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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 1962)
SUNDAY. DECEMBER 23. 1982 MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON Winter RecreationjGame Commission Discusses Balance Between Number of Deer and Rangeland Program lor City To Start Jan. 5 The winter recreation pro gram of t lie Mcdfnrd Park and recreation department is cheduled to begin Saturday, Jan. 5, according to Robert L. Haworth. park and recrea tion director. Recreation activities will be centered in Howard, Wil son, Lone Pine. Jackson, Lin coln, Roosevelt, Hoover, Washington and Jefferson ele- By MILT GUYMON Ortgon Stat Gam Commission Some hunters have failed to grasp or understand the fact that to maintain deer herds from one year to the next as well has having them present in Oregon 20 or SI) years in the future there must be a biological balance achiev ed between deer numbers and food supplies. There i.s little doubt that the mass of controversial opin ions relating to deer manage ment, all generated by tile hunting of eilher-sex deer coupled with what hunters mentary schools. The centers . fcc, a pof)r geason )ust pM, will be open at 1(1 a m. each Saturday and will remain open through the noon hour. They will close at 2 p.m. has set the iron kettle on the fire to brew. Neck deep in this boiling kettle is the Oregon game A variety of activities such I commission which maintains as gymnastics, tumbling, trampoline, and table tennis will be offered to boys and girls of elementary school age. Adult recreation leaders will supervise activities at the centers, Haworth said. Youngsters interested 111 the Saturday program should register Jan. 5 at the school nearest their homes, Haworth advised. In addition to the elemen tary recreation centers, Mcd fnrd High school gymnasium will he open to boys only of high school age who are in terested in participating in a basketball league. A schedule is being prepar ed by school officials for this fictivitiy. Interested boys should contact Glenn Schirc man at the high school, Ha worth said. Programs at all locations will continue through Satur day, March 30, according to I the park and recreation di rector. McLoughlin Junior High school will not be used during the Christmas holidays, nor will it be used on Saturdays during the winter program. 79 Truckloads of Trash Are Collected Nineteen truckloads of trash were picked up along five county roads last week, according to County Commis sioner Edwin Taylor. Taylor said the trash includ ing old cans and bottles along Table Rock, Old Stage, Kirt land, Gibbon and Wilson rds. and were gathered by welfare crews. They ranged as far north as Goid Hill. ' that to save the big game range the factory that pro duces the deer for tomorrow is far more important than having a deer behind every bush today. Compar Deer Herds Many hunters compare the deer herds and the hunting today with that of 20 and ,'10 years ago and refer to this era as the "good old days." It may have been good from a hunter pressure standpoint since the 80 to 100 thousand hunters in the field then was considerably less than the 200 to 2!50 thousand hunters in the field for the past 8 to 10 years. But the hunting itself was far from betler. Anyone who thinks differently is letting the doc shooting sentiment rule over fact and logic. During the 30's and 40 s it was exceptional if hunter suc cess reached the 25 per cent mark and most hunters had to work a lot harder and cover a lot more ground to do it. It wasn't until the 1050's when antlerlcss hunts were allowed on a rapidly mush rooming deer population that hunter success began to in crease, reaching a peak of h'2 per cent in 1001. Buck Kill of Past The buck kill in the good old days barely reached 35 to 40 thousand animals. The total deer kill in 1053. the second year of eitiiersex hunt ing, lopped 100.000 animals of which more than 07,000 were bucks. Also, 1053 was the first year where hunter success reached the 50 per cent mark; and it. has not GENERAL BUILDING MAINTENANCE CVamtnri Disintpclrfnts Heavy Duty Cleanprs, Suapj COMPLETE WASHROOM SANITATION Liquid Snaps and Equipment Drorinranti and Deodorizing Appliance Pappr Towels Washroom Sanitary Service WEST CHEMICAL PRODUCTS INC. 1017 No. Contral Cell 773-7761 dropped below that point since, nor has the deer kill dropped below the 100,000 mark. Many hunters have failed to grasp the fact of biological balance of game and food. The "balance" is fine-just as long as there's plenty of deer. But let the deer herds decline even slightly and sentiment immediately rules over logic. tor the past 12 years, the game commission has been in forming hunters that the win ter ranges of eastern Oregon were carrying far more deer than they were capable of supporting. Has Advised Hunters For the past dozen years the game commission has ad vised hunters and feared that heavy mortality would occur if the area was hit by a hard winter. For at least 10 years the game commission has been attempting through liberal eilher-sex seasons to reduce the herds down to the carry ing capacity to avert a starva tion disaster. It helped,' but the mild winters for the past 10 years allowed deer num bers to pull through without normal winter losses and the herds remained