Politics & Predators – Thank God for Other States

 

Editor’s Note: This op-ed was submitted to Eastmans’ and we chose to run it with minor editing. Joe’s opinions are his own but we feel his sentiments accurately reflect what has happened in California and is happening in states like Colorado where predator management is neglected to appease a largely urban populace. 

 

2024 marked my 50th year of public land big game hunting. Not just in my home state of California but also many other western states. When I started deer hunting in 1974, at age 12, with my friend Jeff Albers, his brother Larry Jr. and his father Larry, the game was very plentiful. We saw bears, coyotes, mountain lion scat, bobcats and lots of deer. I was fascinated by this and hooked on hunting and the great outdoors!

My mother started my first subscription of Outdoor Life magazine, and I still recall an article about deer numbers and at that time, California led all western states with approximately 1.5 million deer. We are now in the 400,000 range with the healthiest herds being on private property.

I had a couple shot opportunities that year but missed. The following season I filled both my deer tags with small bucks, but I was tickled pink to put meat in the freezer for us to enjoy! My brothers never got into hunting.  Through the years, I worked hard and enjoyed some nice hunting success but mainly enjoyed being in the mountains and seeing the deer and other wildlife. I thought and hoped this would last forever.

In 1990 the major change began. Gavin Newsom’s father William, president/co-founder of the Mountain Lion Foundation, held a highly influential role in creating Proposition 117, the permanent ban on mountain lion hunting. It was put to a public vote and passed.

The effects were slow to notice initially as deer numbers were still adequate. However, with each passing year, it was evident that the deer numbers were dropping. The stealthy, nocturnal hunting by the reclusive lions was taking its toll. In many areas that were historically productive, a person began to feel fortunate to see a buck at all while hunting general unit public land. Being too selective meant possibly not filling your tag. 

Although no one can really know exact numbers, according to several sources, California has the most mountain lions and is the only western state that protects them. The number will obviously continue to grow, further crippling primarily the deer and pronghorn. I’ve read that an adult lion kills at least one deer per week as it needs to consume eight-10 pounds of fresh meat daily. I believe this number is low. Since it’s a cat, and therefore finicky, it will likely leave the rotting, smelly carcass of a deer or antelope within a couple days when it’s hot in the summer. This will feed either a bear or some of the many packs of coyotes. The lion will obviously go kill another fresh one. Additionally, bears have been known to take a lion’s deer. With as many bears as California has, this is a regular occurrence in the higher elevations, therefore causing yet another deer to be killed quickly. The conservationists (hunters) have known of the lion problem for many years, but the laws made by people living in the big cities won’t change until they feel some negative impact, which won’t happen.

The last 30 years have seen dramatic declines in the deer and pronghorn antelope in California primarily because of the predators but in 2012 things took another huge turn for the worse for the deer. 

Senate Bill 1221 was passed which banned the use of hounds for hunting bears. The success rate for harvesting bears was immediately cut almost in half! The use of bait for hunting bears had been banned for many years prior to this. As all seasoned hunters know, like lions, bears are very nocturnal but also possess an incredible sense of smell, so hunting them during the day is very difficult without the help of dogs or bait. 

So of course, the bear’s numbers are staggering now too! Alaska has the most black bears followed closely by California but keep in mind, Alaska is almost four times as large and is essentially a giant wilderness state. California does have the densest bear population of all 50 states. Bears are primarily hard on the fawns and the adult deer they take from the lions. They can easily catch fawns as a bear can outrun a horse in a short distance race. They are fast. 

California Department of Fish and Wildlife recognizes the bear population is a huge problem. They want to harvest 1,700 bears per year but since the State outlawed the use of dogs, they never get close to this number. I’ve spoken with many game wardens that are strongly encouraging all deer hunters to fill their bears tags if possible. Recently, I attended a call with the CDFW Commission that was open to the public. A proposal was brought up for discussion to increase the number of bear tags from one per hunter to two. I voiced my opinion that this was ridiculous and just another grab at the hunter’s revenue. 

There were over 30,000 bear tags sold in 2024. The cost for each for a resident was $61.30, $387.85 for non-residents. I doubt there were many non-residents coming to hunt here so I estimated the total revenue for these sales was approximately $1,900,000.00. Out of the 30,000 plus tags, only 808 bears were harvested. This is a success rate of about 2.6%! 

My math tells me that if they double the tag sales, the state will make about $3.8 million, and the success rate will be about 1.3%. This is obviously not a solution. Although the non-hunters don’t want to see dogs or bait being used, they’re obviously the only effective methods and need to be utilized to save the ungulates and get the bear numbers down.

