Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Editor's note: Curtis Taylor is chief of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources' (DNR) Wildlife Resources Section. In short, he's responsible for the management of all of West Virginia's game species. Earlier this year, he sat down with West Virginia Game & Fish's regular feature writer John McCoy for a far-reaching interview.

Game & Fish: Hunters have killed fewer deer than expected the last two seasons. Why, in your opinion, have the past couple of seasons been so disappointing?

Curtis Taylor: Weather is always a factor in deer hunting, and the weather in the first three days of the buck season is critical. We had a lot of bad weather the last couple of years. But at the same time, I wouldn't call the seasons disappointing. We in the DNR believe our Deer Operational Plan is working because we're seeing the harvest come into line with our management objectives in more counties each year. We think the liberal antlerless seasons are having the effect we designed them to have.

G&F: In counties where the deer might have been overharvested, what do you plan to do about it?

Taylor: We don't say we've over-harvested. We prefer to say we've reached our management goals. To answer your question, I think we'll see much more conservative antlerless deer seasons in some counties. A few counties may stay the same, but I think we'll see a more conservative approach in many areas.

G&F: The deer in West Virginia's mountain counties appear to have been particularly hard hit the past few years. What's happened there?

Taylor: That's a combination of effective antlerless deer hunting and severe winter weather. The key to wildlife populations in West Virginia is mast production. Mast in those counties was very poor the past few years, and the deer had a harder time during the winter than anyone anticipated. Then we hit the deer pretty hard during the antlerless seasons.

We desperately need a real good banner mast year, especially for oak production, to allow those herds to bounce back a bit.

G&F: Despite the DNR's willingness to scale back the antlerless harvest, there are, as you said, areas where the deer numbers are still above the agency's objectives. Short of further liberalizing doe-hunting regulations, what can you do to control deer herds in those areas?

Taylor: I don't think we'll have any more liberalization. I think we're going to continue with the framework we have now. We'll continue the late-December antlerless season and the youth hunt because evidently that approach is working in some areas. Maybe if we continue, it'll begin to work in others.

G&F: Is it possible that if you don't meet those harvest objectives, you might ultimately have to go to an "earn-a-buck" type of regulation?

Taylor: That would be something we'd have to coordinate very closely with law enforcement. Enforcement of that kind of management strategy would be very complex.

G&F: One potential upside of the current regulations is that hunters should be starting to harvest bigger bucks. Is there evidence that's happening?

Taylor: From the evidence we've seen from our biological check stations throughout the state, yes. We've seen two things: a reduction in the hunting pressure on bucks because we're allowing antlerless deer to be harvested during the first week of the buck season. Also, we've seen an increase in bucks' antler diameters, spreads and body weights.

G&F: Hunters have complained for years about having to buy county-specific antlerless-deer licenses. Is the DNR planning to do anything about that?

Taylor: It's part of the license-fee restructuring proposal we brought before the legislature. We want to eliminate the county-specific Class N (antlerless deer) stamp. Among other things, we think it'll reduce the complexity of our deer regulations a little.