Oct. 2007 - Volume 68, Issue 10
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In this issue
NextGEN Departments
Making the Rules continued...
The logic and reasoning behind regulations usually fall into three categories.
Biological: Is a regulation needed to help manage the population?
An example would be daily or season harvest limits, or it could be a prohibition on harvest, such as the regulation we have protecting prairie chickens and other species of conservation concern.
Social: Would society find the action acceptable or necessary, and would hunters accept the regulation?
A cornerstone of conservation is the recognition that we must balance the needs of people and the needs of nature. The regulation allowing landowners and homeowners to protect their property from damage by wildlife is an example of blending these needs.
Another example of the role of social considerations in developing regulations is the “4-point rule” put in place in 2004 in 29 counties. This rule requires that deer hunters only take bucks with at least four points on one side of their rack.
The goal of the regulation is to improve both our ability to manage antlerless deer numbers and the age-structure of bucks in the population. But before any decision was made, we first had to know if hunters and farming landowners were willing to accept such a regulation. Were there other, more favorable, options we should consider?
Through public meetings and surveys we first took a “pulse check” of the people. Only after support was measured did we proceed with regulation recommendations. Even with the regulation in place, we have continued to assess hunter and landowner attitudes to see if changes are warranted.
Enforceable: Is the regulation able to be easily followed or understood by the hunter, and can it be enforced?
Can you imagine a regulation that requires a legal bow to cast an arrow at least 160 feet over a horizontal surface? Or that a legal round for deer hunting be required to have a muzzle velocity greater than 2,400 feet per second? How would a hunter be certain they were in compliance? How would an agent check these in the field?
Or what about requiring that a legal buck have a 17-inch spread? Can a hunter easily tell if a deer meets this requirement?
About This Article
Author
ERIC KURZEJESKI has worked on regulations issues for most of his 30 years with MDC, but come fall, you’ll find him in a tree stand. His wife, Lori, suggested changing his name to “Sits-in-Tree.”
