President's Message. "The Real Losers are.." (July 16, 2010)

President's Message: "The Real Losers are.." (July 16, 2010)

The Real "Losers" as a result of new WRC Regs are..

This quote was included in an article that was in the Raleigh N&O written by Javier Serna (7-14-2010.)

"Our goal is to provide as much opportunity as we can for our sportsmen and women," said Wes Seegars, a commissioner from Goldsboro.

This statement confirms what many have been saying all along about all the new WRC rules... that they will have a negative effect on the resource. This is because the extended gun (ML) season, as well as the legalization of crossbows, and unlimited daily and annual bag limits will result in an undesired over harvest of buck deer, and all deer in general. Specifically, immature buck deer will be over harvested.

The fact is that the opportunity to hunt already exists, if hunters were willing to put forth the time and effort to become proficient with a bow and arrow.

There are basically only two "opportunities" that we must have in order to satisfy the needs of both the resource and hunters, preferably, in this order:
(1)- ACCESS to lands to hunt.
(2)-A bonafide QUALITY DEER/BUCK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM created by the WRC. The cost would be minimal, and sincere deer hunters would gladly comply with rules designed to accomplish this goal.

REF (1).. ACCESS: Landowners could be enticed and persuaded to open their properties to hunters by offering the right incentives to do so. A tax break would be a good starter. Other states have programs that reach out to landowners to persuade them to provide access to their lands to hunters. This could be managed and monitored through the WRC's "Registered Lands Program." They could make "Trespass Permits" available to individuals on a daily/weekly/seasonal basis for those who couldn't afford to buy/lease their own property, or join an expensive hunt club. I'm sure there are other options that would be attractive for landowners to allow more hunting. NCBA provides $100,000 hunter liability insurance to all its members. This covers them while bow and gun hunting. This perk for our members is a plus when we seek permission to hunt property.

REF (2).. This is where we, NCBA and 80% of licensed hunters, find us in opposition to the goals of our WRC. As they state, they want to " provide as much opportunity as we can for our sportsmen and women." What this really means is that they want to provide as much opportunity "to kill deer" as they can for hunters.

We (NCBA) and the majority of the WRC's licensed hunting constituency, want to take this a step further and maximize the opportunities for all to:
(a)- Have a "quality hunting experience"; and:
(b)- Increase the opportunities to "see more quality bucks while hunting."

These can only be accomplished if the WRC takes the initiative to implement rules that will help accomplish these goals for all hunters, not just the few who can afford it. These goals cannot be accomplished on a broad basis by individual landowners. Not everyone has access to thousands of acres that can be individually managed. Most don't have the money or time to do this to begin with. Quality deer management by individuals works for the "haves" in this respect. It doesn't work for the "have-nots", which includes most of us. The majority of hunters must rely on hunting public lands or, if they're lucky, they may have "permission" to hunt a 50 acre tract that is surrounded by other similar size tracts of land that are hunted by other hunters. Quality deer management will not work under these conditions. Such is the case across the state, and especially in piedmont and mountain areas. There's just not that many large tracts of land that are available for the average hunter to access.

For as long as we have been monitoring the activities of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, their primary goal in managing deer has been to "put the resource first" in the decision making process to manage our wildlife resources. This doesn't appear to be the case now. Increasing the muzzle loader season by one week and legalizing crossbows for everyone, even during the bow only season is not putting the "resource first." It is putting "people first." Many of our own NCWRC biologists fear that these two new rules will result in an undesirable increase in harvest of immature buck deer. This is the primary reason why they opposed these two rules. This, at a time when the WRC wants to attract new hunters and retain old hunters to help pump up revenue the department needs. Any reduction in the numbers of quality buck deer will only serve to reduce interest in deer hunting for both new and existing licensed hunters.

The blanket legalization of crossbows for everyone also eliminates, by default, the provision under N.C. General Statute 113-296 that has provided a special privilege for disabled sportsmen since this law took effect in 1993. There are over 17,000 hunters who possess the "disabled sportsman permit" in N.C. who will no longer be able to enjoy this one privilege reserved for them. The big winners are the manufacturers who will make lots of money selling crossbows, primarily to gun hunters who view this as an opportunity to hunt during bow season and kill a big buck. Again, the resource will be the primary loser, along with bowhunters, disabled hunters and all deer hunters in the long run.

Sunday bowhunting alone, will not have a negative impact on the quality of the buck population. But, now, with the inclusion of crossbows for everyone, we could see another significant increase in the buck harvest. Conventional bowhunting is not a big factor in deer harvest. Less than 10% of all deer harvested in N.C. are taken with bow and arrow, and only about 36% of the archery harvest is antlered bucks vs. "about" 50-55% for firearms hunters. That extra 15-20% by gun hunters is a lot of bucks when comparing real total harvest numbers of bow to gun hunters. You can access these numbers in the back of the WRC's Regulations Digest and compare them yourself.
Another change that could have a significant impact on our overall deer herd is the removal of daily and annual bag limits. We simply could kill too many deer in some areas. Some hunters may not put forth the required effort to retrieve deer because they know they can climb back in their stands and continue to hunt. Were all these factors considered when all these new regulations were adopted?

Stats from other states that have good quality buck programs concentrate on lower buck bag limits and scheduling gun seasons to occur after the whitetail "rut". This is the primary reasons why they have premier trophy buck hunting, and why many hunters from other states, including N.C., go to these states, like Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas to hunt every year, and spend their money.

Quality bucks are more than just a resource. They are a "treasure" that will attract many hunters into the woods to hunt. This could be the case in North Carolina. But our WRC doesn't seem to view managing our deer herd this way. They just seem to want to "kill more deer".. any deer.. in any way possible.

Time will tell the tale of what impact these new rules will have on our deer herd and hunter numbers. Many hope that if the results are not good, our WRC will seriously look at scaling back some of these rules in the future. And implement new rules more in favor of improving the quality and sustainability of the resource.

We look forward to continuing to try to work with our wildlife professionals and our WRC in achieving workable goals that meet the needs of the resource, and the desires of the hunting constituency in North Carolina, in that order.

Ramon Bell
President, NC Bowhunters Association