Kansas House Bill 2709 concern

[AARONB]

Recently the Kansas House Committee on Ag and Natural Resources submitted Bill No. 2079. This bill addresses KS deer hunting. 1) It will provide lifetime license holders 1 free any whitetail permit with the option of buying a second any whitetail permit. 2) All other KS residents hunting license holders will get 1 free antlerless permit. 3) It move the KS firearms season up 1 week to start on the Weds. before Thanksgiving.

While this has a ways to go before it becomes law, to me this is very concerning and should be followed closely.

 

[WYWINCHESTER]

Controlling whitetail populations should be a the forefront of conservation. Especially in AG states. I have proposed giving five WHITETAIL doe tags with every deer license sold here. Give em away and maybe we can keep them in check.

 

[Rhcuam]

It’s a stupid bill. The same landowner that is complaining that the deer are eating up his crops will then try to charge you $500 of shoot a doe. Kansas whitetail populations are just fine. The only things that need to be introduced is a decrease in nonresident tags and an increase in the cost of a nonresident deer tag.

 

[AARONB]

It’s never good when legislators, who know nothing about wildlife management, try to satisfy a vocal constituent who probably also knows very little about wildlife management. This bill would take away a lot of money from license sales that supports deer management and other conservation programs. It would also put additional pressure on our deer herd through increased buck and doe harvest. I would expect to see increased hunting pressure as well.

In my area we are already seeing decreases in our deer numbers and in the number of trophy bucks, due to CRP fields being converted back to farm ground. We are also seeing a lot more CWD deer. I think it’s easy to see that our state’s best deer hunting years are behind us and it’s probably not going to get better in the foreseeable future.