Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511220007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
All of them are located in the George Washington and Jefferson national forests, where makeshift camps would be filled with red-clad hunters, from the coalfields, from Ohio, from West Virginia, from the Roanoke Valley.
But that was the old days, 20 to 30 years ago. No longer is the 2 million-plus acres of national forest in Virginia considered the place to hunt deer. That honor has shifted to private land.
The national forest now has fewer deer, fewer hunters and more restrictive hunting regulations.
It's a habitat thing, say state and federal wildlife officials.
``The harvest coming off national forest land is just not up there compared to what is coming off private land,'' said John Bellemore, the forest ecology group staff officer for the George Washington and Jefferson national forests, headquartered in Roanoke County.
``I think it largely is habitat,'' he said. ``A lot of your private land may be agriculture land, which has a higher carrying capacity than up on our mountain land that is carrying oak trees that may or may not hit with acorns.''
Knowing that, many hunters nowadays seek bucks on farms, where deer flash their trails along the edge of meadows and leave horning marks in orchards. In many instances, private land doesn't just hold more deer, but also the bucks with thick necks and antler spreads that can get your name posted in the record book.
``If you go back and read the literature from the '60s and '70s and on into the early '80s, the national forests of Virginia were played up as some of the best deer hunting in the Southeast,'' said Matt Knox, deer research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. ``They were the place to go; the place to be. There is no question, that has changed 180-degrees today. There's still good deer hunting on the national forest, but the best deer hunting is on private land.''
In the early days of deer management, the remnant of Virginia's deer herd survived on national forest land. Where there were no deer, it was the national forest that received the first restockings and habitat management. In those days, it was common for the forests to burn or to be cut, and that provided an understory of lush browse.
``Over the last 30 years, there has been a deterioration in deer habitation over the national forests,'' said Knox. ``Today, for all practical purposes, there is very little cutting.''
Featured wildlife species in some management areas are turkey, bear, even songbirds, rather than deer.
``We are losing a lot of our understory browse,'' said Bellemore. ``As the forest gets older, a lot of the canopy closes and the browse is shaded out, and what is there is overutilized by our deer.''
While that trend has occurred on public land, the deer herd on private land has boomed to the point of becoming a nuisance. Places where it once was newsworthy to spot a deer now have deer hiding in the hedges next to houses.
In the late '80s and early '90s, the game department established more liberal hunting regulations to deal with the swelling deer herd.
``We've never run from the fact that when we set these liberal regs, they were pretty much set for private lands,'' said Knox. ``They could have resulted in an overharvest on public lands.''
Hunters in Rockingham, Shenandoah and Page counties believed that to be the case, especially in Rockingham County.
``Up there, there was a tremendous outcry to do something to protect the deer on the national forest,'' Knox said. As many as 350 people would show up at game department meetings in the region.
``The people were convinced that the deer herd on the national forest was being overharvested,'' said Knox. ``We were getting eaten alive up there.''
Beginning with the 1993 season, much more restrictive regulations were established for national forest property in Rockingham, Shenandoah and Page than for private land. Doe hunting was limited to one day.
Some people said it wouldn't work. How could you expect a hunter to pass up antlerless deer in one section of the county while does were a legal target in another section, was the question.
As it turned out, those fears were unfounded, officials said.
``I don't know that we had any difficulty with it,'' said Capt. Mike Clark, the head game warden in the region.
For one thing, the regulation had strong hunter support in the area, said Knox. And it achieved its objective. In Rockingham County, for example, the doe kill has dropped from about 40 percent to about 25 percent.
``Fifty years of deer management in Virginia has taught us if your doe harvest is less than 30 percent you are not going to overharvest your deer herd,'' said Knox.
For the 1995-96 firearms season, the division in public and private land deer-hunting regulations has been expanded to a bloc of 13 additional counties. National forest and game department lands in Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Bland, Carroll, Craig, Giles, Highland, Montgomery, Pulaski, Roanoke, Rockbridge and Wythe counties will have antlerless deer hunting two days only, Saturday and Dec. 2. In some cases, adjoining private land will permit antlerless deer hunting every day of the two-week season.
There's a difference in the bag limit, as well. The season limit is three deer on public land. On private land, you can kill three deer, then buy bonus permits. They cost $12 apiece and carrying two additional deer tags that can be used throughout the season. That gives a hunter the option of killing two deer every day of the season.
While there was strong public support for the separation of private and public deer hunting regulations in Rockingham, Shenandoah and Page counties, that hasn't been the case for the new bloc of 13 counties.
``These new counties didn't have near the amount of public input, but our data shows the deer harvest is declining on the national forest,'' said Knox. ``We wanted to get a handle on it. If we make a mistake, we want to make it on the conservative side.''
In time, there could be a switch back to deer hunting on the national forests, Bellemore said. Private-land hunting areas are being cut up by development. New owners move in and tack up posted signs on property where neighbors once were welcome to hunt.
What's more, the more protective hunting regulations and declining hunting pressure could see herds rebuild on the national forests.
``I think it will be interesting to look at over time,'' he said.
Even now, crowds on remote national forest areas may be less of a problem than they are on private land. And you always are welcome on public land.
``I think there still are some excellent opportunities out there on the national forest,'' Bellemore said. ``I wouldn't write it off.''
by CNB