I do believe that game check has a much greater chance of being accurate the longer it's used. And I also think you can gain fairly accurate information from year to year, now that it's widely accepted. the reason I commented on the last map you posted was because it went back to the early years of game check when bait was legalized and it was HIGHLY inaccurate, then used that data in comparison to the numbers game check produces NOW, which are more accurate. When doing that, of course it's going to show a massive increase in harvest numbers.
I've learned over the years in the athletic world that numbers can be manipulated when complete facts aren't known. Facts without context are useless. A great example of that would be the deer harvest in 19-20 compared to 20-21. According to AL records, 199,00 hunters harvested around 218,000 deer in 2019-2020. According to the same record-keeping organization, 228,000 hunters harvested around 273,000 deer the following year. Without understanding that the Covid pandemic affected people's behavior in 20-21, raw numbers are useless. But even knowing the "Covid factor" involved, there's still more that can't be really known. Was harvest up due to hunters having more time off from work... was it because meat prices in grocery stores rose... was it because more people chose solitary activities that year rather than group activities... was it because families spent time more together in the woods (spouse/kids harvesting more)? Point being is that when we do have context, there's still so many things involved that making 100% accurate statements about "cause" is impossible. Maybe the best we can say is "the Covid pandemic affected deer harvest in 20-21."
