Originally Posted By: Heath
49er,

Let me make sure I am understanding you correctly because I believe I agree with you. Decisions to limit the amount of bucks killed per hunter was made to provide for a healthier herd ie, age structure and buck/doe ratio etc. etc. and the state could not provide any sound scientific data that it even knew what the age structure and buck/doe ratios were.

I agree, how can a department impose regulations to achieve their so called goal and they have no idea what their starting point is.


You are understanding me correctly. Neither the deer study committee nor the leaders of the WFF Div. could provide that information. The WFF leaders did not want the restrictions.

Review the minutes of the May, 2007 CAB meeting, and you will see that neither Steve Ditchkoff or Gary Moody could tell the board members what the estimated buck/doe ratio or male age structure was at the time of the meeting when they were asked.

Quote:
page 60
10 MR. HARBIN: What is the state
11 wide buck/doe ratio?
12 MR. DITCHKOFF: Couldn't tell
13 you.

page 61
5 MR. CHAIRMAN: What is the
6 current buck/doe ratio estimate in the
7 entire state of Alabama?
8 MR. MOODY: We do not know.


Age structure:
Quote:
page 58
13 DR. STRICKLAND: One other
14 question. Let's say that the buck
15 limit is passed, how many years do you
16 think it would take to see a change in
17 the age structure, buck to doe ratio
18 in the state of Alabama? Is that a --
19 MR. DITCHKOFF: Data out of
20 Arkansas has indicated that when you
21 protect an age class of deer, when you
22 protect one-half-year old bucks,
23 essentially what you do is you move
1 that harvest to two and a half year
2 olds. ...

...13 DR. STRICKLAND: You feel within
14 five years you would definitely see a
15 big improvement?
16 A. I would hope so. But remember
17 once again that depends on how you
18 measure improvement. There are
19 multiple things. One, is there are
20 biological benefits. Two, there is
21 the age structure and the positive
22 dynamics within the state which is
23 very difficult to evaluate, very
1 difficult to evaluate ...

[no answer given about Alabama's current age structure]

The meeting was long and it takes time, but here's the link if you want to read it for yourself:

Minutes May, 2007


Here's part of what Gary Mood said:

page 73
Quote:
6 I don't agree that we need to
7 make a decision that said we are going
8 have a three-buck limit when in fact
9 we don't know that that's going to
10 reduce the harvest, and we don't have
11 a harvest figure that we are shooting
12 for. There is not a target. Until we
13 have a target and somebody has been
14 able to biologically say this is the
15 figure that we are shooting for, and
16 for these reason and we can tell the
17 hunters of the state what benefits
18 they are going to get by doing that,
19 you know, we are not going to be -- I
20 don't think it is the thing to do,
21 plus just having a limit does not in
22 any way alter age structure. It's
23 just too complicated to say that we
0136
1 are going to have a three-buck limit
2 and all of sudden we are going to see
3 all these deer in an older age
4 category. That is not going to be the
5 case.


Gary Moody was right.