We participate in the DMAP program in VA. On 1600 ac we get a yearly quota of around 40 does to take to keep a healthy population. Every year if we don’t take that many the numbers get too high quickly as most does have 2 fawns. Not many participate in this program. Also not many hunters want to kill does and not many people hunt. The deer population is way too high in the US. 10,000 guys doing this every night for a month might make a sizable dent. There are estimates of 20 million deer in the US today and their population can double every 2-3 years. I think they don’t because they are staving due to high numbers today. We forsook managing our environment due to environmentalism and the feminizing of our society. What we need is more hunters who hunt responsibly.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6835501/ns/us_news-environment/t/deer-eating-away-forests-nationwide/#.T3Y8ImGvKSo
I agree whole-heartedly; but there aren’t enough hunters that can afford to pay exorbitant license costs (along with travel costs for non residents) to hunt there. Loosen up the crap regulations, eliminate high costs and INVITE us hunters to come visit. We’ll gladly take care of your problem (just tell us what we’re allowed to use when hunting - rifle, shot gun and/or archery or all three) but you folks want to have your cake and eat it too, while driving up auto insurance costs!
JC