Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Never mind the fact that the kill reached a record 160,411 the past gun, bow and muzzle loading season, nearly a 20 percent jump over the year before, which also was a record.
"Complaints about deer damage also are at an all-time high," said Bob Duncan, chief of the game division of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
"If we have, conservatively, a preseason herd of 750,000 animals statewide and we know that we can take roughly one-third of the herd, that is one-quarter-million deer," said Duncan. "How do we get the other 60,000 to 70,000 in the kill? That is the challenge."
It is a question that state game officials are taking to hunters across the state during meetings that start tonight in Marion.
Game biologists publicly will be discussing several ideas that they have been tossing around among themselves. They include:
More deer tags on a hunting license, including some that can be purchased at an extra fee.
Doe days closer to the beginning of the season.
A bag limit that allows the taking of more than one deer a day.
Doe days during the early muzzle-loading season.
Continuous either-sex hunting for holders of a state resident junior license [15 years of age and under].
Extension of the bow season to include the week of early muzzle-loading season.
Permitting the killing of bucks, in addition to does, on a Damage Control Assistance Program [DCAP] tag.
"We are going to look at every possible option," Duncan said.
That includes discussions of species other than deer. Officials also want some input on the early squirrel season. Should it embrace the month of October?
And how best can the state be zoned for waterfowl hunting, now that the federal government is giving Virginia the option to tailor the duck season according the section being hunted. That could mean extra wood-duck days in the west.
"It is not that we are attempting to manage by popular opinion," Duncan said. "I see these meetings as an opportunity to help explain some things; to sell some ideas."
In the past, hunters interested in shaping game regulations have had to go to Richmond in order to participate in a public discussion.
The Marion meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. A meeting will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Lynchburg at the Holiday Inn on Oddfellows Road. Thursday at 7:30 p.m., the meeting moves to the National Guard Armory in Staunton. Two additional sessions are scheduled for the eastern part of the state.
"We are not really going to spend much time discussing things over which we have no regulatory control. For example, Sunday hunting. That is not an issue for us," Duncan said, explaining it was a matter for the General Assembly or the courts.
"We are going to be looking at ways to control deer numbers in those areas that they need to be controlled."
by CNB