OPINION: Blame Idaho Fish and Game for declining deer herds

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Paul Snider, a member of Northern Idaho Whitetails Forever. He introduced himself and proceeded to tell me about the organization.

In January 2018, seven individuals from the Orofino area started NIWF. They were fed up with the stonewalling by Idaho Fish and Game when they questioned them about the dramatic decline in the population of whitetail deer in the Clearwater Region of Idaho. The number of whitetail deer in Idaho has been in a downward spiral for years and Fish and Game has seemed unable and unwilling to stop the decline, or even consider seemingly commonsense solutions to the problems facing the deer.

I was raised in northern Idaho and started hunting the beautiful and elusive whitetail deer when I was very young with my dad and Uncle Bill. We were meat hunters and hunted to feed our family.

The animals were plentiful, and we had little problem finding them. But the thrill of the hunt never got old. I can still vividly remember the first deer I harvested.

Over the years, I stopped hunting does because they were so abundant that my deer season seldom lasted more than one or two days. So I started hunting the majestic, whitetail bucks to extend my season.

There were years when I got no game. But I always had the immense satisfaction of weeks spent exploring the beautiful canyons and forests of Idaho.

During the last few years, advanced age, health and other circumstances have kept me from hunting. But I have not lost my love for the sport.

So I decided to meet with this group to hear their story. What I found was a bunch of guys, mostly grandpas, who just like me care deeply about the deer and the hunting experience in Idaho and want to pass it on to their children and grandchildren. I read their material. It is all backed up with solid information and proof of the bureaucratic ineptitude of Fish and Game that has brought on the massive decline of our whitetail deer population.

Fish and Game dramatically changed deer seasons in 2008. The agency extended the length of the general season — which ran from Oct. 10-Nov. 20 — to Dec. 1. This created a punishing, 53-day season.

At this point in time, the deer began a steep decline in herd quantity and quality, brought on by a combination of very long “rut” season hunts and by allowing hunters to purchase a second tag. The herd also started a dramatic health decline during the mid-summer of 2010 from bluetongue virus.

In 2021, there was a massive disease outbreak in the Clearwater Region. During a five-month period, epizootic hemorrhagic disease, EHD2, and bluetongue virus ravaged the whitetail population of that area. Fish and Game estimates more than 10,000 deer died. It easily could have been much more. They had no real data.

When faced with the massive loss of deer, Fish and Game sent an email to all nonresident hunters of Unit 11A offering a tag buyback. Fish and Game didn’t close any areas or shorten any seasons during that fall hunting season. It didn’t tell resident hunters about the tag buyback. Northern Idaho Whitetails Forever accidently found out about the buyback from a nonresident hunter and publicized it.

Fish and Game initially claimed the refunds were publicly discussed but NIWF exposed that as untrue.

Hunting guides and landowners who range over hundreds of thousands of acres of Idaho lands used to report large numbers of animals. Now they are reporting almost no whitetail deer.

Flying B Ranch, located on 5,000 acres of land in Lawyer’s Canyon, reported seeing only six does and no bucks.

An adjacent 1,000-acre ranch reported seeing no deer at all.

The Lillie family owns thousands of acres of prime whitetail habitat. Doug Lillie, an avid whitetail hunter, reports seeing three does, one fawn and two small bucks where there used to be herds of deer.

At the same time, Fish and Game has continually been extending the length of the hunting seasons and selling extra tags.

On Nov. 14, five NIWF members testified at a Fish and Game public meeting about shortening hunting seasons because of the huge deer die-off. The next day, Fish and Game voted “no” to any season changes.

Then on Dec. 1, Fish and Game sold 27,000 tags to nonresidents. This sale took place before many 2022 seasons had even taken place and before anyone knew how many animals were harvested or how badly the herds were depleted from disease.

When it comes to whitetail deer, Levi Beeler at Clark’s Taxidermy knows what he is talking about. Clark’s has been in business for about 50 years.

Each year they would craft 90-to-100 shoulder mounts from bucks that averaged 5 to 6 years old. Record buck heads were not uncommon.

That was before 2008 when Fish and Game reduced the deer herds by selling extra buck and doe tags. Today, they are processing 30 to 40 mounts from deer that average 3 to 4 years old. It’s been more than five years since they have processed a record mount.

In 2015, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission moved to a two-year season setting process. It has been a disaster.

It has made it very difficult for the commission to make policy adjustments on “off planning years” to deal with issues like massive game die-offs.

As NIWF member and former Fish and Game Commissioner Dan Blanco, from the Clearwater Region, so aptly stated: “Two-year season setting needs to be chalked up as a failed experiment and thrown on the ash heap of bureaucratic overreach.”

History has shown that government bureaucracies always become bloated and inept. Fish and Game is no exception. To them, the white tail deer are just a money maker.

We must join and support NIWF. Contact them at niwf.org. Mismanagement from extended hunting seasons and over-harvest is destroying our once-thriving whitetail herds.

Dugger retired as a journeyman carpenter from Clearwater Paper. He lives in Lewiston.