[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by Smalls

So how do you think they set the hunting days in each zone? Are you admitting that there is no science behind the management? It sounds like it, which proves my point. I am not suggesting 20 or 50 different zones. What I am suggesting is that the limits in certain areas could be tweaked. Have a state wide of 6, but an area like area 10 may only have 4. What does limiting either sex days do if you get 10x the pressure on those days? Trust me, I've made hunts on public land during either sex season. Its ridiculous.

I think there is science behind the management. The science estimates the number of deer and a desired range of harvest numbers for each sex. The regulations are designed to keep the actual harvest numbers within the range given whatever enforcement constraints and customer preferences are present.

You're nitpicking that you'd prefer a shift to controlling harvest numbers by reduced seasonal limits rather than reduced hunting days for a given zone compared with the rest of the state. You might be right. However, you might also consider that the state might have chosen to reduce the number of deer hunting days not just to reduce the harvest but to reduce conflicts with other types of hunting and not stretch enforcement personnel too thin in the coastal marsh and coastal prairie areas.

Originally Posted by Smalls

Missed my point again. I was not suggesting that they are. My point was merely that you could hunt them out of an area. I've heard of it happening. That can happen with anything. Pressure drives animals out.

You used the word "extinct". Your clarification suggests you intended "extirpated" instead. Yes, it is possible, but whitetail deer are fairly resilient to leaking back in quickly if only driven out of small areas. Do you really think the 75 deer killed in Cameron and the 326 killed in Calcasieu in 2012-2013 presents a risk of killing 'em all in those parishes? What would your estimates be for sustainable harvest numbers for these parishes?

Originally Posted by Smalls

So why did they break up the state this past season? Didn't they add an area or 2? I'm not getting your point of the "challenges of smaller geographic divisions". You aren't making more land for a game warden to cover. You are simply changing a rule. What costs? I'm really not seeing what you are arguing here.

Depending on the regulations and season lengths, rule changes can either leave more or less land open for more or less days per year. Collecting and analyzing data separately for 20 zones is a lot more man hours than collecting and analyzing data for 10 zones. Effectively enforcing different rules in different areas is more expensive because complaints will multiply from citizens who are not sure which side of the boundary the event they think they saw was on, because hunters won't be sure which side they were on, and because law enforcement must now prove in court on which side of a boundary an alleged offense took place.

Lower limits are also harder to enforce (thus driving up costs or driving down effectiveness of enforcement). A shorter season in a given geography is easier to enforce because if you are found hunting or in the field in possession of a dead deer out of the given season, you are toast. If the limit is four rather than six per season, how does the game warden prove where the first five deer were killed when a hunter is found with his sixth deer in a zone that only allows four?

But all this is off in the weeds. You are venting about how the state needs to impose more restrictive regulations to protect the deer herd. Maybe, but consistent harvest numbers over 100,000 per year over many, many years suggest statewide sustainability.