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Deer Numbers

If things keep going the way they are today I figure in about 3 more years people wont want to come here like they used too. See the Iowa product will be well past the critical point and wont be as special anymore. Maybe the brass in DM think people will always want to flock here no matter what?

Well a friend of mine owns a place in the SE corner and always has lots of guys down to his place. I went over there one night during the rut and no one was there. There should have been 4 to 6 guys there for the week. well another friend told me that the people from up north have not been seeing any deer and are not taking the couple of hour trip down. Some very big bucks have been killed there and I know they slay does big time. The guys I have met are not all after big horns. I told my wife that is not good if they are not seeing anything there as there were decent deer numbers over his 1600 acres.
I did not shoot a doe this year or last year and I saw more bucks than does during the rut.

I like the above letter but someone close to the GOV or DNR needs to get into their ear. If something is not done to stop the decline in numbers you wont have a resident-non-resident issue to worry about. I already have been told by 2 guys with like 5 or 6 points that they are going to wait till this happens or that happens and they dont care to rush here. They are far from in the know about Iowa and I let it be.
Sometimes like an addiction you/we have to hit rock bottom before we can recover.

My big fear is that the powers that be are using some of the well known celeb farms as the bench mark to gauge the rest of the state, thus you have a feast or famine situation overall that is teetering on collapse.
 
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Sent a note to Dale today and he sent this:

Tony,

We will be hosting ICN meetings in February and those interested in expressing their concerns should show up at one of the ICN meeting places. We’ll put a press release out and have it on our website later in January.

Dale

DALE L. GARNER, Ph.D. Wildlife Bureau Chief
 
The turnout of hunters at these ICN meetings has been dismal at best. They really are a great opportunity for people to speak their mind and be heard. It should be no surprise that the Gov. doesn't listen well to hunters when he can see from these meetings how few people really care. As has been said many times, after the fact is when people will bitch, then it's too late.
 
So, let's post the date and meeting locations! Get some verbal commitment!

Feb is perfect, until then overwhelm them with letters. Mine will be hand written and delivered. Crisis mode over here boys, Loess Hills were hard to hunt before, almost impossible with no animals!
 
I agree TH i hunted tonight in the Hills west of Woodbine with Muzz and didn't see a thing where I normally see bunches and no ones been in there yet this year. Way down around here.
 
Hillwalker said:
I agree TH i hunted tonight in the Hills west of Woodbine with Muzz and didn't see a thing where I normally see bunches and no ones been in there yet this year. Way down around here.
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I never thought I would say this but the guy from Logan who I ran into last year was right, he was at the gas pump and I could tell he had been out hunting too. He said Harrison County lost 50% of their animals, that was last year, then this year more drought late. More dead animals! The state throws gas on the fire by issuing an extra 2500 doe tags! Please! I had to see it for my own eyes an literally stayed out after no trail cam pics! Ghost city...

We use to have a wonderful pheasant population too, did the state ever say lets give these poor things a break, nope, keep hoping for their return. The whitetail deer is going the way of the pheasant, as adaptable and tough as they are they can only stand so much.

Ask the Canadians how long it takes to replenish a deer herd that has been frozen and starved. No one wants the revenue loss, well guess what, times will continue to get tough. The federal government is broke making all of us believe things are grand, state funding will continue to slip. Tough times require tough times, let us feel the pain at least it's honest pain.

The DNR to set doe tags, the legislators to help set the quota, up the sales tax, replenish the revenue. Rebuild, educate on habitat and why you can't farm it all. We have the resources, we feed the world, figure out a way Governor.

You helped make it great at one time, the correct policy was in place. The Feds helped with a CRP program! Farm Bureau made its point. You don't have to worry about hitting a deer over here. Maybe the idiots that are constantly on the road should try staying home for once. You know, the old days, didn't go to town not unless you had too. I could go on and on...

As much as I want to believe for better days, I am afraid they are behind us. Sad, but true. That's why I take so many pictures of the whitetail deer. I want to remember what it was like...
 
Whitetail-images
I used to hunt all sask manitoba and alberta. After dealing with very low deer numbers there it was great to come to iowa and see lots of deer. I know someone who hunted a week and saw 1 deer in manitoba all the while I was seeing 12 to 15 a day no problem. Deer numbers and quality keep people coming back and involved in the sport.
 
So according to this as of now there have only been 86,357 deer reported this year so far. Don't know where the numbers will end up, but looks like another significant decrease again this year....

