MyEagleNews.com // Grant County Hunting Journal 2020 // 29
Bow hunters
State considering requiring hunters to draw for archery tags
Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission expected to vote
on proposal affecting Eastern
Oregon deer Sept. 11
HOW TO COMMENT
Hunters can submit comments to the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission at
odfw.commission@state.or.us.
More information is available at myodfw.
com/articles/big-game-review.
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
s the deer population in East-
ern Oregon has dwindled by
roughly 50% in the past 40
years, the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife’s Eastern
District is proposing requiring archery hunt-
ers to draw for tags like rifle hunters.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sion is expected to vote on the proposal to
make the change for deer Sept. 11. The com-
mission was going to vote on making the
change for elk this year as well but decided
to wait until next year to consider it.
John Day ODFW Biologist Ryan Tor-
land said archery season has had an unlim-
ited tag structure where hunters who did not
draw a rifle tag could purchase a tag, but rifle
tag numbers have been cut over time. Tor-
land said ODFW has also restricted tags for
the Landowner Preference Program, where
ODFW issues landowners and their family
members hunting tags based on the acreage
of their property.
“Archery hunters were the last group that
had not been restricted,” he said. “We cut
tags everywhere else. They’re continuing to
get the opportunity to hunt, and the others
are not, and it’s kind of an equitability thing
and the declining populations.”
Torland said the hunting season structure
is 40 years old, and back then deer and elk
populations were doing well with minimal
hunter participation.
In 1979, when the archery plan was
adopted, there were roughly 200 archers in
each hunting unit and a total of 2,000 in the
state, he said. Since then, he said, the total
number has increased to 30,000.
Torland said ODFW is concerned with
the decreasing deer population, but elk, on
the other hand, are facing a complicated
situation.
Torland said, while elk are at healthy pop-
ulation levels, in some units archery hunters,
not rifle hunters, are harvesting more bulls,
especially branch-antler bulls.
Eagle file photo
Andy Day, longtime Grant County resident and bow hunter, shows off a bow at his shop,
Andy’s Plumbing and Sports. Day said he is a proponent of a proposal that would require
hunters to draw archery tags but that nonresidents should only be allotted 5% of the tags.
“Archers are taking more of the
elk social behavior.
pie,” he said. “We only have
“They have very good
so many bulls out there that
learned behaviors,” he said.
you can shoot. They’re
“They start getting pres-
sured on the forest, and
getting a bigger and big-
ger piece of the pie,
they figure out through
and there’s no restric-
time that Joe Blow
tion put on them.”
Landowner’s
place
Torland said elk
down below in the
have migrated onto
valley is somewhere
private land due to the
where they won’t be
pressure. He said this
chased and shot at.”
is causing landowners
Torland said ODFW
damage to their property
is basing the policy pro-
posal in part on a hunter
and keeps hunters from
survey
where
roughly
harvesting them on public
70-75% of hunters pre-
land.
Contributed photo ferred to hunt by rifle,
Torland said the data
is mostly anecdotal and Jolynn Radinovich, longtime Grant compared with 20-25%
comes from the impres- County resident, shows off her buck in percent who preferred
sion they get, but also 2019. Radinovich, both a rifle and bow to hunt with a bow. He
on hunter success rates. hunter, said the Oregon Department said a small percentage
“During the rifle of Fish and Wildlife should limit the chose a muzzleloader to
seasons later in the number of nonresident tags before make up the difference.
year, some of that restricting resident bow hunters’ tags.
“This is where more
hunt success has gone
of the equitability
down dramatically,” he said.
comes from,” he said.
He said the behavior is consistent with
Andy Day, a longtime bow hunter who
owns Andy’s Plumbing and Sports, said he
agrees with the proposal but would like to
see limits put on nonresidents instead of
locals.
“If we did it like most all other states,
limit the number of nonresidents (who
receive tags) to the 5% created by the legis-
lature,” he said, suggesting only 5% of tags
be allotted to people who do not live in Ore-
gon. “I’m not trying to be biased or racist
or anything, but we call this little California
because of how many people show up in this
community during hunting season.”
He said, however, with the number
of nonresidents in his sports shop during
archery season, he would feel an economic
impact if the state limited the number of tags
for nonresidents.
Day said he is also concerned about losing
his preference points, points accrued when
a hunter does not draw a tag that increase
the likelihood of drawing a tag in the future.
He said some hunters will save points for
decades to put in for a tag in a specific unit
for a trophy animal. Currently, hunters who
do not draw a rifle tag can collect their point
and then purchase an archery tag.
Torland said that is one of the drawbacks
of the proposal, but he said there may be
possibilities for people to put in for a sec-
ond-choice hunt that could allow the accrual
of points.
“We’re not sure how that will shake out,
so I can understand their concern,” he said.
However, Torland said rifle hunters have
been dealing with this dilemma for 40 years.
“Archery hunters are getting in the same
boat as rifle hunters,” he said. “This is not
something that’s unique.”
Jolynne Radinovich, a local rifle and bow
hunter, said the proposal could harm local
families who rely on hunting.
“For a lot of people around here, hunt-
ing is how we feed our families,” she said.
“Hunting is also what brings these families
together.”