DEER POPULATION.....PLEASE READ

[iowabruce]

I received this email from a customer/friend and thought I'd pass it along. Let's let our voice be heard on the future of "our" deer population.
Bruce

Gentlemen

I don’t know if all of you saw the recent newspaper article about cutting the deer population drastically in Iowa, but I sent the email below to the president of the Iowa bow hunters association as he was on the Governors commission mentioned in the article. You can read his responses in red. One thing I strongly agree with him on is we need to get off our butts and get involved with this process. If we think we are going to continue to enjoy the kind of hunts we have had in the recent past with the kinds of herd reductions they are talking about we all better wake up and smell the coffee.

Gary

________________________________________
From: Taylor Photography [mailto:tayphoto@netins.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 5:44 PM
To: gary rankin
Subject: Re: commission on deer population

Hi Gary,

----- Original Message -----
From: gary rankin
To: President@iowabowhunters.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 3:52 PM
Subject: commission on deer population

Mr. Taylor

I read with much concern an article in my local newspaper that a commission which you are on is recommending that the deer herd be reduced by another 300k deer, from around 475k to around 180k. First of all, do you really believe the current population of deer stands at the same level it was at 5 years ago when hunters were killing 225-250k deer? I took part in the Deer Advisory Meetings. At no time did a number come up, not sure where the 475K and 300K came from. The DNR to the best of my knowledge has never put a pop. figure out there. Especially when you consider all of the seasons and opportunities and almost unlimited tags that are available to hunters today and yet the harvest is less than 130k animals. I have to say that I flat out don’t believe that the deer population is anywhere near 500k deer. I know in the area I hunt I have seen less and less deer every year for the last 5 years. I think in the North half of the state the deer herd is under control and where the DNR wants the level. You get to the Miss. & Mo Rivers and we still have problem areas. Southern Ia we have a problem and will continue to. If we have no access the herd will only increase.

I’m really trying to get a handle on what’s going on here….is the DNR just money hunger and wants to keep selling tags at all costs...is the insurance/farming industries pulling the strings and just want to see the deer population eliminated or what.Biologically speaking this state can handle more deer, socially that's another story. There are many groups in the state that want the herd down to 180k but the IBA & the DNR aren't one of them. You hit it on the head as to who the driving force is in the deer reduction numbers. Don’t get me wrong I am for deer management as much or more than the next guy. The problem is that you don’t eliminate car deer accidents and other deer nuisance issues by killing all the deer out in the country and having only limited (usually bow) hunts in urban wooded areas. Nor do you effectively manage deer populations by setting quotas on a county wide basis. I believe you really need to get down to much smaller areas so as to correctly harvest specific areas and not over harvest others within the same county.Trying to manage smaller than county wide would be tough to do in many places because of the access issue.

I probably don’t have any say in this and I’m probably barking up the wrong tree but you mark my words, if the DNR with the acquiescence of the legislature continues to allow AND encourage hunters to ravage the deer population, whitetail deer hunting as it is today will become a thing of the past in the state of Iowa. Maybe the only way the DNR will wake up and start managing deer like the natural resource that it is, is when people quit buying tags because there are not enough deer out there to bother with.

I would sure like to know what is going on here from someone who is “inside the circle”. Thank you for your time.


Sincerely,
Gary Rankin

Gary,

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[bowmaker]

iowabruce I completely agree with all of this and I have been beating this drum for the last 2 years. I have searched and asked and almost begged for someone to give us a real and semi accurate deer population number, and there is nothing! Why would that be? The article mentioned is obviously very biased and for them to try to imply that the population is still nearly 500,000 deer is ludicrous. When I checked yesterday our reported harvest was about 126,600 with, according to past history, the possibility of adding another 8,000 or 9,000 deer during the January season. This is out of total license sales of approximately 400,000 licenses. Two years ago, when the reporting system first started, 380,000 licenses reported almost 170,000 deer. Critics of the system say that even that number was under reported so I ask again why in just 2 years are we harvesting almost 40,000, or over 25%, fewer deer while still selling almost the same number of licenses? We have gone from success rates just a few years ago of 60% to less than 30% now. I can see only two answers. #1 70% of Iowa deer hunters have gotten lazy and sloppy and can't kill a deer no matter what they do, or #2 That there are thousands and thousands of fewer deer that are being subjected to more and more increased hunting pressure from much more talented deer hunters. Which answer would you choose? I agree from the info that Bonker has supplied us that this Deer Study Commission was very much stacked against the hunters and the fact that they would accept no input what so ever says little for our democratic process. Once again Thank You Bonker for doing what most of us could not and keeping us informed. Everyone PLEASE try to contact a Legislator that can help change or at least vote against adopting some of these crazy and biased recommendations!!