 Current SAPOA News Letter from SAPOA President
I met with the president of DPAA to discuss deer hunting, seasons and restrictions. Some have blamed the airport association as the instigators of the hunting. DPAA may have had the last and loudest voice because deer on the runway can cause serious injury or even death, but over the years many property owners have expressed displeasure with the damage done to their yards, gardens and lawns.
Here are the results.
First a little background.
For several years many residents of the peninsula, SAPOA, Diamond Point, DPAA and others have voiced concerns at the growing population of the deer herd. Many, many calls have been made to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and officers of WDFW have also been to a SAPOA meeting. WDFW doesn’t have the money for removing, relocating, thinning and only had suggestions of repellants, fences and the advice to not encourage the deer with plants the deer like and to not feed them.
After a collision between an airplane and a deer, DPAA become more involved. Luckily the occupants of the plane were not harmed, but the plane was heavily damaged. As was the norm, DPAA again contacted WDFW. They were referred to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA representatives came out Spring of 2009. They determined that the population of deer far exceeded what is normal in wilderness and still exceeded what they usually find in urban areas where the deer have migrated to for easy browsing. USDA recommended a "herd thinning" measure and would get in touch with WDFW, who has the final decision in the state.
Late summer 2009
WDFW contacted DPAA late summer and said, no herd thinning at this time, but we will change the hunting regulations to allow any deer, instead of bucks only for the 4 scheduled hunting seasons. The problem is that almost all the property in the area is private, so arrangements must be made to grant permission to hunters. DPAA contacted a few property owners of undeveloped parcels to obtain their permission and the DPAA board decided to give permission for hunting on the West end of the airport property.
Interested hunters were told to contact DPAA and had to fill out a form with name, license numbers etc. and were given a map of the area where they were allowed. It was decided that only bow and arrow would be allowed even during the regular (firearm) season.
Your president was informed of the up coming hunt(s). I did not inform the SAPOA board, so they could respond to inquiries by members. I should have. Although, the complaint phone calls did not come in until 3 weeks after the regular archery season. I did not mention it at the general meeting because the first season was over by then and as has happened before, it is a 2 sided argument that never ends.
WDFW is the agency that regulates controls and manages wildlife and hunting in the state. The entire Miller peninsula has always been open to hunting if one followed the rules and regulations for this game management unit, avoided the restricted state park land, and had permission to hunt private property.
The number of deer taken in the September season was less than 10% of the total population. I am writing this half way through the regular season and there are no reports of success.
At this time there is a scheduled season, November 19-22, November 25 to December 31 and January 1-20. The January season is by permit only for those who have completed the Master Hunter program. All seasons are being restricted to archery for those areas under DPAA oversight.
Your Annual Membership Dues should already
be paid.
Please make sure you have paid yours.
If you have a question contact the Treasurer
Annemarie Montera
Please note that the URL for the SAPOA web page has changed to
http://sites.google.com/site/sapoasequim/. For the time being you
can still get to this site from the old URL. However, please bookmark
this page since access via the old site may change in the future.
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