Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504100023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That didn't keep hunters from taking potshots at its conclusions and recommendations last week during a marathon of 11 public hearings across the state.
The criticism, especially in the Roanoke Valley and Fredericksburg, was so severe that the department's proposal to shorten the fall turkey season in an effort to increase turkey numbers is certain to be reworked before a final vote scheduled in May.
``I now know how Coca-Cola felt when they tried to replace Classic Coke with a new drink,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division. ``There apparently are a lot of hunters who think we already have a classic turkey season.''
The proposal had asked turkey hunters in many Southwest Virginia counties to sacrifice up to four weeks of fall sport. If they were willing to reduce the fall kill by 57 percent, they were told, there would be a short-term decline in hunters' success, but in 10 years the fall kill would increase by up to 77 percent and the spring kill by up to 382 percent.
For a time, hunters appeared to embrace those figures as a good deal - many still do - but then came some serious challenges. The need to break from hunting tradition was questioned. The research methods were criticized.
The most haunting question: ``Who is going to kill all those turkeys?''
That was asked by Richard Pauley, a hunter from Daleville, who appeared at the Roanoke County hearing with a 32-page document of charts and analysis that he said countered many of the department's figures. He asked: How credible is the concept that the combined spring-fall kill will jump from about 23,000 to nearly 60,000 in 10 years? Under a shorter fall season, it could go the other way when you factor in the current decline in hunting license sales and the difficulty of killing a turkey in the spring, Pauley said.
``Even if you go to an infinite limit - you put no limit on turkeys - you can't kill as many turkeys as you are prediciting,'' he said. ``I think we are forgetting the turkeys are going to get a vote on this. We can't make the turkeys dumber.''
The game department erred by presenting its research findings in a way that highlighted predicted kill figures rather than the idea of increasing turkey densities to match populations in other states where the fall season is shorter. The selling of the research was made more difficult by the department's own figures, which showed the state's turkey population already is increasing by 6.6 percent annually.
``We recognize that the turkey population in Virginia isn't broken per se,'' Duncan said. ``We have a decent turkey flock out there. We also know that from comparing data on turkeys from other states on a per-square-mile basis that we are not carrying the turkey density that a lot of other states enjoy.''
The lack of support doesn't mean the research project is any less important, Duncan said. Hunters didn't embrace shooting antlerless deer or hunting gobblers in the spring when those ideas first were recommended, he said.
``I believe, over time, this piece of work will be looked at as a benchmark in its field,'' Duncan said. ``In our statistical survey of hunters, fall turkey hunting in Virginia got rated just adequate. I asked my people to address that. I have a team of professional biologists who want to do better than average. They are striving for excellence.''
The blending of biological data with public opinion is how wildlife management works, Duncan said.
``I choose not to see this as a win-lose situation,'' he said. ``Part of our job is to identify ways to increase wildlife populations, then the public must decide how to go after that or to leave it like it is. Ten years down the road I don't want anyone to say, `Gee, I wish we had turkey populations like other states do. Why didn't our biologists tell us how we could have more?' I don't think the sportsmen pay us to sit back and say, `No change; be happy with the status quo.'''
by CNB