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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, January 28, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds 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 Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 30, 2004 Cooler weather will aid hunters Video and cameras show some deer are coming out of the hills By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Southern Oregon’s recent flirtation with fall is good news to the region’s hunters, who head into the woods Saturday for the start of the general black-tailed buck deer season. Storm fronts sporting cooler, damper weather and air-pressure changes over recent weeks have softened the high-elevation forests in the South Cascades, which normally crackle like corn flakes under hunters’ boots in late September. Video and still cameras that state wildlife biologists use to monitor big-game animal migration are showing that at least some black-tailed deer are heading downhill from high-elevation summer range. That’s a far cry from recent years, when opening weekends have been plagued by searing heat that made deer-stalking impossible and all but halted any natural deer migration. "It’s a little early but whether it’s a small event or the start of the migration, we just don’t know," says Mark Vargas, the Rogue watershed wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Advertisement "Whatever it is, it’s a change from last year," Vargas says. "We’re going in with a little positive." Hunters will look to cash in on these positives throughout the west Cascades during the general-season blacktail buck hunt for rifle hunters. The first part of the season runs through Oct. 15. After the traditional one-week break to allow for the general elk-hunting season, deer hunting resumes Oct. 23 and concludes for the year on Nov. 5. For hunters who prefer the Applegate Unit or other areas that fall under the coast-buck seasons, hunting runs Oct. 2 straight through Nov. 5 because there is no break for mid-October elk hunting. Regardless, one $19.50 Western Oregon deer tag purchased by Friday night qualifies hunters for the entire general black-tail season, making the general buck hunt still one of the cheaper outdoor adventures available. The bag limit for the general deer season remains the same. Hunters can take one buck having not less than a forked antler. The Rogue Unit’s black-tail were once one of the hottest attractions available, with plenty of hunters annually bagging lots of large bucks. Often, the older bucks sported immense antlers that landed rifle hunters in the upper echelon of their ilk. In 1992, about 7,500 people hunted the Rogue Unit and more than one in four came home with a buck. Similarly, 3,200 hunters beat the brush of the Evans Creek Unit and almost 40 percent of them were successful. Just slightly more than a decade later, success now is half of that. The Rogue Unit success rate was just 14 percent last year and 13 percent in 2002. Reasons for the decline include depressed herd numbers from disease, predation and loss of habitat as well as poor hunting conditions. Surveys show deer numbers here are slightly more than half of what they were about a decade ago. The diseases and fragmented habitat remain. Perhaps the conditions will finally improve. Buck ratios among the black-tailed deer herds here are up, helping take a little sting out of the continued downward spiral of deer plagued by disease, predation and loss of usable habitat. Places like the Applegate Unit sport the greatest surge in buck-to-doe ratios, sporting 29 bucks per 100 does heading into this season. The Rogue Unit is holding steady with 26 bucks per 100 does as well. 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 © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers