The general A zone deer season gets under way Saturday (most of Lake County is in the A zone) and hunters will be struggling to bag a buck. The deer herd continues to shrink and many Lake County hunters say the hunting is so poor they have given up on the sport altogether.
At one time Lake County was one of the top buck-producing counties in the state, but for the past 15 years the county”s deer population has been in a slow decline and today it”s barely holding its own.
The deer herd in Lake County reached its maximum numbers in the late 1950s. In 1955, the estimated deer kill in Lake County exceeded 2,000 bucks. That”s compared to last year when 185 bucks were taken during the A zone season.
To survive and reproduce, deer require food, water and cover. As more and more people move into the county, suitable wildlife habitat disappears. A half-century ago the sheep population along the North Coast was peaking and ranchers provided water, food and predator control which, while helping the sheep, also benefited the deer. Another factor were the timber harvests in the Mendocino National Forest. Unlimited control burning during that era also helped. With all these ideal conditions in place the deer herd literally exploded.
By the 1970s sheep ranching declined to a trickle and predator control just about vanished. The result was that the coyote population soared and the deer herds went into a decline. Timber harvests were also being cut back because of environmental concerns and control burning was severely curtailed. Much of the deer range along the North Coast is now at its maximum carrying capacity. The Mendocino National Forest is a good example. In the 1960s it wasn”t unusual to see 25-60 deer per day. Now if you see five deer per day it”s considered a lot.
Control burning on public lands is also major factor in deer survival. Years ago the local ranchers and hunters annually control burned the vast Cow Mountain Recreational Area and the deer thrived. Typically on opening weekend of the hunting season more than 40 bucks would be taken. Now only about 10 bucks are taken from the 60,000-acre area the entire season. It”s little more than a giant brush patch and supports little wildlife of any type.
A new study is under way to determine why the black-tail deer population in some areas of Northern California has declined during the past 20 years. The Department of Fish and Game (DFG), the University of California at Davis and several doctoral candidates recently began a three-year study of habitat changes, predation and land use patterns affecting black-tailed deer in Mendocino County. The decline in the harvest of black-tailed deer during the past 20 years is well documented. In fact, recent studies show only 20 percent of the fawns born will live to be a year old.
The study takes place during the next three years in the rugged mountains east of Covelo in Mendocino, Glenn and Lake counties. The location was selected because it represents some of the best black-tailed deer habitat in the state and has seen a steady decline in the harvest of bucks. While some ranching and ownership patterns have changed during the past 20 years, most of the area is not directly affected by urbanization and housing developments.
The project also takes a multi-species approach and employs state-of-the-art equipment. Researchers are currently tracking fawns and adult doe deer with radio and GPS tracking collars. Additionally, a female mountain lion was fitted with an Argos satellite GPS collar in June and her movements are tracked daily. Five additional mountain lions will be collared and followed during the study. Deer are the main food source for mountain lions. By tracking mountain lions biologists hope to estimate the overall level of predation on deer by lions in the study area. Deer with radio collars that die are necropsied within 24 hours to determine the cause of death. Remote cameras are being used to determine relative abundances of other species, such as coyotes, to better understand habitat use and causes of deer mortality.
An estimated 164,753 hunters pursued deer in California in 2009. Approximately 38,037 of those hunted in the B zone area encompassed in the black-tailed deer study. Statewide, the harvest of black-tailed deer bucks has declined from 27,846 in 1989 to 14,895 in 2009, a 46-percent drop. In the counties in the study area zone, harvest numbers dropped from 3,013 to 1,297, a 57-percent decline.
Scientists will carefully analyze changes in plant communities affecting food availability during the life cycle of deer, major land or forest practices affecting habitat types and predation by mountain lions, coyotes and other predators.
As in past years on opening weekend the DFG game wardens will be out in force and will be using the deer decoy to nab hunters who illegally shoot after dark with a spotlight. The decoy, which resembles a three-point buck, has fooled more than one poacher.
The wardens also will be enforcing the law governing loaded weapons in vehicles. A weapon is considered loaded by the DFG when there is a shell in the chamber. The wardens also will be looking for trespassers. The law says if a property is posted, fenced or under cultivation you must have written permission from the owner to hunt on it. It goes without saying that you must have a valid hunting license and the appropriate deer tags in your possession while hunting.
