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Mark Freeman Commentary Hunters may be asked to trim slate Early November is always a hallowed time for western Oregon deer hunters, as much for what the mid-fall brings as for what it leaves behind. Cool rains turn the crackling forest floor into an organic carpet that transforms the harsh marches of waffle-soled boots into soft and subtle swishes. Leaves drop from alders and ash, exposing the big-racked blacktail deer frisky with the smells of love in the mating-season air. These traditional November conditions translate into great success for blacktail buck hunters who consider the final week of the fall season to be the best seven days in the lot. But early November may be bringing too much of a good thing. Deer hunters may be asked to give up their productive last week of the fall general buck season as early as next year as part of a plan to re-invigorate western Oregon�s sagging blacktail herds. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists are mulling whether trimming the fall general season from four weeks to three will help boost the numbers of bucks that escape hunters� cross hairs and, thereby, inject new health into the feeble herds. The last week of the season is always the most successful for hunters; giving that week back to the bucks for a few years could be the jump-start needed to get herd numbers and the always important buck-to-doe ratios back to where biologists, and hunters, prefer. "I�m convinced we�ll see an increase in buck ratios," ODFW biologist John Thiebes says. "We hope we�ll see a corresponding increase in deer numbers." The idea is not yet a formal proposal. Agency biologists want to look into their deer data to determine what kind of help trimming the last week off the general season will provide. "There are several things to look at before we decide," says Dan Edwards, who heads the ODFW�s big-game program. "Once we have a better evaluation, we�ll start presenting more information to the general public." Biologists have floated the idea by local hunting organizations during meetings to gather comment on proposed big-game tag numbers for the 2000 fall hunting season. The idea is drawing the lion�s share of comments on the state�s hunter-rich west side, Edwards says. Locally, hunters initially met the idea with criticism, says Ron Sherva, a Trail tree-farmer who is president of the Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association. But after digesting it, Sherva says, many chapter members appear willing to give up the final week for a few years if it helps reverse seven years� decline in deer herds here. "The first reaction is, you take a week away from us, you never give it back," Sherva says. But hunters realize they have a lot more to lose than one week of hunting. "It�s not taking (hunting) away," he says, "but what we can do to bring the deer back." How to bring back the blacktails has been a hot topic west of the Cascade Crest since the mid-1990s, when herd numbers declined during the 1994 winter and have yet to rebound. Of the 10 southwest Oregon wildlife management units, six are down in their deer per square mile. Of the four remaining, two are holding level and two others � the South Indigo and Sixes units �are up slightly. Even worse, nine out of the 10 have declining buck-to-doe ratios, seven of 10 have buck ratios below what is considered acceptable and two others are declining but still above their management goal. The Rogue Unit of Jackson County is a prime example. While the buck ratios are about 18 bucks per 100 does over the past 10 years, the numbers are tempered when you consider that the overall deer numbers dropped 30 percent in the mid-�90s and have yet to recover. Causes for the declines are numerous. Lack of clear-cutting and wildfire in the woods have reduced good deer feed, forest development has encroached on summer and winter range and expanding elk herds have pushed away the deer. Hunters, too, have extracted their pound of flesh. A blacktail deer mortality study in the South Cascades shows that more than half the region�s blacktail bucks are killed by licensed hunters, far out-numbering predators, poachers and Pontiacs. Hunters and biologists all realize the tail end of the general season creates the most success because the conditions are far more hunter-friendly than in early October. The woods are cooler and wetter at season�s end, the bucks are moving into the rut and are far more active, and the lack of leaves on trees better exposes the deer. The ODFW can�t order the Forest Service to cut more timber or burn more underbrush. But the agency can do something about hunting seasons. If hunters end up killing most of the bucks, and the last week of the general season is the prime buck-hunting time, then it follows that the final week of the season is where a cut in buck-hunting days will create the biggest benefit. "If the intent is to increase buck survival, the result will not be achieved�� by cutting a week in the beginning or middle of the season, Thiebes says. In the coming months, agency officials will take a hard look at whether data supports this logic. "A lot of us feel it is necessary," Thiebes says. "But we want to make sure that all the biologists are in agreement with it before we say that is the direction we�d like to take." Thiebes believes hunters will support the direction as well. "If the information we gather does support this, I think the hunters will put aside their personal desire for more hunting days in response for what the resource needs," Thiebes says. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. 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