New Idaho Deer Tag Offers Hunters A Wide Variety Of Options

IDAHO FALLS - When it comes to managing wildlife, Idaho's wildlife biologists are faced by the same quandary as their counterparts elsewhere, "Opportunity versus Success?" While biology may drive the bottom line for the species, for the wildlife manager the trick is to find just the right balance between hunters' opportunity to harvest an animal and just how successful their efforts will be. Too much of one and wildlife populations can suffer along with overall hunter satisfaction; too little of the other can result in sportsmen feeling they are being denied the privilege to hunt what, how and when they want. IDFG's mission is to monitor the pulse of both sportsmen and wildlife and come up with a management strategy that provides the most for hunters while responsibly managing wildlife populations; the new deer tag plan is an example of such innovative thinking. When IDFG spoke to hunters about how they felt the Department had been managing deer populations statewide they heard lots of varied opinions. One point that was fairly consistent was that people did not like to be locked into one area, such as the old Clearwater deer tag. Hunters said they like to be able to move around the state and even harvest different species of deer if the opportunity presents itself. Idaho is home not only to mule deer, but white-tailed deer as well. In many parts of the state these animals even share the same habitat! In the new statewide deer management plan created by IDFG the goal was to create an incredibly flexible deer tag. According to Regional Wildlife Biologist Jeff Short of the Upper Snake Region, "The new tag choices are going to take a little time getting used to but it provides more general season opportunity to hunters than we had before and more opportunity to travel across the state to hunt deer." The key to the plan is so simple that some people can't believe it's true. According to Short, "The bottom line is that if you have a regular deer tag you can participate in ANY hunt listed in the regular deer tag section (pages 23-27) of the regs!" For people with the white-tail tag they can hunt in any hunt on pages 28-30 of the big game regulations. What seems to throw some people off is that while the tag is valid for either mule deer or white-tailed deer, in some hunts it can only be used to hunt for whatever species a particular hunt is restricted to. While the key to understanding the new regulations may be to not read too much into what is stated in the regs, IDFG understands that there are always questions concerning regulation changes. If deer hunters have any questions concerning what deer tag is valid when, they can contact Jeff Short at jshort@idfg.idaho.gov or 208-525-7290. For those requiring the use of TDD, through the Idaho Relay Service at 1-800-377-3529. IDFG Big Game Regulations are on the web at: http://www.fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/hunt/misc/species.cfm#biggame