OHA Conservation

July 26, 2016

Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission

RE: Implementation of the Oregon Black-tailed Deer Management Plan

Dear Chair Finley and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission:

The Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) is requesting the development of Management Objectives (MO’s) for black-tailed deer in Oregon. The Oregon Black-Tailed Deer Management Plan identifies several factors that may be responsible for the decline of this species across its range. We have deep knowledge on the biology of this species, it just needs to be applied to their management. Additionally, one of the objectives of the plan is to “Manage black-tailed deer populations to attempt to achieve buck ratios and populations at benchmark levels while collecting information over the next five years to develop Management Objectives” (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2008). The plan was written in 2008 and this objective is distinctly overdue. OHA has written multiple letters to the Department and Commission supporting the development and implementation of the plan. In September of 2011, the Department assured us that they were “looking at a number of techniques that will hopefully provide us the ability to establish population MO’s for black-tailed deer, something that we are currently and critically lacking”.

In Oregon, the first deer season was established in 1901, deer tags were separated from hunting licenses in 1948, and in 1976, separate tags were adopted for mule and black-tailed deer (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2008). At a minimum, this means the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has not been able to develop management objectives for black-tailed deer for 40 years. Based on the Oregon Black-Tailed Deer Management Plan and Oregon’s Mule Deer Management Plan, it appears that black-tailed deer provide approximately half of the deer hunting opportunity in the state. Clearly, black-tailed deer are a critically important resource to the hunters of Oregon.

OHA realizes that black-tailed deer populations are difficult to survey and estimate. However, given promising recent results from ODFW led research in several Wildlife Management Units in SW Oregon, it appears that ODFW has moved much closer to accomplishing the capability to make reliable populations estimates. We support the continuation and expansion of current research (from 4 to 6 WMU’s) to both answer questions regarding the decline of this important resource, and to establish scientifically developed management objectives for this species. OHA strongly supports this effort and is requesting applying these findings to management objective development by 2018, or the next species plan revision, whichever comes first. It should be our ultimate goal to manage blacktail deer with management objectives, consistent with mule deer and elk.