Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502150012
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Many of the regulations that hunters will go afield under in the fall and winter will be given final approval during a meeting of the department in Richmond on May 4. But before then there will be at least 16 occasions when sportsmen will be asked to provide public input.
One of the most probing questions will be whether to lessen fall turkey-hunting opportunities in an effort to increase the turkey population. A way to do that would be to remove turkey hunting from the deer season, but that idea even has department officials divided.
"I think the cost of allowing deer hunters to take turkeys has put us into a position where we see smaller increases in turkey populations and lower turkey population densities in Virginia than in most other states," said Gary Norman, the department's upland game birds research biologist.
Hunters reported killing 14,681 turkeys during the past fall season, an increase of 31 percent. West of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the increase was 44 percent.
Virginia's turkey population would be more viable if the fall kill figure was more in line with the spring kill, Norman said. Last spring's kill was 8,981.
"All the analysis we have done points to when you get the fall harvest to a level below the spring harvest, or a ratio of nearly 1-to-1, that probably is going to optimizes population growth," he said.
The deer kill of 209,373 was just about where game officials wanted it, said Matt Knox, the department's deer research biologist. While it was the seventh record in a row, the increase was a modest 4 percent, which means the herd is being stabilized, Knox said.
No longer does a graph of the kill look like a rocket launch, he said. "We have reached the crest of the hill," Knox said. "That's what we have been trying to do. It is not bad."
Not unless you are a hunter who believes the more deer the better.
"We have so taught these people that the harvest is supposed to go up every year," Knox said. "But there are negatives associated with a real high deer density."
One is crop damage, he said. Another is deer-related highway accidents. Still another is poor quality deer.
"What you have to understand, there are 6.25 million people in the state and only .25 million are deer hunters. There are a lot of people who have to live with this deer herd besides deer hunters. The point is, you have to compromise."
While no one can say what path the regulation's process will take, Knox expects few surprises. "I don't see many changes in deer seasons. The only thing I see is some either-sex tinkering during the firearms season."
That tinkering most likely will involve the tricky process of setting different bag limits for private and public land within the same county, Knox said. In some western counties, it may be necessary to lessen the doe kill on national forest property while continuing to control deer population on private land.
The bear kill of 518 represented a 34 percent drop from the record of 789 the previous season. Officials aren't expressing alarm, because the latest kill figure is more in line with the 10-year average, said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's wildlife division.
On the positive side, 13 of the 15 bears killed that had been tagged for research purposes were males, which points to good survival of female bears, said Duncan.
The increase in the turkey kill was not unexpected, said Norman.
"We had a couple of good years of reproduction," a fact that also points to a favorable spring season, he said. The fall kill could have reached a record were it not for a good mast crop that kept the birds scattered.
Norman is in the process of compiling five years of turkey research data, some of it in cooperation with wildlife biologists in West Virginia.
"We have more data now than we have ever had on the impact of our management positions on turkeys," he said. "It is powerful data. We can look at the impact of fall seasons ranging from no fall hunting in the western part of West Virginia to nine weeks of fall hunting in our state."
That information will be presented to sportsmen during a series of meetings that will include stops in the Roanoke Valley, Staunton and Marion. The details will be released later.
The meetings will give sportsmen an opportunity to express how they feel about giving up some fall hunting in order to see the turkey population increase, Norman said.
"It is important to point out that fall hunting is impacting the turkey population, but not seriously enough that there is any threat to the population," Norman said. "But, clearly, I think the quality of the turkey hunting in Virginia could be improved if we would choose to reduce the fall season somewhat. That is an option we need to explore."
Other staff members are saying the sportsmen who have limited time to be afield should not be denied the opportunity to kill a turkey even while deer hunting, Norman said.
When kill figures are studied in more detail, they are expected to show that about 14 percent of the turkeys taken last fall were killed by muzzleloading hunters out looking for deer.
Muzzleloaders accounted for 31,090 deer, about 15 percent of the statewide total.
"That was up, but not nearly as much as I expected," said Knox. While the muzzleloading kill was low in many eastern counties, especially those in the Tidewater area, it represented as much as 30 percent of the total kill in some western counties, he said. Bowhunters killed 18,700 deer, about 10 percent of the total.
Wildlife officials are scheduled to propose 1995-96 hunting regulations to the department's board March 16 and 17 in Richmond. A series of 11 public hearings are set to follow that meeting. Included are 7 p.m. meetings at Abingdon High School, Abingdon, April 3; Cave Spring High School, Roanoke County, April 4; Wilson Memorial High School, Fisherville, April 5.
Officials will analyze the input and make it a part of the final wildlife regulation hearing in May.
by CNB