I am sure there are a lot of Deer Management experts in the State. At one time the State was divided into two Zones and you could buy two tags over the counter in one shot. The hunter received an A tag and a B tag.
The Eastside was covered by the “B” tag only and a hunter could use both an “A” and or a “B” tag on the Westside of Highway 99.
There had been a number of doe hunts before the big statewide doe hunt the last three days of the 1956.
Even before I was old enough to buy a deer tag I was a “tag-along” with my dad, and his hunting partners. Without a doubt I absorbed many of their opinions. I cannot remember the closing dates in 1956 but I recall the last three days we could fill our “B” tag with a doe if we choose. The decision had been made in our group that nobody would take a doe. I believe with the large doe herd it was felt that they did not offer a challenge.
The shock came before daylight during that three-day hunt. We were hunting in the “B Zone” and numbers of hunters out number the hunters seen on opening weekend. We had hike up to a lava ridge using flashlights to get in position when daylight appeared. It was cold and wet. There was more then a foot of wet snow on the ground. We decided it was a good tracking snow.
A few scattered shots were heard well before legal shooting time. A few herds of does and fawns appeared with the first legal light, and it sounded like a war zone. Some hunters opened up on a bunch of does and fawns between us, showing no regard for our safety. Dad made me take cover in the rocks. Carnage followed and we spotted two or three cripples in the area, and a least one unclaimed kill. It was like a house cat finding a bunch of mice.
When we got back down to our vehicle there was a group loading does into a trailer. We felt the kills were the result of the early shots because they were already cold and stiffing up. The license plates on the tow vehicle and trailer appeared to be out of County.
From the shock in the County the scene must have been repeated a number of times. The biggest issues to come out of the three day hunt to start with was hunter safety, and the decimation of the doe, and fawn population. I believe the biggest impact was in the old “B Zone” deer herd. They were easier to get to, and the mule deer in general were much larger then the Westside blacktail. (The old “B Zone” is currently broke up into X zones and C zones.)
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/publications/tracks/tracksbiggame2002.pdfWhile the F&G gives credit to the doe hunt for a large deer kill the next few years, I in part challenge this assumption, and credit must be given where credit is due. In the fall of 1955 a dry lightning storm developed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (S-T) starting numerous fires on the S-T, moving North on to the Klamath National Forest (KNF), and then continuing on into Southern Oregon. A few of the notable large fires started near Carter Meadows on the South end of Siskiyou County, then the major fire that burned in the Kidder Creek drainage, as it moved Northward the Haystack fire was started, then just before the storm left California it started a major fire on Sterling Mountain. There were other large fires that I cannot recall the names off.
A few hundred thousand acres went up in smoke the next eight weeks. They brought in soldiers from Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Ord, California, and Camp Roberts California to help fight the fires.
Within a few weeks after the fires were contained the areas that had brush in them were sprouting new growth from the root bowls. Deer love those young tender sprouts and thrived on them. By the next spring the burns were producing a lot of young tender brush that could support a lot of deer. The new growth was plentiful and high in nutrition. The deer herd prospered and hunters filled their tags. When the F&G held a few doe hunts they could not sell all the tags.
A political backlash grew from the 1956 doe hunt. The mass killing of does and fawns upset a lot of hunters. And mixed in the issue was the safety concerns. The indiscriminate shooting caused a lot of concerns.
Not far South of Fort Jones near the Eastside Road a doe hunt was held. A friend of mine and her husband arrived at home after going to town one weekend. They found their home had been broken into and a woman was bleeding on their floor. The woman hand been taking part in the doe hunt and had suffered a gunshot wound to the breast. Without a doubt this event had a lasting effect on their household.
The board of supervisors in Siskiyou County was made up primarily of ranchers, and timber men. As a result of the 1956 doe hunt Siskiyou County joined the majority of other counties in the State to get legislation passed which gave veto authority to County boards of supervisors over doe hunts.
Placing the blame on the F&G for the lack of doe hunts is missed placed. The county board of supervisors can veto any doe hunt the F&G proposes. Secondary blame falls on the hunting community for the conduct displayed by a few in 1956. The perception then and today was City Slickers caused the majority of problems. I am sure that a review of firearm related hunting accidents in the County would show the majority involved were not residents.
Burns normally mature in approximately fifteen years. Humbug a noted deer factory within the Haystack burn has dried up because the brush matured, or forestry practices. Poaching has always been a problem but with the expansion of marijuana gardens in the county has resulted in many deer being converted to tacos.
The growing Mt. Lion populations translates into fewer deer.
The black bear population has expanded the last few years. Fawns are a major food source for bears. A freind reports seeing a bear kill at least two deer in the fields South of Fort Jones.
I have always wondered how the Spotted Owl issue impacted the decline of the deer herd. Fewer clearcuts, fewer deer.
