ANTLERLESS WMU vs BY COUNTY

[ImAfossil]

This is strictly an allocation subject. I am just curious about what I am writing, with respect that the deer population may be down.

Today Antlerless Licenses are issued with quotas by WMUs.

Back in the day, these permits were issued on a county by county basis.

I am not sure when it changed over, but my question is why ????

Next subject:

In my former life I was an accountant and had to do auditing. Typically the bigger the sample, the closer you got to 'a reasonable / factual number'.

WMUs encompass various counties. In a county by county scenario, you would think the sampling is larger and would be a better tool for allocation of these licenses. I would also say a better management tool, but my logic may be flawed. It would appear on the surface, that WMUs are a smaller sample. I may be wrong, today you have no idea what the county allocation is, and or, does it really matter.

My attempt at the above analysis may send me back upstream to my question WHY ! ! ! and the topic then becomes moot, with the proper answer.

Any thoughts, guesses or opinions on any of the above.
fossil

[PhillyAR]

A better question is since only 25% of doe tags are filled, why not make the antlerless season longer?

[dk99358]

WMU's are based mostly on habitat and land use with similar areas being lumped together. Take Potter County for example. Northern Potter is very different from the southern 2/3.

They also used physical landmarks like roads, streams etc for the boundaries, used to be an imaginary line in the woods.

I don't know if that completely answers your questions but it's a start.

Dale

[ImAfossil]

Maybe the deer population is not that far down, it may come down to participation (less hunters) as part of the answer.

I go back to the county we hunted in. Typically our county issued 4000 permits. In the course of say 20 years, there were quite a number of swings.

One year the allocation was 5500. That was high. The lowest I saw in the county was 2200.

It appeared to our camp, that the harvest was higher than expected, then adjusted down in the following year. This must also happen in allocations in WMUs.

I just have not followed the results after the State went to WMUs.

Both systems may bring the same results.
fossil

[dk99358]

Yeah, they do adjust the tags issued in the WMU's based on deer population goals, last years harvest, habitat conditions and probably other factors. I hunt 2E, it's been bouncing up and down by about 2000 tags a year for several years now.

Dale