And the members agreed to that. That may be the most idiotic thing I have ever red on here.

Here is article including ideas regarding herd management, which includes concepts pertaining to reducing herds:

http://lookatmybuck.com/assets/articles/deerbook.pdf

40+ years ago reducing deer populations to improve genetics and herd quality was a relatively new concept in the Southeast. How and when a herd was reduced was arguably not as calibrated, precise, as it is today. There was not a fraction of the data, experience, and perspective available then as we fortunately have now. One can only assume that the State of Alabama was experimenting with concepts and practices in an effort to determine the most effective methods and practices to achieve the desired result. We all know the road to hell was purportedly paved with good intentions, and hindsight is always 20/20.

We used to get 40 doe tags on 1200 acres in Wilcox co. I killed 32 does my senior year in high school. We just did what the biologist told us to do.

>We just did what the biologist told us to do.

In this case the Biologist from the State of Alabama recommended harvesting deer using a 3rd party outside of the season.
A few years later deer tags were recommended as you reference and has become common practice.
Clearly, the State of Alabama was not as experienced/informed when they made their initial recommendation.

But I can also remembering quitting counting at 100 deer most afternoons in large soybean and cotton fields back then. Now those big fields were planted in plantation pines in the early 90’s. Sad to see now.

Like you I recall the vast fields of soybeans and corn in Dallas County during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and I can still remember the all the hardwood bottoms producing an abundance of white acorns. Now the agriculture is mostly pine, and the hardwoods have been harvested and not replaced.
Some would contend that deer meat tasted better back when deer were able to feed on more hardwood forage like white acorns and had more soybeans and corn to eat. Pine woods forage and food plots with oates, wheat, vetch, etc. do not produce as a high of quality of meat some would contend. Your mileage may vary.

Cutting hardwoods to make room for more pines is rampant throughout the blackbelt. Drive across the Choctawhatchee River where it crosses 10 just West of Abbeville if you want to see something heartbreaking. I have no idea how that was even legal to cut the entire river bottom down like that. Money for pulpwood trumps wildlife management every time.

Money trumps management (of any kind) .... Every time.

Just pull up an aerial plat map, of any rural county, and see how much land now belongs to some timber company or investment company that you never heard of. And then look up their recorded address. I'm amazed at the number of Alabama acres owned by some obscure LLC in Seattle Washington, or Portland Maine or ChingDang China. I keep wondering how the hell these people find 40 acres in podunk Alabama.

Sawbriers and honeysuckle don't produce the quantity or quality of wildlife as those big bean and corn fields.

Did those folks just quit farming cause they couldn't make any money, or did the government pay them to quit and plant pines.

The soybean prices dropped significantly in the ‘80. My family farmed soybeans South of Florala in NW Florida until the early ‘80, and then most agricultural landed was converted to peanuts where they soil was a good fit as prices were more competitive and there is less risk below the ground as opposed to above the ground. Pines provide less risk and a predictable return albeit a much longer window for return. It’s a shame though because when the soybeans started being removed the quail
populations followed suit. And the protein sources for deer have arguably never been fully replaced when soybeans were removed and white acorns sources diminished.

I figured when they went to pines they entered the land in some kind of government program where they got paid to remove the land from crop production.

Most of em did. Yes

I am sure there were government subsidies involved as well. However, if the prices of soybeans were as high in '80s as they were in the '70s, there would have been less reason to consider government funding. My Father lives in Baldwin county, and I have seen more soybeans in the past decade than I had seen in 20-30 years prior.

Very few big time paper companys own timberland nowadays. Mostly investment firms owns all the land now an have a third party manage it for them an do the hunting leases. Usually they have fiber supply agreement with paper mills . When invest firms or reits buys the timberland they have to buy it all not just the bigger blocks. A lot time they will own forty acres in middle of nowhere but they had take it to get the rest . Pine plantation have pretty much a guaranteed 5% return. Thats why so many firms invest in timberland. No mutual fund company can guarantee that especially over a 20 term. but timber keeps growing every year no matter what stock market does.

Little off topic but does mossy oak still own the place around Bellamy. Think it’s called Lee Haven?

I hunted the bow only properly the year before Mossy Oak got it. We had a ball. I was planning to do it every year but the guy who showed us around told us we were the last pay hunt like that, that it was being leased. We got started too late.