Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103250266
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
The proposals - a bigger bag limit, more doe days, new hunting areas - are so bold that one department board member said privately, "We have declared war on deer."
Some see it the other way around.
Deer crop damage complaints were up more than 70 percent last year, according to Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division.
Vehicle accidents involving deer were at an all-time high in 1989, the latest year that these figures are available. There were 2,740 such accidents, Duncan said, involving $4 million in property damage, 205 human injuries and two deaths.
In order to boost last year's record deer kill of 160,411 by about 65,000 deer, the board has proposed its first-ever two-per day limit. Under another proposal, hunters no longer would have to take the deer they kill immediately to a big game check station. Anytime during the day of the kill would be fine.
"This is to allow a hunter who shoots a buck in the morning to stay and kill a doe - and we hope he will," said Duncan.
One board member, Eli Jones Jr. of Tazewell, opposed the two-per day limit, saying it is excessive.
"I think that is taking away from the sport. To me, two a day is meat hunting."
The more than 50 pages of proposals handled by the 10-member board Friday are subject to a final vote May 10.
Under the season bag limits proposed, there are three deer tags on the gun license, two on the bow license and one on the muzzleloading license. In addition, hunters could buy a bonus license bearing two addition deer tags for use during the gun, bow or muzzleloading season. This means a hunter could kill as many as eight deer.
The bonus license, approved by the 1991 General Assembly, is expected to sell for $12. It would be valid east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and in the western counties of Botetourt, Clark, Frederick and Warren.
In order to get hunters to fill their tags with a healthy percentage of does, there were proposals to expand the number of days for hunting antlerless deer. Either-sex hunting would be legal the first Saturday of the western season in most counties. Several counties would have their number of doe days doubled.
In Bedford County, it would be legal to kill antlerless deer anytime during the two-week season. Botetourt, Floyd, Franklin and Henry counties would have either-sex hunting during the final week of the two-week season, in addition to the Saturday of opening week.
Lee, Scott, Tazewell and Washington, bucks-only counties in the past, would have either-sex hunting the final day of the two-week season. About one-fifth of Dickinson County would be open to deer hunting, a county that has not had legal deer hunting for years.
Still another proposal adds an additional week to the end of the bow season, giving archers an opportunity to be afield during what they see as the peak of the rut, something they have coveted for years. That means archers would share the woods with muzzleloaders out during the opening week of the black-powder season.
"In our view, it probably is the best week of the season to hunt," said John Stockman, a Virginia Bowhunters Association officer.
Game biologists had recommended that the bow season also open a week earlier, but the board turned that down. New this year, the board proposed that one of the deer taken with the archery license must be antlerless.
Game officials want bowhunters to increase the percentage of antlerless deer in their kill, which was 39 percent last season.
"We feel that they need to do a little better than that," said Duncan.
Bowhunters, however, can kill additional bucks during the archery season by using the tags on their big game license or through the purchase of the bonus license. By combining the bow, big game and bonus license, an archer could kill seven deer. Last season, archers accounted for 25 percent of all the deer killed west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In an effort to encourage hunting among youth, a proposal was made that would permit youngsters age 16 or less to kill an antlerless deer on a junior hunting license anytime they chose during the regular gun season.
"We are obviously concerned about the future of the sport," said Duncan, who reported that few young hunters had turned out for a series of public meetings on hunting regulations held last month.
"I don't believe this is the way to encourage young hunters," said Jones, who expressed concern that adult hunters would kill antlerless deer and have them checked on the youth's license.
Some of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' deer proposals were too liberal for U.S. Forest Service officials. The staffs of the two agencies have cultivated a wildlife management relationship for more than 50 years.
John Bellemore, a wildlife staff officer on the George Washington National Forest, said his forest and the Jefferson National Forest preferred a one-per day deer bag limit and wanted to be excluded from the bonus deer tags, but the board did not honor the requests.
"The general comment is that people are not seeing, are not being successful in the harvest of deer on national forest lands," Bellemore said.
The public is being deceived when liberal regulations are set and the deer aren't available, he said. The lack of food in the national forest is causing a migration of deer from public to private land, he said.
Some muzzleloaders had hoped to see antlerless deer hunting permitted during the early week of the black-powder season, but none was proposed. A regulation was proposed to exclude the use of muzzleloading pistols during the season and the use of anything other than open or peep sights.
Last season, muzzleloaders killed 10,115 deer, 7,994 of them during the early week, which was established for the first time. The 1990-91 kill represented more than a three-fold increase over the previous season.
Bear hunters failed in an effort to have the board propose a training season which would allow them to chase without killing prior to their traditional season.
The board did propose that Culpeper County be added to the bear season and that hunters be given extra time to check a bear. Like deer hunters, a bear hunter could register his animal anytime the date of kill; however, only designated check stations will handle bear and one pre-molar tooth will be taken from the animal for aging purposes, game officals proposed.
"We think this will give us a better count of bears," said Duncan.
Following seven consecutive record-setting bear seasons, the kill crashed by nearly 50 percent last year.
by CNB