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69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, April 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend April 1, 2004 State biologists mull changes to hunts By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Fewer antlerless tags for black-tailed deer hunting in the Applegate Unit and a shrunken area for antlerless deer tags in the Evans Creek Unit highlight a list of proposed changes to Southern Oregon hunts this fall. State wildlife biologists also are mulling whether to combine some antlerless elk hunts in Curry County in 2006 as a way of opening some hunting opportunities while curbing bull harvests in herds low on bulls. The proposals represent the southwest Oregon part of overall statewide strategies to improve black-tailed herds hit by disease and habitat problems as well as curb antlerless elk tags where damage complaints are dropping. Crop damage caused by Roosevelt elk instead will be handled primarily with the Landowner Preference Program, which targets the offending elk instead of the unit-wide antlerless tags. "We’re not receiving the damage complaints that we’ve had in the past," says Mark Vargas, the ODFW’s Rogue District wildlife biologist who drafted the proposals. "Their taking care of it with LOP, or people are just tolerating the elk more." Advertisement The region’s proposals will be reviewed by the agency’s wildlife division administrators before they’re presented to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in early June. Once adopted, the tags for this fall’s hunts will be available through the agency’s controlled-hunt lottery in June. Public comments on these and other big-game tag numbers and hunts will be collected during public meetings in May. For black-tail hunters, the West Applegate’s antlerless tags will drop from 150 to 50, the latest in a string of cuts to antlerless tags in western Oregon. Deer numbers are down substantially due to a mix of fragmented and degraded habitat as well as a string of diseases, triggering a more conservative approach by ODFW biologists to deer management. "With the decline in the deer population and the decline in damage numbers, there’s no need for that kind of harvest," Vargas says. "It’s in line with the direction we have for the entire west side" of the Cascades. The agency last year trimmed the black-tail buck season for rifle hunters, and similar reductions or eliminations of antlerless hunts have occurred in recent years. For antlerless deer hunters, the Evans Creek Unit hunt is proposed to sport the same 35 tags this year as last year, but Vargas is proposing to slice the huntable area by a third in 2005. The modified hunt, if adopted, will target antlerless deer causing damage in the unit’s land in Jackson and Josephine counties, with Douglas County lands off-limits in the hunt. Vargas and other ODFW biologists also are pondering a few changes for the 2006 elk hunts, including a consolidation of Chetco bull-elk hunts intended to increase hunting opportunities while also trimming harvest. Vargas is considering combining the Chetco Unit’s 227X and 227Y bull-elk hunts, which are both short November hunts separated by three days and each sporting 43 tags. The combined hunt would pool the tag numbers and run seven to nine days, he says. The two hunts now cover three weekends. "What that would do is eliminate those two opening-day phenomenons of having a higher harvest rates those days," Vargas says. "Overall, with one opening day, it should reduce the harvest rate." Bull ratios in the Chetco Unit have hovered at or below the 11 bulls per 100 cows target under ODFW management, Vargas says. Agency biologists will consider a similar combination of the Sixes Unit’s two controlled bull-elk hunts that mirror those in the Chetco Unit, Vargas says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times