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
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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-
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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.
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