Mule Deer Fanatic

Even friends of mine, who ought to know better, are in favor of making the Arizona late bowhunt a draw hunt. When I ask them why, the typical response is, “everything is getting overhunted”. When “reasonable people” view mule deer hunting this way, I wonder why, as hunters, we have become so willing to attack the symptoms vs. the problem. By applying band-aids to the symptoms, the real problem is obscured. In our self-centered desire for presumed “better hunting”, we cut off our nose to spite our face.

We are witnessing the last of a dying breed – so to speak. There aren’t very many mule deer hunters left who know how good it could be, having seen how good it once was. If the present trend continues, there will be no over-the-counter mule deer tags available anywhere. To me, this slow cancer of declining opportunity feels like a loss of freedom. I have told my friends that once it is taken away, it will not be given back.

Since I, apparently, possess one of the last remaining over-the-counter Arizona mule deer archery tags, I decided to put it to use on the “opening day” of the unit 10 late bowhunt. December 14, 2007, was my first attempt at this hunt, and may very well be my last.

There was a fairly fresh blanket of snow over much of the unit, so I decided to find deer by looking for tracks. I especially like to find tracks that are so fresh that the deer are still standing in them, but I didn’t find any of those. The muleys in this area don’t need to migrate, but they do anyway. Snow is a great blessing for the few remaining deer because they can go wherever they please and have access to what would otherwise be a scant supply of water in this drought-ridden state.

I spent most of the day behind the steering wheel, and I covered a lot of ground. High, low, north, east, west, and south. Mid morning I found a likely looking spot with fresh deer tracks crossing the road, and decided to set out on foot. I hiked for 3 hours. The only live animal I saw, not just while hiking, but for the whole day, was a fox.

Some say that tracks in the snow tell the story. Rabbit tracks were, by far, most abundant. I cut hundreds of them. Coyote tracks were next in abundance. There were about 30 sets of these. There were three deer tracks, and one lion track. The lion was fairly large, having a 4 inch wide foot print. The lion had been hunting from the ledges overlooking a sidehill. I used a similar strategy.

If I were to judge the number of animals by the number of tracks, then it is absolutely amazing that there are any deer left at all. For every 10 deer there would be 3 lions and 10 coyotes. I don’t know how the rabbits survive either.

I did not see one live deer all day. Most of the hunters were driving the roads. Most were congregated around the areas where there were deer tracks. In a couple of spots, there were migration tracks that looked somewhat like a herd of sheep had passed through. Over the rest of this very large unit, tracks were very few and far between.

Now, after a hunt like that, wouldn’t it be easy for me to say that the unit is overhunted and that it ought to be a draw? It would be, if I were ill-informed. But, I realize that the problem is “not enough deer”, and the symptoms are: poor hunting experience, and overcrowding around where the few deer remain. The solution is to have more deer, not less hunters. And, if we were to go back in time, we would find that, once upon a time, there were more deer, more hunters, more opportunity, and more success. What is the solution, you ask? Less predators – way less. Our wildlife agencies have taken to managing hunters for the predators, instead of the other way around.

As far as I can tell, with the possible exeption of water, there is ample habitat for many more deer, both in quantity and quality. The rabbits and the elk are making it possible for the predators to avoid starvation from the lack of deer or there would be no deer and no predators.

I had a lion tag in my pocket. If I could have shot ( or shot at ) a lion, coyote, or fox – I would have done so. The fox, that I saw, didn’t hang around long enough for a shot or he may have had an arrow enema.

Do your part. Kill predators. Resist decisions that reduce opportunity for hunters.

Out with the old and in with the new. Will Shroufe’s replacement be more politically correct, having yet another negative impact on mule deer management? We will soon learn the answer to this question.

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Game and Fish Director Duane Shroufe announces retirement

Dec. 11, 2007

After almost 20 years of leading the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Director Duane Shroufe has announced his retirement for the end of March 2008.