Iowa’s deer harvest declined for the seventh straight year as hunters adjust to the smaller herd, and to fewer antlerless tags. Hunters reported 115,606 deer to the harvest reporting system for the 2012 season, a decline of nearly 5 percent. The harvest is down 23 percent from its high in 2006 - which was 150,522
 
And this was a statement by Dale last year:

Iowa Deer Harvest Lower for Sixth Straight Year
Posted: 02/21/2012
Hunters reported harvesting 121,407 deer in Iowa during the 2011-12 seasons, which is 4.5 percent lower than the 127,094 deer reported in 2010-11. To date, Iowa’s deer population has been reduced by 30 percent from its peak in 2006, and is still declining.

“Deer numbers in many areas are near or below the department’s objective,” said Dale Garner, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Bureau. “We are hearing complaints from hunters that they are not seeing the number of deer that they had in the past and some are voicing their concerns that the herd reduction may have gone too far.”

The DNR will review the harvest and population surveys this spring and make proposals to reduce the deer kill and stabilize deer where deer numbers are at or below the goal. Current data indicates that it will be necessary to adjust the antlerless quota and season structure to stabilize declining deer numbers.

In areas where deer numbers have not reached the department’s goal, hunters will still have the option to kill extra does. Many of these areas are near cities and towns where hunting is restricted due to safety or in southern Iowa where hunting pressure is lower.

There were 392,930 deer licenses issued during 2011-12, down slightly from the previous year’s total of 394,298. Does were the majority (52 percent) of the reported harvest for the seventh consecutive year.
 
One thing we as hunters can control is numbers of does shot. When the DNR began issuing nearly unlimited doe tags in the mid 2000's, it was absolutely needed for the health of the deer herd. I saw this as a tool to restore some balance to my farm, adjusting the buck-to-doe ratio to nearly 1:1. When I had things under control around 2010, I backed off on the does, only shooting what was necessary to retain a 1:1 ratio. I, myself, decided when things were in balance, ratio and habitat-wise. The DNR kept issuing doe tags, but I didn't need the number of tags I once did. With politics playing a major role now in deer management, we as hunters have become the ultimate deer managers. With Governor Branstad having the final say on tag numbers, he is taking the management aspect away from the DNR and forcing hunters to do what is right for the deer population. The big loser in this respect is the DNR, whose job it is to manage wildlife based on "science" and not "emotion". They will also lose a tremendous amount of money used to fund various programswhich are already underfunded. We need to stop buying excess doe tags. We have to stop shooting does just because we can get a tag. We must become better stewards of the resource. The burden has been placed on us. The Governor can't force us to buy tags and he cannot force us to shoot does. This choise is ours!!!! Educating the masses is key.
 
4ever, very well said. I'm a NRLO and mostly dismissed here but I posted a similar response in a different thread based on my experience. Iowa is following a path PA traveled down about 12 years ago; which is the over allocation of doe tags to destroy the herd. Some concerned PA hunters pled with colleagues to not shoot and some bought as many doe tags as they could and had doe tag burning parties. Still most who could legally kill took as many does as allowable. The key IMO is what you guys are doing. Lobby the legislature to reduce tags and seasons, only then will the shooting stop.
 
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Jdubs said:
4ever, very well said. I'm a NRLO and mostly dismissed here but I posted a similar response in a different thread based on my experience. Iowa is following a path PA traveled down about 12 years ago; which is the over allocation of doe tags to destroy the herd. Some concerned PA hunters pled with colleagues to not shoot and some bought as many doe tags as they could and had doe tag burning parties. Still most who could legally kill took as many does as allowable. The key IMO is what you guys are doing. Lobby the legislature to reduce tags and seasons, only then will the shooting stop.
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One thing that I have really taken note of this year is that while many people on sites like this one have lamented the lower deer numbers all season and many have commented on the need to reduce doe harvest...I have also listened to several other deer hunters conversations that don't for a minute plan on slowing down on doe harvest at all.

I attribute this to the people that frequent sites like this one as more in tune with population trends and caring about the resource in a completely different way than many other hunters. I don't say this to put others down, but I think it is important to realize that there is a huge difference in attitude and opinions between "serious" deer hunters, like those that frequent this site, and "regular" deer hunters, who will often buy as many tags as they can and shoot as many deer as they can.

I don't think we will solve the problem by people voluntarily restricting doe harvest, there are just too many people who will shoot as many as they can, the problem will have to be solved by reducing/eliminating the tags.
 
