SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There was clearly a 800 pound gorilla in the room at the meeting of the West Virginia Natural Resources Commission meeting Sunday. It would be more accurately described as a 300 pound black bear, which spoke loudest to anyone willing to listen,
However, there was a smaller, but equally enthusiastic group who continued to be adamant in their desire to change the direction of deer management in West Virginia. One by one individuals came to the microphone during the public portion of the meeting to ask the Division of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Commission to lower the limit on the number of bucks hunters can kill annually from three to two.
“There’s been a lot of talk about opinion vs. science. Wildlife biology is art as much as science.” said Jeremy Preston. “Hunters are not the same now as they were in 1995. They’ve changed. We need to adjust to sportsmen’s wishes.”
“We should lower buck limit to one or two. First hunters choice, second with antler restriction,” said Jared Huggins. “We have four counties where can take only one buck and it seems to work for them. Big bucks bring big money.”
Justin Booth suggested West Virginia could see the same kind of success as Tennessee when a similar change was made.
“I would prefer to see one, but would compromise on two with an antler point restriction,” Booth said.. “Tennessee recently went from three to two and their revenue increased 10.3 percent.”
“Our buck kill outnumbers antlerless kill every year. Nothing changes when nothing changes,” said Frank Hughes from Wood County. “The only way to reverse that trend is to reduce the buck limit.”
“My hope and prayer is the commission will take up a two-buck limit with an antler point restriction on the second buck,” said Shon Butler of Buckhannon. “It’s unfair to have four managed counties and the rest not managed. The answer is to make all of West Virginia number-one for once. Do we want to legislate deer management? No. But the commission should consider what 50 percent of users want.”
One of the chief concerns in recent years has been the potential loss of revenue if the change is presented. DNR Director Steve McDaniel offered a presentation of the 2018 figures. Those included 127,452 resident licenses to kill deer, 27,481 non-resident license to kill deer, and 106,712 lifetime license. The total number of licensed deer hunters in West Virginia in 2018 was 255,645.
McDaniel presented figures to the crowd in a power-point presentation which revealed close to a million dollars in revenue from antlerless stamps and extra buck tags sold to both residents and non-residents during 2018.
“Those numbers have nothing to do with lowering the buck limit from three to two,” he explained. “If we raised the fees on the tags in question, the agency would come under a financial burden from raising those.”
McDaniel announced he is seeking questions from Commissioners in the next 90 days to be researched and answered the impact of lowering the buck limit. He further added the DNR will contract with Southwick Associates, a noted research agency in the area of wildlife management, to study the potential economic impact of the change. He told the crowd this will be the subject of a vote at the Commission’s July meeting at Tygart Lake State Park. .
“At that meeting, I will entertain motion to vote on lowering of buck limit from three to two,” said McDaniel. “That’s because the legislature has gotten our attention.”