Shroufe, who is the second-longest-tenured state wildlife director in the United States, asked the Arizona Game and Fish Commission on Dec. 8 to approve the end of his contract for the closing days of March rather than the previous closing date in January of 2009. The commission reluctantly but unanimously agreed.

The Game and Fish Commission immediately began a nationwide search for Shroufe’s replacement. “We hope we will attract the very best candidate of the wildlife leadership community to lead our state. We intend to set the bar high to meet today’s wildlife and habitat challenges,” said Commission Chairman Mike Golightly of Flagstaff.

The commission is seeking a professional to provide direction and leadership for the Game and Fish Department. This position is appointed by and reports to the Game and Fish Commission. The director is the chief administrative officer of the department and, as such, is responsible for the general supervision and control of all activities, functions and employees of the department.

During Shroufe’s remarkable tenure at the helm of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the agency has been routinely recognized as one of the top and most innovative wildlife agencies in the nation. It’s an accomplishment that makes Shroufe and others in the agency proud.

It’s been a challenging era of burgeoning growth for the state’s population and quality growth for the department. During Shroufe’s amazing tenure, the agency has grown from 230 personnel to 650 and the budget has increased from $20 million to $80 million.

Shroufe has also been a leader on the national and international wildlife scene. He served two terms as the president of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He recently served as chairman of the North American Wetlands Conservation Council. Shroufe has also chaired many committees for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and has played an instrumental role for many programs, such as Partners in Flight.

Throughout the years, Shroufe has received a host of national and even international wildlife awards. This past spring, he was presented the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from the Wildlife Management Institute. Last year, Shroufe also received the International Canvasback Award from the North American Waterfowl Management Plan Committee.

In addition, Shroufe has received awards from the Western Wildlife Law Enforcement Association, the Boone and Crockett Club, the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The list goes on and on.

Shroufe’s 23 years with the department caps a 40-year career in wildlife management. The Michigan-born Shroufe began his career with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources before coming to the Arizona Game and Fish Department in 1984 as an assistant director. He was appointed as the department’s director in 1989.

It has been rumored that Arizona will cease selling over-the-counter mule deer archery tags and, instead, issue tags via drawing. For me, this is bad news – one more loss that will probably never return. The general trend here is to take from hunters and give to the predators. The solution to the mule deer problem is never viewed by wildlife (mis)managers as a need for more deer, but instead, less hunting and/or less harvest.

Some hunters will even welcome this change because they are caught up in the scarcity mentality. They will say to themselves – Self, I would rather hunt every 10 years, and have only a hand-full of hunters to contend with than hunt every year with a whole bunch of hunters and no deer. They will mistakenly believe that going to a draw will mean more big bucks. Sadly, this will not be the case – as history has proven.

As mule deer become increasingly more scarce due to predators, it will become more prevalent for the relatively few remaining hunters to crowd in upon the small pockets of deer that will only exist in core areas. And, so the crowding will not be alleviated nor will there be more large bucks. There will be a few places that still have deer while large areas, void of deer, will not be hunted.

The North Kaibab is a perfect example of this phenomenon. This year, I managed to squeeze in a few days at the end of the North Kaibab archery hunt. From the looks of the roads, it was evident there had been a lot of prior traffic. I didn’t find any bucks other than a two point until the last day of the hunt, when, I finally found a pair of large bucks. Unfortunately, I spooked them into some other hunters who promptly shot one of them about 10 yards off the road.

I spoke to some California hunters my first day there. All of them had hunted the Kaibab for quite a few years. They had witnessed the crowd that was present on the opener and surmised that there were about 10,000 bowhunters. They commented that the large number of hunters was due to the liklihood that tags would be issued by drawing next year. This was my first exposure to the fact that the archery draw might be more than just a rumor. I do not know if there were really 10,000 bowhunters, but it is possible.

