Hunters Debate Proposed
Deer Rule Changes

Chelsea deer from a Herald file photograph by Bob Eddy.

Doug Bent of Braintree has been hunting for about 44 years now, since he was a boy of 9 or 10. Over those years, he’s witnessed a lot of "ups and downs" in the deer herd.

Like most longtime hunters, Bent has some theories about why this past rifle season was so dismal, and opinions on whether proposed changes to deer hunting regulations would improve the situation.

The changes under review include limiting hunters to taking only one—instead of three— bucks per year, and banning the shooting of spikehorns in three of the state’s 24 management units.

Bent is not so sure that the spikehorn restriction will help herd health or population: "I don’t call it quality deer management; I call it antler management, is what it is," he said of the proposed rule.

"I’m not really for it or against it," he added.

For his part, Bent believes that the current dip in the herd population is mostly attributable to the severe winters of the past few years—combined with a failure to adequately limit the number of doe permits.

"The only mistake the department did was after the first hard winter, it didn’t limit the doe permits. They should have backed off right away; backing off three years later is kind of late," he suggested.

J1 = WR Valley

The White River Valley lies in one of the three trial regions selected for the spikehorn restriction. The J-1 management unit lies between Routes 110 and 100 to the east and west, and extends from Route 107 and 14 in the south, north to Moretown.

F&W officials have said that using trial areas would allow biologists to make comparisons with deer size and population in control areas.

Among those sitting behind the tables at the February hearings will be Randolph Center’s Al Floyd, one of 14 members of the Fish & Wildlife Board. Last year, the legislature handed over power for regulating the deer herd to the board, and it also expanded it from seven to 14 members.

‘Rotten’ Move

"The rotten thing the legislature did," Floyd said dryly, "was to turn the herd over (to us) and expand the board in the same year."

Changing the players and the rules in one year is too much change, suggested Floyd, who was appointed to a six-year term on the board in 1999.

When asked of his opinion on the proposed regulations, he retorted, "I could have given an opinion before; now I’m just confused."

However, Floyd did say that he thought land management was a key issue.

Floyd has been getting "a lot of feedback" from hunters in recent weeks. He’s hearing support for the one-buck limit, but most hunters say the spikehorn restriction should go statewide or not at all.

Although the one-buck restriction has been called a major change in hunting rules, Fish & Wildlife biologist John Buck is not so sure.

"If your objective is to increase the number of deer, reducing the number of bucks taken won’t bring a meaningful change to the size of the deer population," he suggested. The number of second and third bucks taken each year is not that high, he said.

Buck believes that there are two keys to increasing the herd, only one of which F&W folks can influence.

That one is careful control of the number of anterless, or doe, permits issued in various regions of the state, he said.

The other, tougher issue, is land use, Buck said.

Habitat Concerns

"The number of deer is directly related to the quality of habitat, 90% of which is owned by private individuals," he said.

And land use, he added, is connected to the economy—and to economic decisions made by individuals.

"When the farm economy is outweighed by the real estate economy, the deer habitat, and all habitats, suffer," Buck said. "That’s not a slight against realtors or people looking to sell their land; it’s just a fact of life."

"It’s frustrating," the biologist continued, "because it’s nothing you can directly affect: You can’t flip a switch, or change regulations."

"The habitat thing is really huge," Buck stressed. "We’re at a crossroads, in terms of habitat and the number of deer that it can support."

Longtime hunter Wes Gibbs of Randolph concurs.

"I think the main problem in the state is habitat; wildlife management areas need to be maintained," he said. However, Gibbs conceded that he didn’t know what was being done, or could be done, to promote optimal deer habitat.

As an aside, F&W biologist Buck noted this week that it appears that the poor rifle season in 2004 was due only in part to a lower deer population.

He pointed out that the deer harvest for youth hunting weekend and for bow and muzzleloader seasons all came in very close to three-year averages, whereas the rifle season was at about 70% of the average.

Buck suggested that poor hunting conditions—almost no snow and a dry forest floor—combined with fewer hunters out in the woods contributed to the poor rifle season.

There were "fewer hunters to push the deer around," he said, "and the deer were waiting for better conditions to move—they don’t give themselves up on sunny, crunchy days."

Public Hearings on New Deer Rules

Hunters who have been debating the merits of proposed changes to Vermont’s deer hunting season will have four opportunities next month to air their views before the 14-member Fish & Wildlife Board.

Hearings on the proposals—which include a limit of one buck per season and a restriction on taking spikehorns in some areas—will be:

• Tuesday, Feb. 15, at Springfield High School;

• Thursday, Feb. 17, at Rutland Intermediate School;

• Tuesday, Feb. 22, at Lyndon State College; and

• Thursday, Feb. 24, at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans.

All hearings will be 7-9 p.m., and held in the auditoriums of the respective schools.

None of those four hearings is in Central Vermont, a fact that has dismayed some local hunters.

However, Atty. Steve Hill, general counsel for the F&W Dept., noted this week that another series of hearings will be in March, with one of them in Barre. Although these hearings are, technically, on the antlerless deer reports for 2004, other testimony and comments will be received, he said.

Also, Hill urged interested parties to contact their local representative to the F&W board (Al Floyd in Orange County, and Wayne Barrows in Windsor County) or to email comments to: fwinformation@anr.state.vt.us.

"We want input—all the input we can get," Hill said.

The proposed rules must be voted on three times by the F&W Board before being formally adopted as regulations.

By passing the proposed new rules at its Dec. 1 meeting, "the board started the administrative clock", noted F&W biologist John Buck. That initial vote doesn’t necessarily mean that all board members support the rules, which can, and probably will be amended before the final vote.

Although there is no established deadline for action, it makes logistical good sense, Buck noted, to complete the process well in advance of the fall hunting season.

By Sandy Cooch