Is it time for them to be eliminated or cut back from 2 to 1?

I think so.  With a couple of tough years on the whitetail population and the wolves at a high, the deer population has been reduced significantly.  I don't think the 2 supplemental tags in a lot of zones has helped either.  Maybe SRD wants the deer population lower with the whole CWD thing, I don't know.

In the bush zone where I hunt north-west of Edmonton, CWD has never been an issue and the deer population is really hurting.  Another bad winter and things will be pretty grim especially with the big packs of wolves around.  I believe that this year was the time for SRD to be reactionary and reduce or eliminate those supplemental tags.

I know many hunters feel this way and have not bought supplemental tags.  I know our group hasn't.  I can't help that feeling that many hunters are better conservationists than SRD themselves.  There are always the ones that will buy every tag they can and get every draw possible and try to fill them all, and that may too much for some of these zones.

What do you guys think?

Deerman,

I suppose that fits right in with SRD's theory if you kill all the moose then the wolves will all starve and the caribou will survive. eg WMU353

I do remember a time in my zone where whitetails were very rare.  There were tons of bush mule deer then though. There were always wolves but lots of moose too.

Deerman,

I suppose that fits right in with SRD's theory if you kill all the moose then the wolves will all starve and the caribou will survive. eg WMU353

I do remember a time in my zone where whitetails were very rare.  There were tons of bush mule deer then though. There were always wolves but lots of moose too.

The biologists reason for the supplemental tags was to hold back wt numbers because they were pushing the mulies out. Well now the mulie doe numbers are getting less and less. The heards are reduced to a couple from 6-12. Funny when they see a vehicle now the run. If srd was so concerned about mulies why have general season. Supplemental tags in the mountain zones have run it's course, it's making for shitty hunting.

I would like to see it reduced to one tag at a minimum, better yet put them on draw like the rest of the province so each hunter can take 1 additional doe. Where we hunt in north central Alberta the supplemental tags have really lowered deer numbers especially since they were discontinued in a popular adjacent zone. Same thing happened down south when they gave out double mulie and whitetail tags for a few years in a row, the mulies never did recover from that. I love venison as much as anybody but I think everyone can survive by being limited to a buck and a doe (or even two does if they choose to use a general tag that way). I still hunt does but did not harvest any up north this year, where im hunting right now we're seeing hundreds every night, 4 fresh roadkills last night along a 5 km stretch. Lots of no hunting land leads to the opposite issues we have on public lands, and in this case we have to draw tags to hunt them.

It would be ideal if they could manage game by WMU and fish lake by lake.  And if they had the money and staff they could do that.  But they don't.

In the states I often read where a fellow hunts in his home state and then drives a reasonably short distance north to hunt another buck in another state and then drives west to hunt in another state etc. 

We live in a huge province and get one general white-tail licence and maybe a couple doe tags.

I was home for lunch today and read this thread and so I went online and got two supplemental tags.  Before the ink was dry I was putting one on a dry yearling doe that was fat as a hog. 

I had been tempted to shoot a couple of the smaller bucks I have seen in the past week or so but now I have some venison and will propably not shoot a smaller "up and coming buck" .

Like wallete said, without the doe tags guys who want venison will shoot the first buck they see.

It would be ideal if they could manage game by WMU and fish lake by lake.  And if they had the money and staff they could do that.  But they don't.

In the states I often read where a fellow hunts in his home state and then drives a reasonably short distance north to hunt another buck in another state and then drives west to hunt in another state etc. 

We live in a huge province and get one general white-tail licence and maybe a couple doe tags.

I was home for lunch today and read this thread and so I went online and got two supplemental tags.  Before the ink was dry I was putting one on a dry yearling doe that was fat as a hog. 

I had been tempted to shoot a couple of the smaller bucks I have seen in the past week or so but now I have some venison and will propably not shoot a smaller "up and coming buck" .

Like wallete said, without the doe tags guys who want venison will shoot the first buck they see.

I do respect the supplemental tag for the reason you just stated.  If a hunter wants some venison for the table then he can use a supplemental tag for a dry doe.  He can then retain his general tag for hunting a bigger buck which may or may not be in the cards for him but he then can enjoy the hunt for that special buck till the end of the season.  That also helps create a balance as others have stated.  Perhaps 1 supplemental tag is the way to go.

Deerhunter, good on you for choosing a dry doe.

The guys that just want to fill 3 wt tags as fast as they can to bolster their freezer load should consider the sustainability of that in their area or zone.  I suspect if the deer crash in their area though they just move on.  I just want to explain, we hunt an area that is fairly low pressure, but the more main roads into this area are patrolled by the "shoot every deer you see crowd".  There is a huge disparity in the deer population from the road corridors to the back country.  If our group of 3-4 guys were to fill all of our possible wt tags every year that would change no doubt.  That would be 12 deer we could kill and very easily could have. 10 additional deer for us would be just stupid imho.  We killed 2 deer last year and 2 again this year as well as 2 moose.  That is enough for our freezers.  I feel pretty good about limiting our take, not taking our limit just because we can.  I have no plans of leaving our area anytime soon and hope game populations stay sustainable.

All I hope is that hunters consider their needs and conservation too with the very generous wt deer limit in much of this province.  So far the deer population is okay for the most part but the numbers are falling in some areas.  Time to become proactive and react before it is too late is all I am saying.

This is how they look at it in Ont.



[attachment deleted 180 days old]