April 2009 Updates page 9
17 April
Land
Recognizing not all Association hunters travel to all regions of Association land we offer this one snapshot of Barber County land that was new late into the start of the seasons last year.
All of the Barber County land is in non-resident deer management unit 16 that seems to have a reputation for deer better than what is reflected in reality. Association hunters have harvested some very nice deer from unit 16 Association land, however, the whitetail herd is not as dense in this unit as elsewhere and continued trophy success for this unit is limited.
The past history of tag availability for unit 16 being limited driving most of the Association land acquisitions in unit 16 for bird hunters rather than deer hunters. Our past record number of deer tag holders for unit 16 prior to last year was 6, no where close to that required to have carried the cost for that land. With KDWPs tripling the number of non-resident deer tags for 16 last year as well as allowing state wide tags for residents, unit 16 saw a lot more deer hunter pressure than before. More trophy whitetail were harvested that perpetuated the motivation for increased hunter pressure and overall interest for this season.
Your Association is not seeking more deer habitat in unit 16 due to our having better deer hunting elsewhere in Kansas meaning more deer and more trophy potential. All that being said we know there will be Association hunters that will secure unit 16 tags, both those that have seen this land for themselves and others that have never been to that unit, and expect better than what exists deer hunting. To that end we seek to develop reasonable expectations as best we can in pictures and text.
Highlighted in pictures starting with the aerial and ground pictures in this update is what most would consider the best deer ground of our Barber County acreage
1/4 section, 1/2 mile square, 160 acres fallow crop land, tall grass and windbreak as seen January 2009.
Limited tree stand placement.
