Bowhunter surveys
West Virginia
Don't forget to mail those bowhunter survey's (DNR version) if you haven't already done so. Their survey ends before gun season (don't know why) but sometimes I hold mine until the end of the year. If you are like me, you might forget to mail it in. They want them submitted by the end of December.
Thanks to all those who participate to provide DNR with this valuable information.
You would think since it's a bow hunters survey it wouldn't need to be in until after the season was really over
From a statistical point of view it probably dosen't matter.
I don't have a lot of faith in the bowhunter surveys making any difference unless they (DNR) are looking to support a change that they want. Just gives Randy Tucker another excuse to act like he cares about WV hunters..
Since it's beginning, the Bowhunter Survey, has proven to be the best Survey the DNR receives. Bowhunters tend to see more, probably, because a greater percentage of them hunt from trees and start earlier in the Fall, before wildlife dens for the winter.
how does the DNR count deer populations?
Once a year they put up a big net around the state, then they gather all the Dnr employees and line them up side by side 10 ft apart. They start in the southern part of the state and start walking north and count deer, bear, turkey, bobcats and every thing else they see. It's a pretty big undertaking and takes over a week of 24 hour per day of walking to cover the whole state .
It's a lot of work but they get an almost 100% count. I remember back in 1975, Joe Cocker and I volunteered to help them. We walked from The southern tip of Mercer county up to the western tip of Mon. County at the PA line. It's always fun at the end because all the deer, bear and stuff start piling up between you and the net. There weren't as many deer or bear back then as there is today, but we had a herd of deer about a half mile wide between us and the net when all of a sudden a bear came running toward us and knocked poor ole Joe for a loop. He landed on his feet and started singing.
Good memories
That's an urban legend Smokey and if you google snopes you will find its not a true one. I heard they set up on deer road crossing signs and put down a counter so when a deer steps on it they will get a count. I also heard that in Mingo county that take all of the pictures that wvmule gets and count them. Then they cut that number in half to allow for poaching.
By the way ,Joe Cocker said he didn't ever know you but then again Joe Cocker said he didn't remember 1975 either
I don't remember much about 1975 either.
They were and probably to some degree use the buck kill per square mile of a county to estimate population. That obviously has it's limitations. Now they are doing those late summer spotlight surveys. They have a computer program that they feed their data into to get a population estimate. They say it is a more accurate estimate.
Slightly off topic, but for those who are WVBA members I want to encourage you to send in the survey we are doing of our member's opinions.
We are getting some good response but as with all surveys, the more responses we get the better the results will be in making sure the Board represents the views of the membership.
