I don't think the limit had anything to do with ratios. I've seen way to many studies and such to convince me it was ever as bad as most think and I was as hardcore a 25:1 guy as anyone here a few years ago.

... That is my opinion of why, which is all it is.

3 MR. CHAIRMAN: I have one
4 question about this just to make sure.
5 Again, we want all the questions to be
6 asked. If we are looking at 2005,
7 2006 harvest, total harvest is close
8 to 441,000; is that correct?
9 MR. MOODY: Yes.
10 MR. CHAIRMAN: You are showing
11 280,000 bucks, 236,000 does. That is
12 doe and buck harvest?
13 MR. MOODY: Yes, it's about 47,
14 53, I think.
15 MR. CHAIRMAN: I took a
16 population dynamic, the number that is
17 1,500,000 animals. You said --
18 MR. MOODY: We have used a
19 million seven, a million eight
20 consistently for several years.
21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Just for
22 agreement, a million five. We can
23 change that if you want to.
0127
1 And if our buck to doe ratio was
2 one to one -- again, I ask the board
3 to please listen to what Mr. Moody has
4 to say, what Dr. Ditchkoff has to say.
5 This is a critical issue with the
6 state, and so if we have this
7 population dynamic, and we have a one
8 to one buck/doe ratio, we have 750,000
9 does, 750,000 bucks; is that correct?
10 MR. MOODY: Yes. If you had one
11 to one, yeah. But the population
12 dynamic doesn't work that way because
13 of the reproductive rate and the
14 number --
15 MR. CHAIRMAN: Mortality rate and
16 other things?
17 We are talking about in
18 generality if it was one to one, that
19 would be approximately what it would
20 be.
21 Let's go down to six to one. The
22 problem may be not as bad as it is in
23 some areas, not as good as it is in
0128
1 some areas.
2 If the population dynamic shows a
3 six to one buck to doe ratio, you
4 would have a population of 1,285,715.
5 MR. GOODWYN: Mr. Moultrie, when
6 you turn your head you are missing the
7 microphone.
8 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. And on the
9 bucks, we would show a population of
10 214,285. Now, if it was six to one,
11 and again we can use -- we don't have
12 any idea of the buck to doe ratio. If
13 it was six to one which seems to be --
14 you said it was four to one or
15 greater, we just killed every buck in
16 this state, Mr. Moody. We just killed
17 almost every buck in the state because
18 we have got 214,285. Our survey shows
19 that we killed 280,000 bucks.
20 How do we address that?