The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-09-18

EdltOr, Daily Alaska Emplre, Sept 18.-Is there no way in which the deer situation in Southeast AL aska can be approached in sen sible manner? Everyone agrees we probably have more deer than we have had in years and may have again if we have hard winter, yet we have laws like the State of Del- aware
 Our pioneer fathers regaTaed deer as meat and so do nearly all deer hunters. Meat mixed with little recrea ton on holiday. for some, but mostly meat. Who are the hero deer-slayers of yesteryear?
 If the meat was in the form of a doe they tock it if it was the handi- est. AS the country filled with peo- pie they passed restrictions such as the buck law 10 preserve the deer This is the only sensible reascn for .he buck law. a4 .l
 Here in Southeast Alaska it has ceccme the reason for Game Com missicn, and it's expensive foolish activities. The public pays for it but as it doesn't have to hustle for votes, it looks down on it's paymas- ter instead of up.
 The State of Pennsylvania expects @ kill two hundred thousand deer his year. over half of them does, and mostly by holiday hunters. Think cf that my hearties, and com pare it with the Last Frontier. You cay "Ah but we haven't that many deer" but wait a minute
 Old timers will tell you that 40 years age when deer hides were legal at 50 cents each, market hunters shipped more than 50.000 a year for many years. We don't want that back, but it proves lot Of deer
 Some years ago after very hard winter, in one bay, the writer could have walked for a mile CT more, stepping from enc deer skeleton to another. All over Southeast Alaska prcbaly more than 100000 deer were probably more than 100000 deer were be some sense in buck law for a few years after that. It may come again next year but if mere citi- zen brought in one of them now without horns he. would be pushed arodnd like a criminal.
 The writer saw enc pack Of wolves in Rocky Pass couple of years ago of more than a dozen. It is estimated that wolf must Sill a deer every other day to live. Figure out this one pack and divide t by half and you will have more ieer than all the holiday hunters Juneau will kill, and there are iczens Of packs.
 We don't know how much truth | here is in it, but where there is so much smoke there must be some | ire. We refer to the story of for eign fishermen coming up here dur ng the summer and canning deer ,s they work. It probably isn't as much as claimed, but it could be.
 There is also story of foX-farm- l IFS. who. after the weather gets too ough fer the wardens' yachts, but not too tough for work boats, SCOUT he beaches while the deer are
 orced there. This is probably a ibel and they are careful about ,nly three for the season, and horns md sex and size, etcetera. Some ,laim that in their cups they have old of averaging one for every day II the year, but they were probably lnly bragging.
 The point we are trying to make s that there seems to be a deer law
 nly for Alaskans who live in town
 and pay taxes) and are handy for he Warden to turk around the lock and catch Another case oi topping the drip at the spigct while he bunghcle is running a stream.
 The trouble seems to be that ncs5 men are ashamed to talk lcrse-sense when it comes to deer They know that does are the best eating as rule, easier to pack and easier to get. If the buck law is
 gidly enforced they will sell their guns and stop hunting. But they prefer to kid themselves and others " inference that they always climb e the top of the mountain and get heir buck like he-man, passing ID dozens of nice handy fat does, hat arc only good for sissy-britches, T wolves, fishermen, Indians, pros oectors, fox-farmers or hard win- CTS.
 What would you think of sheep armer, who, needing meat walked trough a pasture full of nice fat yearlings, climbed to the top of a l.gh mountain through the worst weather possible. There he knocked ever an cid tough ram with legal horns, and risking his life and legs half dozen times, finally got it nto camp just before dark or after. Then when you asked him why he lid this he told you he had only ! couple of hundred thousand sheep
 nd he had to conserve them this way.