What appears to be missing here is that the high deer populations of the 50's through 80's were artificially high due to land management practices. What I mean is that Ranching and forestry practices were pretty much new, and literally changed the landscape. In changing the landscape, it changed the environment and ecosystem(s) to make a huge benefit for deer. At the time, man was not occupying wintering areas (critical habitat). Thus the population of deer skyrocketed UNNATURALLY. If you don't believe me, take a minute and search before and after pictures from the 30's - 40's and the 60's. You will see a stark difference of pictures of the same land.
So today's herd population numbers have finally returned to what historically is considered NORMAL population numbers. So the trend of thought here in this thread of our deer and their numbers being in despair is simply false. That outlook is falsely promoted by those not looking at/unaware of the historical data. The bottom line is that the facts clearly point to our herds being at normal healthy levels. The issue is that hay-day of deer hunting our CA herds at historical population highs has long past. I was fortunate to be around and hunting towards the end of those hay-days, and yes, I miss them. I can tell you stories about seeing herd after herd from just driving the dirt roads, but those days are over. They will never return without mans manipulation of the environment. And, with today's outlook on the environment and the restrictions, they simply will never return.
The misinformation written in this thread is astounding. I get the disappointment of many posters in this thread. After all, I hunt a zone in Southern Ca with some of the worst success rates. However, I still manage to see and pass on several legal bucks every season. In fact, I almost always see a few mature bucks every season. I have hunted a lot of different places, from several western states to outside the country, and southern Ca is some of the toughest hunting there is for mule deer. The surest thing to pay off in consistently upping your odds of having opportunities to fill your tag(s) is to spend as much time as you can in the field. To be clear, I am not talking only during the season. With migratory and non-migratory deer, there is so much to learn about there haunts, what causes the to move to different areas, how precipitation levels affect them, how food supply affects them... that a person is handicapped without knowing an area and it deer throughout the year.
But, the bottom line is that our deer herds (in general) are at historically normal population levels (taking out the exorbitantly high population levels of the 50's-80's). As such, our herds are at healthy population levels. However, my curiosity is in how wolves will affect our populations and the environment. What I mean is that once wolves are established in an area (I am aware we have 2 groups already) they will cause the movement of the deer to rise exponentially, as such the environment will respond to this change. But with our unique conditions, I seriously doubt we can predict how. I am sure that some populations of deer, elk, antelope and bighorn, those that are already struggling (certainly not the majority) will be significantly impacted, and some of them perhaps decimated. But this is limited to those few herds already in peril.
