This is in response to the article on Nevada Department of Wildlife and their suggestion of cutting the Deer Tag Quota for the upcoming season. First of all isn't it a coincidence that they decide to announce this after the April 22 tag application deadline? At least they got to collect all of the nonrefundable $10 fees. 1 am sure they could have looked at the harvest returns from last season and seen that the numbers were not there. They are worried about making their budget. If they were more forthcoming about this they would still get most of the money from the people who want to preserve what they grew up with and pass it on to the future generations.

It just goes to show how much the privilege of getting a tag is a big money game! No politics here! In my opinion the NDOW has been milking the deer herd for the last 10 years or so. They do their deer count every year and say the numbers are out there to support the quotas. I think they count the same bunch of deer four or five times to get the numbers they want. I have been an Elko County resident all of my life and I know that there aren't half as many deer as there were 10 years ago. This is due to many things; more people and urban growth, fire, drought, increase in predators, and the increase in competitive wildlife species. NDOW should become more interested in managing the wildlife that are presently here instead of collecting money and planting more wildlife species. They should be proactive instead of reactive. With archery, black powder and rifle season open back-to-back, the season on deer starts in early August and ends in late November. The deer are hounded for four months; anything with horns does not stand a chance. They should consider the option of putting a size limit on the deer harvested, to give the young deer a chance to figure out what they are supposed to do in life.

I could go on but my point is to use a lot of common sense and a little scientific data to manage all of Nevada's wildlife wisely instead of only considering the monetary gain.

 Reprinted from Elko Daily Free Press, May 3, 2002 By Blake O 'Donnell, Guest Columnist