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The best hope for the northern deer herd is for private landowners to improve habitat and food availability. It is largely not going to happen on public lands. Winters and predation are a given.
now with the greater authority act, they will assist the feds, that is a slower process, but it will be good in the long run......
the far north is mostly public, and recreational feeding is not good for the herd, in my opinion.. From 1999 to 2013, the liberal allowance of doe tags, above objections, from wildlife managers in the counties, over ruled by supervisors, allowed the public to shoot the living hell out of the herd......
it will take a long time to rebuild...... lets look at predators. In Michigan, if your a resident and have a trapping license, you get a cat tag...... In Wisconsin its a draw, and takes several years, to get one,,,, and why I do not know......
Get rid of the baiting period, all the feeders in town,,,,,, get deer doing what they do naturally, and if that means, you actually have to hunt, so be it
The report indicates that wolves are/will not be a major factor in the decline in deer numbers. They say that deer avoid Wolf core areas. That makes me wonder if they are avoiding the core area or if they have just all been killed and eaten?
Also, the report states that the wolves fed mainly on livestock carcass dumps. Seriously, how many livestock carcass dumps are there in wolf country? Makes me wonder how small the area was where the study was conducted.
So is it just a coincidence that the huge decline in deer numbers in the north occurred at the same time that wolf numbers have increased????
I agree 100% with razorhead. Maybe the excessive antlerless tags had a bigger effect on the population than the wolves did... I guess we'll never know but one thing is for sure, we need a change in how wolves and antlerless tags are managed.