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Written by Hunters Alert
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Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
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An article appeared
in the Reno Gazette Journal on January 25, 2008 with the title,
"Nevada's declining deer population affects tag availability each year". As most HUNTER'S ALERT readers know, for
almost 20 years, we have stated that predators, that being mountain lions and coyotes,
have been having a devastating effect on our deer herds. NDOW has used 13
different excuses, but never predators.
For the last 8 years, fire has been their main excuse. In the article,
NDOW Big game staff specialist Mike Cox "said that if he had to name the main
reason why deer herds are not doing better in Nevada, it would be the overall
condition of their habitat and loss thereof. And of the key components of deer
habitat: food, water, cover and space, the most limited of the four is food,
followed by cover.
Many factors that limit the amount of deer habitat in the
state have been identified. Fire has claimed more than 6.65 million acres of
Nevada wildlands since 1999, much of it important winter range for deer. But,
there are other components that are less obvious, like the need for fire in
other areas to stimulate growth of new shrubs that are an important food
source."
You can't have it both ways saying fires are responsible for
our declining deer herds but that we need more fires for the growth of new
shrubs.
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