All of these people are crowding into an area where there are a few deer left and where they can get a tag while the rest of Arizona has few muleys and sparse bowhunters. The North Kaibab could support 10 times the mule deer that are currently available there. I, and everyone I spoke to, saw and heard plenty of coyotes. I know there are many lions there by the number of tracks I have seen.

Unless the AGnF is bombarded with unhappy hunters voicing opposition to this change, you may anticipate it becoming a reality. As long as this downward trend continues, the next change will also take away from hunters and give to predators rather than the other way around.

Make your wishes known.

Garth Goodrich of http://arizonahuntingtoday.com also has this to say about the upcoming archery mule deer hunt changes for 2008:

Well, I got a little more information about the new archery deer draw that will start in 2008 in Arizona.
Units going to a draw and # of tags (+/-): 1 – 200 tags, 3A/3C – 150 tags, 3B – 75 tags, 7 – 500 tags, 12A – 1850 tags, 13A – 120 tags, 13B – 120 tags. The number of tags is preliminary and will most assuredly be adjusted before the time of draw.
Also, the following are units that will no longer have an archery deer season in December. Units 17A, 20A, 22, 23, 35A, 37A & 42.
On the bright side, all the archery deer hunters that draw a permit for 12A, 13A & 13B can also buy over the counter buffalo and elk tags like the rifle hunts in these units.
What baffles me, is unit 37A…..it only has a December and January hunt and, every year has leftover rifle tags. So, this is a unit that is not in high demand but, we as bowhunters, lost a hunting opportunity for no logical reason.
The Game and Fish Commission voted, approving these changes, without listening to fact. The recommendations were based partially on educated guesswork, and was done in the name of hunter recruitment and retention, at the expense of bowhunting.
Some of us feel that it will only be a matter of time before all archery deer will be in the draw process, making it difficult to draw a tag, and also making hunters choose to apply for either a rifle or archery tag. There will be no 2 season hunters anymore.

Garth Goodrich of http://arizonahuntingtoday.com has this to say about proposed Arizona bowhunt changes:

The end to what we, as Arizona bowhunters, once knew, is coming to an end.
Earlier, I wrote a blog titled, “bowhunters under attack”. Today, the Commissioners of the Az Game and Fish Department passed the hunt recommendations for archery deer.
This means that units 1, 3ABC, 7 12A, 13A will go to a draw, meaning we have to apply for a tag to hunt these units. All other units in AZ will be monitored and, if the bowhunters achieve more than a 20% success rate, based on rifle hunters success, that particular unit will also go to a draw. If the success continues to climb, then that unit will be removed from the archery deer hunt in January of each year.
The sad thing is, the decision was based on partially guesswork as, rifle hunters do not have to report their success, but Game and Fish somehow came up with success numbers per unit for gun hunters, then based bowhunters’ success rates from gun hunters’ success rates.
This was done so the game and fish department could follow the new trend, “hunter retention and recruitment”. But, as it seems game and fish will actually push resident hunters to other states, in their quest to hunt.
Just so you know, this decision was contested by members of the Az Bowhunters Association, Mojave Sportsmen Club and, the Az Deer Association, plus several individuals. But, all of their commitment and perseverance fell on deaf ears.
Times are changing and , it does not appear to be for the better for bowhunters in Arizona.

There is an undercurrent, cutting across state boundaries, to sell hunting tags while discouraging or eliminating any harvest. Taking this notion to an extreme, here is a comment made by a DWR representative at a Utah Dedicated Hunter meeting in Ogden, Utah – regarding hunter ethics: “if you go into the field expecting to harvest an animal, you are unethical“.

Not long ago, I attended an Arizona Game and Fish meeting, where it was announced that the Department was seeking to issue more tags while moving hunting season dates to low success time periods. This proposed action was flaunted as an effort to recruit new hunters. I am aware of other organizations who collect donations and then use the money collected against the very persons who donated it. Could our game agencies be up to similar tactics?

