"Our recommendations to national park managers are to restore carnivores, use fire in areas of low elk density and control human uses that displace carnivores"--Biologist Charles Kay was quoted in the Wildlife Society Bulletin in the 1990's discussing how to regenerate Aspen forests in the Rocky Mountains............Dr. Kay was spot on in his prescription for completing the circle of life with trophic carnivores in tandem with hoofed browsers.........Unfortunately, the good Doctor has come to forget this sound and proven carnivore mangement science......Now, somewhat of a "shill" for the anti-wolfers out there who openly quote him(and Dr. Val Geist) regarding his articles advocating that wolves were never a major component of Yellowstone(despite the herds of elk, bison, moose and deer that occupied the region),,,,,,,,,,,and in his Letter to the Editor below regarding Mule/Whitetail deer management where he implies strongly that there will never be "good hunting" of deer in Montana as long as wolves are on the ground in any quantity...........There are medical doctors who still say smoking will not kill you and scientists who scoff at fossil fuels being a key contributor of global warming.........So it is no surprise that we have anti-wolfers among our Biologists-----SAD, BUT TRUE!

Charles E. Kay

Charles E. Kay is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Political Science and a Senior Research Scientist with the Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University. He received his Ph.D. in wildlife ecology from Utah State University, his M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana, and his B.S. in wildlife biology also from the University of Montana. Dr. Kay has conducted ecological research for Parks Canada, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Agricultural Research Service, and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, among others.

Dr. Kay has co-edited a book titled Wilderness and Political Ecology: Aboriginal Influences and the Original State of Nature published by the University of Utah Press and is the author of a forthcoming book on natural resource policy issues in the Yellowstone Ecosystem titled Yellowstone: Ecological Malpractice. Dr. Kay's Aboriginal Overkill book is under contract to Oxford University Press. Dr. Kay's research has appeared in Human Nature, the Journal of Range Management, Conservation Biology, the Canadian Field-Naturalist, the Western Journal of Applied Forestry, the Wildlife Society Bulletin, and the Journal of Forestry, among others. Dr. Kay has contributed to the books The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Humans as Components of Ecosystems; Plants and Their Environment; and Ecology and Conservation of Wolves in a Changing World. Dr. Kay has also published a series of papers in various scientific symposia and proceedings. Dr. Kay's work on Long-term Ecosystem States and Processes in the Central

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SEE FINAL SENTENCE OF BELOW "ASPEN ARTICLE TO SEE DR. KAY'S ORIGINAL IDEAS ON CARNIVORE PARTICIPATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT

"Thursday, December 01, 2011

Dear Editor --

     One of us knows very little about mule deer management in Montana. The number one problem facing mule deer in the Montana is not subdivisions, but MT FW&Ps  for allowing a 5 week general rifle season with no limit on the number of resident tags. Montana is the only state in the nation that allows an open rifle season on rutting mule deer with no limit on the number of hunters --- there is a quota on non-resident tags, but NONE on residents. The number two problem facing mule deer in Montana is MTFW&P's managing mule deer and white-tailed deer AS ONE SPECIES. Various scientific studies have shown that mule deer are more susceptible to coyote predation, mountain lion predation, and hunters than are whitetails, which is why the harvest in western Montana has gone from 10 mule deer for every one whitetail during the 1950-1960's to 10 whitetails for every one mule deer today. It has next to nothing to do with habitat. In fact, what biologists have told the public about habitat being of over-riding importance is TOTALLY WRONG ---- please see the attached articles I wrote on "The Landscape of Fear" and "Predator-Mediated Competition". While the number three problem facing mule deer in Montana is brain-dead,  resident "sportsmen", who have allowed one and two above to continue unabated for more than 50 years. This is why when I lived in Montana, I switched to hunting white-tailed deer. For according to MTFW&Ps, the whitetail resource was under-utilized, which means there was something left besides 2-point bucks.

     Finally, your blaming the 60% decline of mule deer near Pinedale, WY on gas field development is absolutely WRONG ---- please see the attached article I wrote on "The Mesa". Apparently you have never read the published scientific reports on that research ---- or if you did, you lack the expertise to understand them.
     When I first moved to Utah to work on my Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology, I met an undergraduate, who lived near La Barge, WY, which is where the famous Wyoming mule deer herd winters. Between Christmas and New Years, I used to visit Ed and we would go out on the winter range and see 5,000-10,000 or more mule deer in a day, HALF OF WHICH WERE BUCKS --- some with Boone on one side and Crockett on the other ------ and all of which were standing in a huge, active oil and gas field!! Despite the winter range that some would have you believe is destroyed by energy development, that mule deer herd was way above population objective ---- and, in fact, there were so many mule deer, and had been for so long, that the deer THEMSELVES had severely overgrazed the winter range. Wyoming, unlike Montana, does NOT have a 5-week general rifle season on mule deer and just about all the Wyoming's general mule deer rifle seasons are over before Montana's mule deer rifle season EVEN STARTS. That is to say, Wyoming, unlike Montana, does not hunt its mule deer during the rut!!
    What with the recent increase in non-resident license fees and the ever-increasing number of wolves ---- which hunting and trapping WILL NEVER CONTROL, out-of state-hunters would be crazy to hunt in Montana. Personally, I no longer hunt in Montana. Instead I save my hard-earned money and hunt Plains Game in South Africa, which is the most cost-effective big-game hunting in the world. Moreover, you get to hunt in what the locals call "winter" IN SHORTS!! And the trophy quality is OUTSTANDING, unlike Montana.

Charles  E. Kay
Ph. D in Wildlife Ecology"---

Attachments:

"The Landscape of Fear"

(2.34 Mg 5 page pdf file)
http://tinyurl.com/87fmrgh

"Predator-Mediated Competition"

(1.82 meg 4 page pdf file)
http://tinyurl.com/6mjkfuw

"The Mesa"

(2.54 mg 5 page pdf file)
http://tinyurl.com/898upez
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