Support for Protecting Yearling Bucks

[bwiltse]

From a QDM standpoint, most noteworthy from the MUCC/MSU-E public deer management meetings was the following from the summary report:
"71% of the respondents to the survey agreed that DNR should restrict the harvest of yearling bucks. Quality deer management was one of the notable concerns for the most important deer management issues over the next ten years with 25 comments."

It looks like there's public support for QDM(at least the people that turned in the surveys shows that). Now, how can we implement? Your thoughts?




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Boyd

[farmlegend]

Boyd, I think it starts with hunter education. I would like to see us get to the point where most Michigan hunters can successfully age deer in the field by their appearance, and thereby identify 1.5 year old bucks when they see them. It really isn't that difficult!
There are some good excellent sources of information to help hunters field-judge deer.

The December, 1998 issue of Michigan Out-of-Doors magazine, available at many public libraries, contains an article by John H. Williams, titled "Aging Deer On the Hoof", which not only describes the easily observable physical characteristics which identify fawns, and also does and bucks by their age classes, but also includes good photographic examples. I would caution readers that 1.5 year old bucks from southern lower Michigan are frequently slightly heavier-muscled than the yearling buck featured in the article, but otherwise the article is on the mark!
QDM distributes, for a nominal fee, a Mississippi State University report titled "A Hunter's Guide to Aging and Judging White-Tailed Deer in the Southeast", which also describes physical characteristics of deer of varying age classes, with photographs. I believe the strain of whitetail in the deep south grows a bit more slowly than they do in the Midwest, and I would therefore recommend a one year age class "adjustment" to this report (I think a Michigan 2.5 year-old buck has physical characteristics of a Mississippi 3.5 year-old buck). However, the report is very worthwhile and informative.
I would suggest either:
A. A section in our Michigan hunting licence handout with descriptions such as those contained in Mr. Williams' article (and also his book, The Deer Hunters Field Guide), with either photographic examples or drawings included, or, better yet,
B. a separate pamphlet on the subject, to be distributed with hunting licenses, and funded by advertising.

Currently, most hunters can't even distinguish a doe from a fawn, let alone a yearling buck from a 2.5 year old buck, or a male from a female fawn. I think that such an education effort would be well-received by hunters, who often don't receive this kind of valuable information from the popular sporting press, which emphasizes the sale of new equipment (another story). Once hunter education has improved, I think that their interest in taking action to provide for a healthier deer herd, and protect yearling bucks, will happen.

[Joe Archer]

Boyd, first off I'd have to agree with Farmlegend that most hunters are not very good at judging age in the field. This in any case, will take some time to remedy. One way may be to implement a section on deer age into our hunter education courses. Include pictures with the written exam that you must identify. It would almost guarantee that future generations will be better equipped than the present.

For the immediate, I am in favor of protecting spike horn bucks. I know that there are mature deer that will cary spikes forever and some first year bucks sport racks. But, in northern MI I believe the vast majority of 1.5 year old bucks are spikes. Southern Mi is a different story, maybe we could say "have to be a 6 point or better in Southern MI"? Would sure make Southern MI the place for trophy huners anyway. <----<<<