ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703310131
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: outdoors
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Catch-and-release has been practiced among trout and bass fishermen for years. Now some deer hunters want to apply the concept to their sport under a ``Let 'em go so they will grow'' theory.
The new buzz words are ``quality deer management,'' which involves passing up young bucks when they stride by your stand with the hope that two or three years later they will show up as mature, heavily antlered trophies.
But how popular is the concept among hunters? Can you expect the guy who's never killed a deer to hold his fire when a sleek four-pointer appears? If he does, what are the chances the buck will live long enough to grow the kind of antlers that are the ticket to a big game show?
These are questions biologists of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are struggling to answer.
``Quality deer management is good biology,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's wildlife division. The question, is it good for the hunter?
Some deer hunters in the Shenandoah-Rockingham county area believe it is. At a game department hearing in Richmond on March 20, they requested that a 35,000-acres portion of the George Washington and Jefferson National forests be established for quality management. The deer herd in their section of the Shenandoah Valley has been deteriorating, the hunters said.
The request was turned down.
``We would like to see what support we have,'' said Duncan. ``From what we know in other states, unless two-thirds of the people in any one county support it you are going to have problems with it.''
It doesn't do much good when one hunters watches a young buck ramble by his stand and another hunter the next ridge over kills it.
``When people say they will support quality deer management, then we will support it,'' said Matt Knox, the department's deer biologist. ``We aren't opposed to it at all ... but we don't want to put it on the national forest until we are sure the public wants it.''
The department already is into quality management on more than one million acres of private land under its Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP). The program lets landowners and hunting clubs choose how to manage the deer herd on their property under the guidance of a state biologist. Most choose to manage for a better quality herd, which often involves killing a higher percentage of does and giving bucks a chance to grow older.
The game department has proposed setting aside 5,000 acres in the Fairystone area of Henry and Patrick counties for quality management. It would operate under a regulation that makes it unlawful to kill an antlered deer unless it has at least four points each greater than one inch in length. The proposal is one of several game regulations scheduled to be discussed during public hearings this week and voted on in May.
Duncan called the idea an ``experiment,'' and said it would open an additional 900 acres to deer hunting.
The tighter regulations should have a positive impact on the deer herd, but hunters shouldn't expect a trophy-hunting opportunity comparable to the Radford Arsenal, said Knox. The difference at Radford is a fence that keeps the big bucks in and uninvited hunters out.
``We can raise a few older bucks at Fairystone, but for every 100 bucks we let go we are not going to get 100 back,'' Knox said. ``There is not a fence there. The deer don't just live on 5,000 acres.''
The gains, however, should outweigh the losses.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB