Like many places across the country the deer population in many parts of the state has just exploded. In an effort to control the deer population NCWRS has over the past few years made a number of changes to increases the doe harvest. The big change was the lifting of the annual tag limit of 6 deer (which two or four could be a buck depending on where you were hunting) to increasing it to allow you to take as many does as you could while staying within the daily bag limit of two. When the harvest restriction on antler less deer was lifted the NCWRC started issuing bonus doe tags for free basically because there was no mechanism at the time set up to allow them to charge. The bonus tags were issued on the exact same paper form that our licenses are issued on just separately.
Well the legislators are now looking at passing a law to charge $10 for the bonus tags which seems to be a bit excessive when they want to encourage the increased harvest of does. While I certainly don’t see anything wrong with there being a charge it seems odd to charge a third of the cost of a Comprehensive Hunting License for two additional tags. There is not a lot of hunters taking advantage of the current system so in my view charging will only reduce the level of participation. There are some additional changes this year that may encourage more doe harvest; removal of the two deer daily bag limit, allowing some hunting on Sunday with Archery equipment, and including the crossbow as an approved weapon under archery equipment. If some of these steps do not begin to address the expanding herd size other more costly methods will certainly have to be looked at.
I know a number of hunters support a “Earn A Buck” type program where a hunter must kill a doe prior to shooting a buck. That type of system to be effective will almost have to require a physical check in of the animal before the buck tag can be issued. That will be a huge expense to set up check stations across the state.
I’d have no problem if the bonus tags had a $10 charge but they utilized the whole card to put 6 or 8 tags on the card. Our current license carries all our big game tags; Deer (6), Turkeys (2), Wild Boar and a Bear the bonus doe tags were issued in a pair so you can see there is ample room on the form to include more. The agent printing the tags certainly deserved to be paid for their part in the issuing of the tags which they currently do not get.
We need to kill more does and the State should do all they can to encourage the increased harvest and not be looking to add extra tax or fee on us.
