Two Good Days !

[Richard Flanders]

It seems to me that just about all state Fish & Game departments are slow in picking up on how some animals that are reintroduced or are in the process of "being brought back" through management can cause problems. Deer in many states are a classic example. When deer weren't so common you didn't want to tell any locals that you were there to hunt deer; now they all beg you to "killem all, I'm tire of smacking them with my car". Seems that the F&G folks can only see the side of how successful their comeback is. I'm sure that the statistics they put into their reports on turkeys being "up 400%" look good to their bosses and get them a gold star on the forehead(remember that one?!). It's the same thing up here with moose lately. The best area for population in the state is right here south of Fairbanks. The last few years hunters are screaming "there are no moose left". This year was terrible for most, yet the biologists who do the surveys just announced that they want to kill 1100 more cows in this area. All the hunters I know are stunned and wondering what planet they did their surveys on. Seems everywhere I go to hunt outside of Alaska there are turkeys and deer populations like I've never seen yet the states still have restricted seasons and high tag prices when they should just have vending machines for tags for $1 or just hand out a tag when you buy a pound of bacon..... what's with this? Why do they react so slowly to these issues?? Is it case of "ohh, you can't kill my deer!" thing?? Most F&G folks I know are very serious hunters so it's not like they don't get out and see what the rest of us hunters see. I just don't get it.