The winner of the Bark River Knife is

Ted6.5

congratulation and thanks to all who donated

Well done Ted, and good on ya for donating! 

parallel to this court challenge, discussions with DOC Ruahines on Deer Management is looking promising. Essentially, a Deer Management Plan will be prepared, that is "enabled" by Policies in the regional CMS (conservation management strategy)

getting the right policy in the CMS is critical, but its looking hopeful

so future changes in deer harvest (say increased shooting by WARO) will be subject to a "test", where there has to be criteria met by WARO. part of which, is, does the deer population "exceed management intervention densities".

That assessment being based on valid deer abundance surveying
Plus other "tests".

the onus will be on rec hunters to keep deer numbers to the levels set.

This is a major change to department policy, in places that have been hammered by WARO for the last 40 years.  The days of the free for All WARo may be dissapearing

The Game Council has also been instrumental in helping get this to happen, and to DOCs credit, so have they enabled it to happen,

Still issues to resolve of course