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"Do ANY animals in the USA truly live a "wild" life, not managed or directly impacted by human endeavor? More specifically, how many big bucks got that way without direct human management to produce them?"

I am now living in the same county I grew up in. Until is was 18, I had never seen a white tail deer "in the wild". Conversely, I had never seen a coyote outside a zoo. Due to the efforts of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, deer were reintroduced into our area, as were later wild turkey. Presently, the deer population of Henry County is (conservatively) estimated at 20,000 and I am personally aware of a turkey population of close to 100 on my 450 acres. Coyotes, which were unknown east of the Mississippi in my boyhood, have become ubiquitous now in my area, taking the place of the related red wolves, which were the original predators here.

The crop damage caused by these "reintroduced" creatures is considerable, and the hunting rules have been relaxed to the point that the deer season starts, in various forms (archery, muzzleloading, centerfire rifle) from September 22, and ends on January 6, with a bag limit of 3 PER DAY, with the proviso that only 3 antlered deer can be taken per season. The annual "harvest" in my county alone is in the vicinity of 6000 per year, not counting the road kills and the ones killed by farmers with special permits to minimize crop damage.

My county's area is 562 square miles, which translates to 359,680 acres or 143,872 hektars. The human population is 31,115, as of 2000 and the deer population 20,000, which translates to 56 humans and 35 deer per square mile, or one deer per 18 acres (7.2 hektars).

I sometimes ponder what the original aboriginal inhabitants of this area would have thought of our deer population and hunting methods. The concept of "fair chase" was certainly not one they would have understood, I believe. Deer were routinely shot out of blinds located near springs and salt licks, and because of their lack of exposure to man, may have been less shy than their modern counterparts. I am satisfied the pre-Columbian human population density was vastly lower than at the present, but whether the deep population was lesser, greater, or the same is a subject of speculation.

"What IS fair chase hunting? Can "fair chase" hunting ever involve a motorized vehicle?"

As long as a motor vehicle is only used as transportation and not as a means to approach an animal, I see no reason why it can't be a part of "fair chase".

"Can BAITING be a legitimate method of fair chase hunting?" If, by "baiting" you mean shooting from a blind close to a bait, my only experience with that method is leopard hunting, and frankly, I know of no other method we could have used. In my case, the blind was located about 80 yards from the bait, which was suspended in a tree, and the "fair chase" feature of the hunt consisted in the knowledge that if I only wounded the leopard, he would fall into thick undergrowth under the tree and that would leave the unpleasant task of following him up in rapidly diminishing daylight. As it turned out, the shot hit him in the spine, and he collapsed on the limb. The other shot, some fraction of an inch away, was unnecessary.

"Are food plots a management tool of the legitimate sport hunter?" I use food plots to minimize crop damage, and place them in areas too steep or inaccessable to be otherwise cultivated. I don't shoot over them, although one of my favorite hunting spots is about 250 yards away from one, with an open hay field in between. If I were to actually shoot a deer in the food plot, the difficulty posed by the distance would add an element of legitimacy.

Should tree stands or Hochsitze be used? My friends in Germany are pretty much compelled to use Hochsitze hunting wild boar by moonlight, a practice legitimized by the burgeoning Wildschwein population and the amount of crop damage they cause. In my area, most serious and fatal hunting accidents are connected with tree stands and hunters falling from them. I prefer to stay on the ground for that reason and because I like to think that the deer have more of an equal chance with me on the ground.

In general, my idea of "fair chase" has to do with being able to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity, and hunting from a tree stand is more of a staged event. Too many "wildlife" TV programs in our area show footage of a hunter breathlessly waiting in his tree stand for the trophy buck to wander close enough to shoot from a rest, using a scope too powerful to be used in any other way. Others may call this hunting, I call it "harvesting", which is the term used by the Wildlife Resources Agency to describe the annual deer kill.

"Is game fencing acceptable?" My only expeerience with "game fencing" was a fence used to keep predators and grazers out of property used for raising livestock. This was only partially successful. I recall driving past a nine foot game fence topped by barbed wire, and seeing tufts of wool festooning the barbs, where a leopard had scaled the fence, killed a full grown sheep, carried it back across the fence and lodged it high in the branches of a tree some distance away. My appreciation for the strength of a loepard grew accordingly.

In general, I have no objection to a lot of "hunting" methods I would not choose to use myself, at least in my area, since the main object is to keep the population in check. I prefer to keep my own hunting techniques on a more even footing with the animal being hunted.

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