Public land in Western Iowa was pretty ugly I’m hearing ?? Had a friend hunt (Harrison County) they saw very few deer.
Not that long ago, he passed up multiple 3 yr old bucks and then shot a 148 inch 5 yr old .
It’s changed (Bigly) as Trump would say !
Same story, another year. Just replace 2024 with 2025…. I feel 2024 caught the attention of even more hunters that there is a problem.
Anecdotal but I had a good friend ask me if his brother could hunt my farm since his Harrison co farms were devastated. We made it work. He hunted 3 days in Harrison of gun 1, am & pm on over 1,000 acres of land (it looks stupid good on aerial). He saw “a doe & a fawn”. I asked him “how is that possible & what did u see like 5 years ago?” Said “they are all dead. In 3 days I’d probably see 50-100 deer before”. YIKES!!! He’s no dumby either. *He was the one that got one of older bucks I had posted earlier.
That’s what’s frustrating dealing with some of the public or some legislators … they think because they saw a lot of deer in XYZ area, that’s what whole state is. It’s incredibly regional!!!!
People are getting this more & more, I agree. Beyond anecdotally, I’ve probably heard from hunters in all 100 counties now. Friends, calls, this website, DM’s on social media, DNR, etc. “It’s way down & it’s hurting” in probably 95% of cases.
REASONS: 1) EHD is #1 IMO by a long shot. We beat the record this year by about 5% or so on REPORTED ehd cases. At about 2500 & counting so far. The DNR has studies & data from other states (long story) that show there’s a maximum of 10% discovery of dead deer carcasses. Which means, at the very least….. we had 25,000 dead EHD deer this year. About same # as last year.
In reality, I think we can COMFORTABLY double that # as many don’t look or find dead deer in summer & early spring and many don’t report them. THAT MEANS…. Bare bones…. 50,000 dead deer this year & 50,000 last. Our population is under 500,000 deer (that’s lowest of any state in Midwest). Not to distract or confuse but I’d say the # is actually even higher than a 50,000 loss statewide. But I want to be very conservative.
2) FB still has input to “kill all the deer”. It’s all margins for them. If they can spend $50k on lobbying but they feel like their members could save $250k in crop damage across state (made up # but any $ amount is NOTHING in their huge budget/profit or even us farmers gross production revenue) - they will do it. Why not? That’s a good investment even if it’s basically a meaningless dollar figure to them
To farm bureau- deer are a NEGATIVE & have no positive value. They don’t care about hunting economy/value. They don’t know what to say when it’s pointed out that about 1 in 5 farmers with deer leases their hunting land out for $10-50 per acre! They do NOT tell their members about the Depredation program, the list each DNR officer has of hunters that wants to shoot does or how to get into the walkin hunting program.
3) shed buck season still around in many counties. We are getting MILLIONS in federal dollars to TEST for CWD & as far as I know - $0 for research into cure/immunity/resistance. ISU is working on it to some degree. We have not reduced doe tags in some areas fast enough. At the same time, adding bonus tags to areas that have a documented CWD case.
About it. Will it ever be perfect? NOPE. Are some areas doing “pretty well” where some are devastated? SURE….. very regional. We likely are building resistance to EHD. I Personally believe the worst is behind us. Over time some of these issues will get better (ehd). Some we need some changes…. FB & corn/soybean growers association needs some reform so their members can use the tools already available for problem farms. As hunters, we for sure need to use this growing concern to grow as a movement with IBA & Iowa sportsman’s club. If I could bottom line this….. more folks aware of above- far better we will be. More folks that join IBA & ISC - game changing. More willing to help, volunteer (easy) & write in… we can change the problems that are fixable. It’s a very positive future if we keep growing & each do a drop to help our resource.
