Elko Wildlife Board deadlocks over does

Monday, Oct. 20, 1997 | 2:46 a.m.

Game board members rejected other recommendations, including a proposal to merge hunting zones and to change the dates of the hunting season.

The board did approve an unlimited archery season that NDOW Supervising Biologist Larry Gilbertson said would have little effect because archers have yet to collect all the available archery tags.

Board member Ed Sarman complained that in rejecting other recommendations the county board wouldn't be contributing toward the goal of increasing deer tags 15 percent over the next five years.

"We're going around in a big circle," Sarman said. "I don't think you can increase deer tags 15 percent unless you've got 15 percent more deer out there."

Sarman and Shepherd supported an antlerless hunt, but were opposed by Joe Ondreako and Tom Johnson. Wes Bolin, another board member, was absent.

"I don't want to use antlerless hunts as a figure to increase the tags," Ondreako said.

But Shepherd said a survey of Elko hunters showed strong support for the idea.

Gilbertson said the doe quota represents only 1 to 2 percent of the deer herd. But hunters said they feared shooting that many in a herd that still hasn't rebuilt itself after years of drought and the disastrous winter of 1992-93.