This is a unique time to be a deer hunter, and a white-tailed deer hunter in particular.
Herds across the continent are down in many places – often intentionally, at the behest of biologists – and some believe we may have already lived through the absolute best of the glory days. Access to huntable land is becoming tougher to find, habitat is changing, the captive deer industry is growing and splitting sportsmen, chronic wasting disease is spreading, and predators are increasing, among other things.
Interesting days, indeed.
The National Deer Alliance will host its first-ever national convention, the 2015 North American Deer Summit, to talk about all that — the good, bad and ugly of deer across America – from May 6-8 in Louisville, Ky. The group is aiming to become the first ever to unite deer hunters nationally.
Details on joining the Alliance – which is free – and the Summit can be found at http://www.nationaldeeralliance.com.
In the meantime, if you want to hear one man’s opinion on the future of deer, you can listen to a “Wired to Hunt” podcast featuring Kip Adams. He’s the Pennsylvania native who serves as director of education and outreach for the Quality Deer Management Association.
He touches on positive and negative trends, thoughts on how hunters can impact deer management and more.
Of particular interest is his assertion that hunters and wildlife managers both need to “start over” in terms of their relationship, and focus not on past differences and disagreements but on common goals.
Here’s to that idea! In this state anyway, it often seems as if everyone’s so afraid of giving the other guy a chance to say “I told you so” that there’s no real hope for collaboration or compromise, ever.
You can hear the whole interview at by clicking here.
