Where has my wild deer population gone on public land? This hunting season would be hard-pressed to find any deer in the Los Padres National Forest. The Department of Fish and Game’s 1952 deer survey of the population of deer in California showed the second largest herd of deer in the state was on the Central Coast. I have never seen such a collapse of a wild game population.
I have been in the Lost Padres Forest for 43 years as an active outdoorsman, and 10 years as a U.S. Forest Service volunteer. I’ve seen good and bad weather over the years, but never such a population collapse. The question stands: why?
This article appears in Sep 14-21, 2017.
