Was reading in the Daily News yesterday and there was a letter to the editor by Richard P. Smith about the deer herd and the license system of the DNR. He said that John Osoga (not sure of how to spell his name but is a retired DNR biologist from the U.P). He said that last winter the U.P lost 50,000 deer and another aprox 34,000 were taken in the hunting season. How many do you think we will lose this winter?
Something needs to change on multiple levels. Big companies like Plum Creek are wiping out the forests and deer yards and replanting with red pine. The predators are going nuts, people are not allowed to feed the deer like they used to (although some is being allowed this year...too little to late) and from my point of view there are too many licenses being sold to fill the DNR coffers.
I really think we are going to have the extremely low deer populations that we had in the early 90's. And with the added wolves etc... maybe even lower.
Long
