhappy .

PA GOBBLER

its hard for someone outside of this state to understand. we have so many more hunters then most states.. and most of the division is between public and private land.. i got to keep hitting that point.. yes im sure some public land has a lot of deer as of some private doesnt but for the most part its public vs. private.. u wont hear too many public land hunters on here or anywhere else saying there are too many deer.

germain

Add a comment to ddear's post.
As far as private vs public land and the way it's managed the DCNR would like to manage the state forest lands as they see fit.This of course would mean some very low deer numbers.Makes you wonder who would hunt their land if they did take control of deer management.
And then if it's OK for them why wouldn't it be OK for timber companies and farmers to manage their own land?Some say the DCNR has a right to manage it's own land but the last I heard the land is owned by the state which is funded by tax payers which is us.
In case you didn't notice I disagree with the DCNR's stance on deer management.
So what's next,throw away the game laws and let any land owner or organization kill whatever they want?

PABowhntr

I tend to agree. I do not have an answer as to "how to do it" but I know that it needs to be addressed if the deer managment program is going to be successful for everyone. I think county sized units are more appropriate than the current WMUs but they should obviously be based on something other than political boundaries.

BTBowhunter

County size WMU's might be small enough but I wouldn't want us to go back to the old county line boundaries. Keep the boundaries as roads rivers and streams. It will still be confusing and complicated but only at first. Under the old county system, there were still be huge differences in habitat and wildlife within the same county in some cases while the big, multi county WMU idea might be fine too in some areas.

We tried the bigger WMU's and have been rewarded with hotspots/coldspots. It's time to carve em up! DMAP has been an attempt at helping the landowner have a hand in managing their own property but much more needs to be done to balance the differences between overpopulated private ground and overhunted public ground.

Lowryder4u

See the answer lies in us. They make the rules and decions. how bad do we really want change? you know we dont have to shoot the deer just cause they say we can. I agree private land is better but it is not what it use to be. we as individuals must first make up our minds to only harvest big bucks and be content if we dont. as well as pass a doe tag up for a year or two. the end results will make you happier then the couple years you had to lay low.