Colorado Mule Deer Decline?

[Heyjbales]

Well, I can eat crow now. I just checked the tag allocations for 2020 compared to 2019, and no adjustments were made due to the change in season dates.

Get your trophy CO buck tags soon!

Something to consider is that in units with lower CWD prevalence at or below management objectives, the 3rd and 4th season tag numbers went down. High CWD prevalence units like 12, 13, 23, 24 added more 3rd and 4th season tags in response to the low harvest rates in 2019 as a management tool to reduce older age class deer and reduce or stop increasing CWD rates. Analyzing the tag structure statewide isn't fair to local DAU management objectives.

I am going to hunt a 3rd season this year because of the increased opportunity for an older age class buck now versus the future, though!

 

[Jasher]

Well the article helped me out. I got my tag this year as second choice. I couldn't draw it a couple of years ago with 1 point. I drove the road that is one side of the unit boundary last week and I saw 6 bucks in beautiful velvet. All on public land.

 

[vanish]

Something to consider is that in units with lower CWD prevalence at or below management objectives, the 3rd and 4th season tag numbers went down. High CWD prevalence units like 12, 13, 23, 24 added more 3rd and 4th season tags in response to the low harvest rates in 2019...

Ah, I guess I didn't look at enough quotas. After seeing a dozen or so of 4th season numbers matching 2019 exactly I started making assumptions.

 

[PikesPeakElkHunter]

I live in unit 511. Over the last 5 years we have seen a deer explosion. Why? 5-6 years ago the DOW decided to make unit 511 a managed "trophy" unit. My point of view is this was crazy with a population of well over 500,000 within 1 hour. We have every local subdivision now covered up in does. Yes, there are some very nice bucks. That picture to the left is from my back yard just a few years ago. Two days after the end of 4th season. That fence you can barely see behind the buck and does is the Natl Forest boundary.

511 is also a CWD unit and this year, like last year, they are issuing more tags. However, the deer have learned to just hang in the subdivisions or within small city limits. Woodland Park, CO has something like 40+ deer per sq mile year round now. Harsh weather in some areas like Gunnison did kill a lot of deer. But, the deer seem to have just adjusted and moved into the large rural subdivisions and small town city limits where no hunting is allowed. I have seen more does with twins in that last few years than I have seen in the last 30 years living on the same property.