You have probably had experience with politicians who add new taxes or who increase taxes for some special purpose and then, when such purpose goes away, the taxes stay…. it only gets worse – never better. Well, with game agencies, once they take something away, they almost never give it back. If Arizona takes away over-the-counter archery tags for mule deer, you will probably never see it offered again.

October 26 marks the beginning of the Arizona Rifle seasons. 

If you have a tag, you will see more bucks this year, but let the little ones grow up.

Make no mistake about it – Agencies are going

after tax revenue.

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When all is paid by taxes – who needs hunters.

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Important Meeting to Discuss Proposed

Sales Tax Initiative

A public meeting is being held to discuss a method of securing additional funds ( Possible 2008 Sales Tax Initiative ) for the Arizona Game & Fish Department and  Arizona State Parks Department, is being held at the Phoenix Zoo on August 7th, starting at 10:00 AM.  The meeting will take place in the Stone Pavilion meeting facility, inside and just to the right of the main zoo entrance.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance is hosting this meeting in an effort to bring interested constituents together to discuss securing a method to annually provide tens of millions of dollars for these two agencies.  All interested groups or individuals are encouraged to attend and offer your input.

Read the full story at the link above. This guy was after a coues whitetail, but got a real nice mule deer instead. I’d say he came out way ahead.

By Tony Mandile

Ron Green’s hard work paid off when he finally stalked close enough to take this 183-inch buck mule deer in Arizona’s Unit 5 near the northern-central part of the state. Photo courtesy of Ron Green.

Ron Green began his 2006 deer-hunting season with a bow in hand. The 34-year-old engineer from Mesa, Ariz., intended to put his tag on an elusive Coues white-tailed deer during the September archery season in Unit 5.

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Excerpt from Mule Deer Fanatic Yahoo group moderator:

Overall, mule deer numbers are up a bit from, say, any time in the last 5 years. Winters here rarely kill deer. We are certainly still in a drought condition even though there has been some well-timed relief that has benefitted deer. Water and its quality is always an issue here. Drought has a significant effect on deer here in Arizona, but it’s effect is multi-faceted. Because feed is not as good in drought, nor as abundant – deer are in worse condition than normal. In my opinion this makes them more succeptable to disease, to getting hit on the roads, to predation, to hunting pressure, and to gestation and delivery problems.

The Arizona Game and Fish has increased the number of deer tags this year, which I think is a mistake. (I would much rather the GnF decrease predators instead of decreasing hunters, but since predators are not being decreased, we cannot afford to have more hunters).We are no where near our carrying capacity and the extra pressure will make it even harder for the deer herd to recover. The North Kaibab herd is still dismal, even though there are some very large bucks to be found there. The extra tags to be given there is especially unfortunate.

Predation is a very serious issue here. I estimate the predator populations as follows: lions: 4-6000, bears: 2-6000, coyotes: 40-60,000. These numbers should serve to illustrate that drought (nor any other weather condition) is not what is limiting our deer numbers – compared to predators.

I think there will be more bucks seen and killed in 2007, mostly yearling bucks. I think the older class buck numbers are down from last year. Antler development, from what I have seen, has been hurt by feed quality, and seems to be a little late this year. I don’t think our fawn/doe ratio will exceed 0.5/1.0. I have done some counts of my own this year and my results are: for every hundred deer, 30 are yearlings – of which 18 are bucks, with another 10 older bucks and 60 older does. So the pre-season buck/doe ratio is 28% (64% yearlings). The carryover fawn/doe ratio is 50%.

The Arizona Game and Fish wants to move hunting seasons to low-success time periods, so that they can increase the number of tags even further. If a rancher was losing his livestock to predators, I’ll bet he would like to be able to sell livestock he didn’t have just like the GnF does.

Arizona should have a better harvest than in quite a while due to having a few more bucks and more hunters. I predict that there will be even fewer mature bucks next year than this year.

Moderator