68OLDS

Nothing would surprise me anymore I see your 6 months and raise you 6 more 🍻

You think he’s gonna pull out the VETO pen on this? 🤔 not a snowballs chance In he-ll.....right?

Ahhhh...the good ‘ole days 😂

No problem Eddie, I thought so too.

Oh okay was a little confused on what you were getting at there. So if we can’t go by public surveys, what would be the alternative solution to go about gathering accurate harvest data?

Who is Jim Hellelfinger?

Nice!

Well it’s not unit by unit, but here’s the overall success and harvest over the years for OTC tag hunts

Valid points here. I would urge you to copy paste this message and share your thoughts AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov

Ya I’m not too sure what delw means by this? Literally, the entire game and fish approach to wildlife conservation is based on the North American model. That model says the wildlife resource is held in the public interest. We all have a say into what is in the best interest of the resources, including hunt allocations, tag limits, seasons, etc.

Good point, was sort of thinking that as I was typing the post.

I don’t quite understand it either. I don’t see it being THAT MUCH more of a burden. She said more data could be good, and could be bad. I would argue more/better data in would give better results out. Someone mentioned the Navajo nation survey approach. You don’t complete your survey, you aren’t eligible for the draw the next year. I am not sure how that would look but it can’t be too difficult to put in place. It sounds like azgfd is happy with where they are on harvest statistics.

I actually am a biologist Thom. ASU, class of ‘06. Conservation Biology. More importantly we are all sportsmen and wildlife is held in the public interest, as you know, following the North American model. We all have a right to a fair discussion. We voice thoughts and concerns for what is in the best interest of the wildlife resource in AZ.

100% agree just search “arizona OTC deer hunting” on YouTube and you’ll see how popular az has become with out of state hunters. My brother Ran into some hunters a few years ago Michigan I believe saying that they heard about Arizona’s OTC particularly unit 27 in the Local magazine and hunting publications. These outside influences are definitely not helping things here at home.

What do you mean? hunted unit 27 for 3 weeks this last January OTC season. I estimate the ratio of NR:res hunters I saw was about 2:1.

The azgfd program manager said last night they do not want to put additional regulatory burden upon hunters by going to a mandatory Harvest reporting. One of their rationales was this would deter people from hunting and reduced overall hunter recruitment. She also stated that the current 20-50% survey response rate was statistically sufficient to account for accurate harvest data. take it for what it’s worth. Not sure I believe any of that but that is their position on the subject.

I would like to see the NR OTC archery hunt eliminated 100% instead of going to a draw system for 2a/2b/2c/27. I would also suggest a reduction in the season length for unit 27, no august hunt and going from all month in January to 15 days. That is what I will be proposing in my email to the DEPT.

It was a fairly well prepared, mostly they just presented the current hunt guidelines and how they plan to meet those as flatlander has mentioned here. They did say they would post it after it was presented so you can still watch it online. I posted the link a few threads back.

I’ll go one step further. Being a guide you probably won’t agree with me, but I would like to see the NR OTC opportunity eliminated altogether.

The big game program supervisor, Amber Munig, provided some numbers last night during the presentation: general deer draw permit tag hunts average 50% hunter survey response OTC deer tag hunts average 20% hunter survey response She Stated that a 50% response rate was acceptable statistically to rely upon for accurate harvest data.

👍

Yes you are correct. The guidelines are the driving force behind the hunt recommendations. But I Will disagree on the point of having limited input by making our voices heard. There are multiple solutions to achieve the same end result and still work within the confines of the prescribed guidelines. For example, the current guidelines state archery OTC harvest shall be less than 20% overall. This is One of the main reasons mentioned last night during last night’s webcast for the proposed changes. one solution, or compromise for azgfd to consider would be to eliminate the almost 5k non resident otc tags that were issued, Using last years data. now on the flip side of the coin, I am all for strong wildlife management that will benefit the populations as a whole over time. I do think these changes will help especially taking pressure off the mule deer populations during peak rut times.

***MAJOR CHANGES*** proposed to archery deer OTC hunts this year and January 2022!!!. Got caught up in all the fuss over the elk draw and totally missed on this announcement. I know there are quite a few fellow bowhunters on this forum. Many units in December are being recommended to close and the biggest change of all, GMU 27 archery would 100% draw only. Proposed changes can be found at: https://azgfd-portal-wordpress-pantheon.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/2021-Fall-Hunt-Recommendations-as-of-3-29-2021.pdf It's late notice but you can still provide comments via email at AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov. There is a webcast at 6PM tonight to provide public input. The webcast, which begins at 6 p.m., can be viewed at www.azgfd.gov/webcast.

Great points and a very solid argument. Interesting to see many folks in support of the changes here.

For those who miss the webcast, it will be recorded and available to be viewed at https://www.azgfd.com/Hunting/Guidelines/. Additional comments can be emailed to AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov i don’t think they have posted it yet...and thank you for your service to the public