The Board of the Game Commission this week directed that Citizens Advisory Committees be formed at the Wildlife Management Unit level around the state to obtain stakeholder input on deer management goals.

The Board’s action follows endorsement of the pilot Citizen Advisory Committee in the mid-state's Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 4B because it demonstrated that this grassroots approach can give a voice in deer management to stakeholders and arbitrate the varied concerns of the social, economic and political forces that routinely influence deer management decisions.

The Bureau of Wildlife Management set a goal of holding four or five CACs in different WMUs each year, so that each WMU will have at least one CAC during a five-year period. Those WMUs identified for using CACs in the coming year are WMUs 1B, 2C, 3B and 5C.

The process will begin later this year to ensure the CACs have input into the Deer Management Section's preparation for antlerless license allocations for the 2007-08 seasons, which are slated to be set next April.

While CACs will have input into the overall process, the final decision for setting antlerless deer license allocations - the agency's primary tool for managing deer populations - will continue to rest with the Board of Game Commissioners.

The Game Commission is pursuing the Citizen Advisory Committee approach because it provides people whose lives are influenced by deer direct input into deliberations that will ultimately lead to establishing deer population goals for the WMU in which they live and/or hunt. Additionally, these CACs will help educate stakeholders about the complexities and importance of proper deer management, as well as provide a means to improve communication and interaction among stakeholders and the agency.

In 2002, the Game Commission took its first formal step at integrating public values into deer management by assembling and convening a statewide stakeholder group to identify deer management goals and objectives. This group recommended the use of CACs to gather local stakeholder input for consideration in WMU-level deer management decisions. The first CAC used to pilot test this process was for WMU 4B.

The eight members of the pilot CAC concluded that WMU 4B's deer population should increase by 10 to 20 percent; one other member recommended a slight increase. This decision was reached after two meetings, both of which were facilitated by officials from the Bureau of Management Consulting in the Governor's Office of Administration.

On the whole, CAC members considered serving on the pilot committee a rare opportunity and welcomed the chance it provided to become more familiar with the intricacies of deer management and the concerns of other stakeholders.

CAC members came from all walks of life. The interests they represented included agriculture, business, forest industry, highway safety, homeowner, municipal government, public landowner and sportsmen.

Establishing a pilot CAC was an objective of the Game Commission's Deer Management Plan, which was adopted in 2003. Since it has rendered its recommendation, the experimental CAC has been disbanded.

For more information, visit the Game Commission's Deer Management Program webpage.

6/9/2006