Read this last night. There are definetly less deer, even the DNR agrees.
Deer population falls across Iowa
By Orlan Love The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
(MCT) — With the first of Iowa’s two shotgun deer seasons set to open Saturday, the state’s deer population is down an estimated 10 percent from a year ago and down almost 29 percent from its peak in 2006, according to the state agency tasked with managing the herd.
“Deer populations for the state as a whole are declining after displaying strong growth for almost a decade,” said Department of Natural Resources deer biologist Tom Litchfield.
This year’s harvest, which Litchfield projects at about 4 percent lower than last year’s, will likely mark the fifth-straight decline after seven-straight record harvests.
The decline, he said, is attributable almost entirely to “dramatically increased harvest pressure” on does since 2003.
In more than half of Iowa’s 99 counties, deer populations are at or below the mid-to-late-1990s level that the Department of Natural Resources has adopted as its target, Litchfield said.
The entire Iowa deer herd is expected to return to that level by 2012, though there will be isolated hot spots that will require additional attention, Litchfield said.
Jasper County’s State Sen. Dennis Black, a longtime leading member of the Natural Resources Committee, credits the cooperative attitude of hunters for the success of the deer control effort.
Iowa hunters, who had long been accustomed to targeting bucks, shifted their attention to does when they realized that the health of the herd was at stake, Black said.
While motorists and farmers no doubt appreciate the Legislature mandated reduction, many hunters already believe it has gone too far.
“The deer herd is way down. I’ve been hearing more hunter complaints than ever,” said Tim Powers of Lisbon, Iowa field director for Whitetails Un limited. “In my opinion, we really need to cut back on the doe tags,” said Randy Taylor of Reasnor, former president of the Iowa Bowhunters Association.
Though the DNR has yet to take its foot off the doe-harvest accelerator, hunter pressure on does has been geographically adjusted this year and will be substantially relieved next year, Litchfield said.
This year, antlerless deer quotas were reduced in 14 counties and eliminated in five others, but with increases in eight counties that still have too many deer, the overall statewide quota for antlerless deer increased by 1,300 to a record-high 132,900.
According to DNR estimates, which are based on harvest and deer-vehicle collision statistics and aerial and spotlight surveys, the state in 2006 was home to 630,000 deer at the start of that year’s hunting seasons. The comparable number this year, Litchfield said, was 450,000.
The herd’s reduction can be traced in harvest statistics, which have fallen from 211,451 deer in 2005 to 136,504 last year.
The DNR cautions, however, that its pre-2006 harvest statistics, which were based on postcard survey data, are not directly comparable with those compiled after the DNR went to direct reporting with the implementation of its electronic licensing system. While the postcard survey estimates tended to inflate hunter success, the new system understates the actual harvest because many hunters do not comply with the reporting requirement.
The herd’s reduction, Litchfield said, is also reflected in a declining number of deer depredation tags issued to farmers and specialty growers and in the number of deer-vehicle collisions per 1 billion miles driven on Iowa’s rural highways.
That number peaked at 803 in 2004 and declined rather steadily to 602 in 2008, before spiking to 726 last year, according to Department of Transportation statistics.
Litchfield said the overall trend of road kills ‘has been slowly declining as the deer population declines, but the relationship between these two variables has never been directly linear.’ Cedar Rapids auto body shops consulted for this story said they have observed no decline in business associated with deer-vehicle collisions.
Although the shrinking deer herd has not yet affected the number of deer licenses sold — last year’s 405,547 was down just slightly from the preceding year’s 406,169 — it eventually will, Litchfield said.
