When Minnesota’s deer season ends Dec. 31, it is quite likely the harvest will be in the 200,000 range, so says Paul Telander, wildlife chief.
The DNR projection is above last year’s harvest of 173,213, below the 2003 record harvest of 290,525, and similar to the most recent 20-year average of 205,959. Prior to 2000, deer harvests in excess of 200,000 occurred only four times.
Deer harvest totals typically relate to the size of the deer population and to a lesser degree to weather conditions immediately before and during the hunting season.
The 2017 season should be a good deer season barring any unforeseen unusual weather, he predicts. Deer numbers are up following three years of conservative harvest regulations designed to rebuild the population, coupled with three relatively mild winters.
As a result, more antlerless permits are available this year. Hunters in many parts of the state will have additional opportunities to harvest more deer because of other more liberal season framework changes. Unfavorable weather, like heavy snowfall immediately before or during the hunting season, is the main factor that would prevent a harvest increase.
The state’s highest deer harvests occurred during the early to mid-1990s and from 2000 to 2008. During this latter period, the harvest topped 200,000 each year. The high harvests in the early 2000s occurred at a time when the over-riding harvest strategy was to reduce the deer population so it wouldn’t grow out of control, and to address certain environmental, economic and social concerns.
Deer harvests in excess of 225,000 occurred only once in the 1990s. Going further back, the harvests in the 1970s never topped 100,000. The harvests in the 1980s were under 150,000. Today, there’s growing discussion in the hunting community as to what’s a reasonable harvest target.
According to Telander, the aim is to keep deer numbers at population goals identified during DNR’s public goal-setting processes. There are 130 different deer permit areas in the state, and population goals range from a handful of deer per square mile in intensively farmed areas to 20 to 25 deer per square mile in prime forested areas.
Many hunters are curious as to how decisions are made on antlerless permit numbers and season structure, he said.
The process starts immediately after the deer season closes. That’s when area wildlife supervisors and staff monitor deer harvest results in their local areas and collect informal feedback from hunters, conservation officers, foresters and others.
In spring, after winter severity has been monitored and deer mortality losses have been estimated, research staff run population models for each permit area based on the last year’s harvest, winter mortality, anticipated fawn births, predation and other data. These calculations are the basis of research staff recommendations for season permit area designations and the number of antlerless permits that should be made available to hunters to achieve population goals.
Wildlife supervisors have the option of agreeing with the recommendations or modifying them based on local observations. Often, recommendations agree, but not always. When this happens, differences are resolved at the regional or St. Paul office level.
It’s not well-known, Telander explains, but among 13 Midwestern states, only Missouri manages deer populations at a finer spatial scale than Minnesota.
“We are serious about managing expectations and deer numbers in small geographic areas. Still, it is common to have a wide variety of opinions in each area on whether there should be more, fewer or different sized deer,” he said. “To that point, we recently conducted a hunter satisfaction survey and one of the findings is that today’s hunters have higher expectations than those who hunted just 10 years ago. Our challenge is finding new and efficient ways to have two-way conversations with hunters.”
Minnesota’s first-ever deer plan will outline key concepts and crucial, ongoing work needed to manage deer. An important aspect of the plan is how DNR will reach out and communicate deer management needs, necessary actions and reasons for those actions, Telander said.
A draft plan will be available in early 2018. “I encourage everyone to read the draft plan, consider DNR’s suggested approach and give us your feedback and ideas through the public input opportunities we’ll make available.”