high. Last year eastern Oregon experienced what is consider ed a normal winter and as predicted by game managers it took its toll of game. The poorest ranges or ranges with high populations of deer suf fered tiie heaviest starvation mortality . The Snake river breaks with its light hunting pressure and high deer num bers, the Minam river hunted only on a pack show basis, the Mahogany mountains in the Owyhee country, a lot of which is inaccessible to the hunter, and other ranges of Malheur and Harney coun ties ail suffered heavy starva tion losses. Few of the eastern Oregon winter game ranges escaped the starvation losses as a result of normal winter weather. Not the Only Slate Oregon is not the only western slate where game agencies have been put in the stew pot to boil. In Idaho where hunters have never had anything but a straight either- are being heard as far east as Montana. Arizona hunters a slate which is probably the most sensitive in the west in re gards to balancing herds with food supplies since the mass starvation of about 60,000 head of deer in the Kiabab are beating the opposition sex deer season, me cry is """,a tu l'" uu-, long and loud over the poor 1,11 'lemming from a season a results of the season just past. 'ilt'e poorer than the last one. Washington hunters found And here's the way an Ari slimmer pickings this fall as zona writer puts it as he titles did the hunters in Utah and j his column "Vensinn Stew," California. The grumblings which we have taken the lib- f f A' 'k f i Hi 1 : '!' ': 1 .J A4 f 1 ' - V---' ' i Ll- ..... Ji. J Vjfc.M' ' ' iniitiSiA-iii -- . 77 V NOBODY FOOLED - The safety jacket Marcia Henderson, 15, of Vincennes, Ind., is wearing reads "Don't Shoot - I'm a Alan," but the young huntress would find it hard to fool anyone with the sign. Most hunters know a "dear" when they sec one. (UPI) erty to quote because it fits the Oregon picture: "When you start talking about going out and getting a deer for venison siew these days you're likely to wind up in some kind of a stew right off the bat. Giving the peo ple the opportunity to go out and get deer is the job of the game and fish commission, and that opportunity in the form of deer season regula tions is provided on the basis of biological facts. "These facts, though fre quently run afoul of senti mqnt, which is almost as im portant as meat when you're making a venison stew. Senti ment, in fact, seems to be the major ingredient of the ven ison stew . . . And it's easy to understand t h e sentiment when some of our deer ranges don't have Ihe numbers of deer they did last year. "And it may be that they don't have as many deer be cause the fish and game com mission has been attempting to hold the number down to protect the range. On a num ber of ranges last winter, starvation losses may have ac complished the job where hunting pressures have failed. This is the case where senti ment and biology have lock ed horns, so to speak, and started the slew to bubbling. The commission insists the ranges must be saved, and the hunters some of them, anyway insist just as strong ly that there ought to be more deer in the woods. Sentiment Understandable "The sentiment is certain ly understandable. Deer hunt ing is a proud part of our heritage, and for thousands of deer hunters the deer season is the year's biggest event. "... When you stop to think about it, the same gen eral sentiment is responsible for both opinions. Everyone involved wants good deer hunting. They just haven t agreed on the best way to obtain it. The commission ap proaches the situation with determination to still have deer 20 years in the future by protecting the range now. The other side demands to see more deer in the woods right away with little regard for the condition of the range now or for the production of deer in the future. "The game commission feels that in critical areas the situ ation has boiled down to a choice: either stop shooting the deer now and let them increase until they eat them selves out of house and home, or hold them in check with hunting pressure and save the factory that prLduces them. Prefers The Latter 'The commission prefers the latter, and this means that some antlerlcss animals must be taken. And this is where the bulk of the disagreement occurs. ' The Oregon game commis sion agrees with this premise. It would be easy to allow the deer herds to build up even beyond the high levels of the past several years. But over the long haul this would un doubtedly lead to a greater disaster than Oregon hunters have ever seen. Few hunters remember the mas starvation which took on the Murderers Creek range, or the near catastrophe on the Keating range some 20 or more years ago. There is nolh ing pretty about deer dying from malnutrition, a sight that most hunters seldom witness. Or we can hold them in check through adequate harv est and maintain the ranges which produce (lie animals in the first place. And this means taking some antlerless deer. m 7sV v JOIN US CHRISTMAS EVE for Your Holiday Toasting ftfS jy Greet your friends Enjoy our kW $1 foods ind plejiant tur roundingt at 1& '" i roon J ROGUE RIVER j LODGE Just 25 Minutes N.E. ot Medtord on Cratei Lake Hwy. 62 V Open 4-12 Daily. 4-2:30 Sat. 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