Seems to me the DNR said there were too many deer ,and gave out alot of tags to lower numbers.That is what happened.
There's certainly something to what you say, but it's not quite as simplistic as that.
The entire state was in herd reduction mode, but even in the north......different regions responded differently.
The northeast for instance has a higher hunter density than the northwest, and showed different stabilization and recovery than the northwest did by historical data. Even after the years of ZoneT and the year of heavy EAB in 2004, the northeast didn't recover like the northwest. And many of the northeast units did not even have EAB.
The DNR is certainly not blameless in this area. Several units in the northeast have been under goal for over 10 years. This under-goal situation could/should have been reacted to more aggressively. But the DNR was gun shy from the same situation that happened to them in the mid 90's. An over-reaction to low harvests produced the population explosion that generated the record 600K harvest in 2000....and its attendant over-goal populations. Enter a couple of years of bad weather and an increasing wolf population......and you get the severe drops of 2008 and 2009.
Plus.....you still deal with a herd distribution problem. A problem that gets exacerbated by multiple seasons that puts constant invasive pressure in the woods over longer periods of time.
There is constant rhetoric from the disenfranchised hunting groups to "leave us alone.....we'll manage the deer herd". Well, if history is any indicator that's not true. Hunter's have a singular goal to "manage" to enough deer for them to shoot. They are largely uninterested in any other factors that true wildlife management must adhere to.
There is no doubt hunters were spoiled by 500K and higher annual harvests. The truth is, from several quarters, the state environment can't afford to keep deer populations that generate those type of numbers. No state in our area can. All of them are in maintenance mode at much lower levels.....or are in herd reduction modes to get there.