The following is one of the questions from an interview with Dale Garner, Iowa DNR Wildlife Bureau Chief. The interview was published in the Ames Tribune in September, 2013. Remember all of this was before another year of heavy EHD hit many parts of the state.

Q The DNR has eliminated the January antlerless-only season in many counties this year. After seven consecutive years of declining deer harvest totals, is the state’s deer herd at a level that the state legislature tasked the DNR of achieving?

A Yes, on a statewide basis, Iowa’s deer herd has been reduced back to levels that existed in the mid-to-late 1990s. This goal was supported by the legislatively-created Deer Study Advisory Committee in 2008. On a county level, over 80 percent of Iowa’s counties are at or below this goal; there are 18 counties that are still above this goal but are declining in population. Some very localized areas of higher deer concentrations still exist in counties that are at or below the goal overall, and these areas are being addressed through our depredation program, which targets antlerless-only licenses at a property specific level.

- See more at: http://amestrib.com/sections/sports...u-chief-dale-garner.html#sthash.Alw8qqgO.dpuf


I note that Garner said on a 'statewide basis' the deer herd was already at the level recommended by the Deer Study Advisory Committee before the 2013-14 hunting season. I think the DNR has an effective plan to control deer numbers across the state. The county by county antlerless quotas help focus the hunting pressure in specific counties. The depredation tags then focus pressure even in local hotspots. I think this is really important because these hotspots can generate a lot of the 'too many deer' hype.

Personally, I have a lot of confidence in the Iowa DNR biologists from Bureau Chief on down. As many on Iowa Whitetail have pointed out, it is politics that is causing much of the problem.

I want to thank everyone who has put a lot of effort into bringing the facts to light and for continuing the battle to protect the future of our whitetail resource here in Iowa.

Old Buck (Larry Zach)
 
Well if deer are now at 90 pop levels lets revert back to the 90 laws as it pertains to tags. Both resident and non resident. Note dressing up in kevlar vest and helmet as I expect to get klobbered.
2nd note..if I had 3500 acres like the ranch I could handle my own deer population issues. Smaller land owners are more or less at the mercy of how plugged in neighbors are.
 
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What I got in response... basically from what I gather... Insurance companies dont want deer, so thats how it will be... Can we get him out of office sooner?!?!

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for contacting the office of Governor Terry E. Branstad regarding the deer population in the state of Iowa. As you know, this is an issue that affects many Iowans whether they hunt, own land, or travel on our roads. Knowing the importance of this issue, the Governor appreciates your input, and input from all Iowans who have an interest in the license totals or other regulations for deer hunting.

The Governor is an avid hunter and has hunted deer during a number of seasons with his son. He understands, and appreciates, the importance of hunting in the state. With that said, the Governor also realizes that the deer population affects Iowans who own property, travel on our roadways, or pay insurance coverage for their vehicles. And, the Governor also understands that many people have lost their lives in accidents involving deer.

Governor Branstad has, and will continue, to work with all Iowans who have an interest in the state's deer population as administrative rules or legislation are reviewed that include this topic.

Again, thank you for taking time to contact our office. We appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to contact us again in the future.

Sincerely,

Office of the Governor
Julie Vande Hoef, Policy Advisor
 
flugge said:
What I got in response... basically from what I gather... Insurance companies dont want deer, so thats how it will be... Can we get him out of office sooner?!?! Dear Ryan, Thank you for contacting the office of Governor Terry E. Branstad regarding the deer population in the state of Iowa. As you know, this is an issue that affects many Iowans whether they hunt, own land, or travel on our roads. Knowing the importance of this issue, the Governor appreciates your input, and input from all Iowans who have an interest in the license totals or other regulations for deer hunting. The Governor is an avid hunter and has hunted deer during a number of seasons with his son. He understands, and appreciates, the importance of hunting in the state. With that said, the Governor also realizes that the deer population affects Iowans who own property, travel on our roadways, or pay insurance coverage for their vehicles. And, the Governor also understands that many people have lost their lives in accidents involving deer. Governor Branstad has, and will continue, to work with all Iowans who have an interest in the state's deer population as administrative rules or legislation are reviewed that include this topic. Again, thank you for taking time to contact our office. We appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to contact us again in the future. Sincerely, Office of the Governor Julie Vande Hoef, Policy Advisor
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Dude, that is just a blanket response from some aide, we ain't quitting with her! If you read through the many posts, we are talking to everyone. Thanks for letting us know you sent one, now everyone else cowboy up and send one. Pretty soon this chick will walk into the office and say, we got a problem here! Good job!
 
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