In 2011, the first “modern-times” documented wolf sighting was made in California. In 2015, the first pack was recognized. Although there are only guesses, the CDFW is guessing there are now approximately 80 wolves in California, up from 65 in 2024. They have been seen from the top northeast area to almost the bottom southeast end of the state. They have been making a very negative impact on the wildlife and livestock. 

Ranchers are in an uproar but can’t do anything about protecting their means of making a living. I only see this getting worse of course. California does have elk but getting a tag may never happen for many. I have been maxed out on elk points for many years but can’t get lucky enough to draw a tag. Although my goal is a Tule Elk which are primarily in the central and western parts of the state, I wonder how long it will take for the wolves to work their way across and do to California what the government-placed, giant, moose-killing wolves from Canada did to the Yellowstone herds! They are already decimating the Rocky Mountain elk herds on our east side.

Another big problem for the deer and pronghorn are the coyotes. Many people don’t realize that they are major deer killers too. Although they will kill adult deer, they are primarily very hard on the fawns. As you can probably guess, California has more coyotes than any other state and that number grows every year. Some people make it a regular off-season ritual to hunt coyotes. I think this is awesome for the ungulates (and a lot of pet dogs and cats) and wish we could see more of this. 

The biggest issue with coyote population control is that California banned trapping fur bearing animals in 2019, so no one is harvesting them for their fur anymore. This has obviously increased the coyote population. During the CDFW call that I recently attended, another proposition was introduced. This proposition was to have a season with an annual bag limit on coyotes. You would not be able to randomly harvest them or even protect your own animals. This did not sit well with any hunters or ranchers. It has been tabled for now, but I never cease to be amazed at some of the propositions that people and our state leaders come up with out here. 

Although this paragraph is not necessarily ungulate related, I also need to point out that in 2015 California also banned bobcat hunting. Although they can and will kill fawns, they are not their primary forage. Where I live in the foothills, the roadrunners and quail that I loved are now gone. I must keep my “used to be free range” chickens locked up and have had my cats chased literally into my house on a couple occasions. 

I will never understand how they can put an issue like protecting predators to a public vote. The big blue cities where the voting power lies will seemingly always pass nonsense like this (looking at you Colorado) even though they have no clue about the real ramifications. It’s not their wild game, livestock or pets that will be destroyed and since they don’t hunt, the ungulates are of no concern and since the predators will never be in their backyard, no problem.

Ok, I’ll get to why I titled this article what I did. In the late 1990’s I was invited and went on a deer and elk in NW Colorado with some friends that were tired of wasting time and money hunting California’s general season public lands. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe how many deer we saw. It was amazing to pass up on smaller bucks and wait for a bigger one. We all went home with bucks and a cow elk. 

This started my new annual trips to whichever western states I’m able to draw. I have also been building points in these other states to eventually hunt their premium units. Now, 27 years later, I’ve had some amazing hunts in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota. The three pics attached are just the last three years in Utah, Nevada and Montana. These bucks were all taken on general tags on public land. I did not burn my preference or bonus points to hunt these deer. Although you can still fill a deer tag on public land in California, the odds go up if you can draw a premium unit and do your homework. Working hard and getting a little lucky helps too. It is just amazing how many more deer, antelope and elk you see when you go anywhere else so that’s why I say, “Thank God for other States!” 

If you investigate why the deer and antelope numbers are down so low, you’ll find many answers (theories). They’ll say habitat loss, fires, urbanization, drought and predation. Ungulates can adapt very well to all the above except predation. The predators are eating them every day, all year round. It only seems like common sense to me but any animal that breeds and eats without any control will eventually overpopulate and have a negative impact on whatever it is eating. Case in point is the Yellowstone National Park elk issue. Although I disagree with the option they chose, overgrazing by the many elk is why the federal government brought the wolves into Yellowstone in 1995. The annihilation of the elk supposedly solved the overgrazing issue (it didn’t as a simple drive through the Park will show what too many bison do to a landscape) but created many more issues in several other states when the wolves spread out.

How can you protect predators while watching deer and antelope populations deteriorate and do nothing but appease the anti-hunters? Don’t they care about the ungulates? We are truly the apex predator but also the stewards of nature. We have the intelligence, science and ability to manage wildlife populations so that all species can thrive. Sometimes it may take a tough decision that may not keep everyone happy but is the right and better overall decision. 

California used to be a great state many years ago, but it has been politically ruined, and this is just another example. I know many of us would join millions of others and move but family and other loved ones keep us here. I hope and pray our CDFW, and State leaders will see this predator problem and many other issues before it’s too late and things get even worse.

– Joe