DEER POPULATION-up or down

[MICH]

OR IS IT THE SAME, just wondering how ( so far ) you think the ohio deer herd is??? this is my 3rd year down there, so i'm still a rookie, but, this year was great, 16 diff. bucks & many doe's over 6 days...i say many, but it was 6-11 a day...i have a great & FUN year.....i do think the doe permits should drop to 2 or 3 in the scioto cty area...WHAT do you guys think

[mrbb]

well didn't get to Ohio this yr
But here in PA, I firmly believe deer numbers are a LOT lower state wide than they ever been
some areas still have way too many and many places have almost none per square mile
but I am a firm believer its a simple formula
where ever there is food ALL YR there are deer
way too many forest and woods in many places just cannot do that
Provide food all yr, then they need cover and water too

I will for sure say its a lack of forest fires that is a big part of the lack of food here
way too much litter/leaves and dead stuff on the ground preventing new tree's and browse from coming up!
and deer are by nature Browsers, so less browse, less deer
timbering and fire are what creates a ton of it, and its just not done enough
and add in how far houses have advanced into what was forested lands/farm lands and its pretty easy to see why numbers are down in many places

[ManOfTheFall]

I believe the numbers in Ohio are down but still very solid. No where near being too low

[Stonegod]

Yep......down statewide......But in medina county where I hunt, they say the numbers are increasing......maybe that's because I'm hunting there?LOL

[Roxman]

I would have agreed to the pop being down but some I believe is this when we had snow here two years ago here where I hunt my property I saw deer all the time last two not so many until yesterday when I shot my buck as I was quading into to pick him up I scattered about a dozen deer who were justing milling around in the thicket I really believe that unless the weather makes them move they don't

[Curran]

It's down overall, however there are also pockets (mainly urban) that are still growing. Hunting Public anywhere in the state you're gonna see way less deer than there were just a few years ago. If you start to look into the numbers and how things have been trending the picture starts to paint itself. Even the head man in charge of the herd is now finally saying that the herd is down.

For The Columbus Dispatch Sunday December 9, 2012 7:46 AM

Comments: 0


Because all deer hunting is local — that is, restricted to what wanders into an individual’s vision and field of fire — 400,000 hunters produce about that many opinions in terms of what went down during the state’s weeklong gun season that ended last Sunday.

One assessment that counts rather a lot is that of biologist Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s point man for deer management. Here it is:

“I’m pretty pleased with the way the season turned out,” he said. “I thought we’d be (down) 5 percent to 10 percent from last year.”

The count was 86,964, a drop of about 3.7 percent from the 90,282 deer checked in 2011. The 2012 results, moreover, continued a decline from peak harvest years. In 2010, hunters checked more than 105,000 whitetails during deer gun week, meaning this year’s decline in harvest follows a 14 percent tumble.

Over a two-year span, then, the gun-week totals fell about 17.2 percent.

Last year’s weak showing likely resulted from a lot of standing corn late and some lousy weather, particularly on opening day of the gun season, Tonkovich said. Hunters took 23,600 on a rainy Monday in 2011. The count climbed considerably, to 29,297, on Nov. 26, the 2012 opener.

Given strong archery results thus far, the 2012-13 deer season might produce a harvest down only slightly from a year ago, when hunters reported killing about 219,700 whitetails.

“We’re about 1 percent down from last year from the opening day of the bow season through the last day of the (weeklong) gun season,” Tonkovich said. “If we have favorable (weather) conditions during the next two gun seasons, we are likely to end up around or slightly down from last year’s harvest.”

A two-day statewide gun season is set for Dec. 15-16, and the popular muzzleloader season will run four days, Jan. 5-8, 2013.

Still, last year’s count totaled about 41,600 fewer deer, a decline of about 15.9 percent, compared with the 261,000 taken during the 2009-10 season.

So, after years of liberal regulations designed to knock down numbers, are fewer deer roaming the Ohio landscape? Maybe so.

The number of deer hunters hasn’t dropped precipitously, although the sale of resident tags fell about 8 percent between 2000 and 2011. That drop to an extent has been offset by a 152 percent increase of nonresident tags during the same period.

“About one in nine or 10 of our deer hunters is now coming from out of state,” Tonkovich said. “ We went from about 15,000 nonresident licenses in 2000 to about 38,000 in 2011.”

While the number of resident vs. nonresident hunters is not quite a wash, the biggest factor in declining deer harvests appears to be fewer deer, a situation not welcome to every hunter but certainly OK with many of the state’s farmers and tree growers.

Both agricultural groups, their members having suffered losses caused by feeding deer, have called for herd shrinkage. The Ohio Farm Bureau several years ago publicly declared that deer numbers statewide should be around 250,000, around half the current estimated population.

The liberal granting of nuisance permits, which allow landowners to kill offending deer, has helped alleviate some of the local deer damage problems.

Tonkovich, moreover, suggested that the state’s deer regulations for 2013-14 could be in for their first major overhaul in a number of years. The aim, after years of liberal limits have brought deer numbers to what are considered target levels in many counties, would be to maintain the population.

“You might not see a Zone C anymore, just (zones) A and B,” he said.

Zone C, which covers much of southern, southeastern and eastern Ohio, has the most liberal bag limits. While bag limits could become stricter overall, deer numbers can be managed with the availability — or nonavailability — of antlerless permits, Tonkovich said.

[PlayTheWindMike]

I think the herd is down. What I would like to see is each years numbers for how many liscense are sold. I don't think as many people are hunting as in the past. It's getting to the point where alot of folks go hunt for the meat and for the bang for the buck they are just going to the butcher or grocery store instead

[hortontoter]

I believe the population is down in areas that are "huntable" to a good number of hunters. Urban areas are always going to be hard to control due to hunting access being harder to acquire.

I think the state is heading in the wrong direction if they are actually planning on a two zone state. IMO we need regulations on smaller chunks of land, I'm suggesting more zones not less. I'd prefer to see the state have eight zones with 11 counties in each. To go to two large zones will make regulating the herd even tougher. I know we will all never agree on how things should be implemented. But, i find it interesting to hear others ideas.

[Big_Holla]

We decided again this year that we would only take 1 doe off the property if at all. There is plenty to eat, cover and water but not the numbers that warrant going and shooting several.

[MQ1]

What i see around here is that it has been on the decline for the past several years. This year by far the worst.

[gonehunting 45]

I will agree the overall population is down. I think they need to do something. To many doe tags in zone-c.

[00buck]

i agree that numbers are down and also that they need to get rid of so many doe tags

[MICH]

I believe the population is down in areas that are "huntable" to a good number of hunters. Urban areas are always going to be hard to control due to hunting access being harder to acquire.

I think the state is heading in the wrong direction if they are actually planning on a two zone state. IMO we need regulations on smaller chunks of land, I'm suggesting more zones not less. I'd prefer to see the state have eight zones with 11 counties in each. To go to two large zones will make regulating the herd even tougher. I know we will all never agree on how things should be implemented. But, i find it interesting to hear others ideas.
great idea, they could manage the #'s better that way forsure

[Curran]

I think the state is heading in the wrong direction if they are actually planning on a two zone state. IMO we need regulations on smaller chunks of land, I'm suggesting more zones not less. I'd prefer to see the state have eight zones with 11 counties in each. To go to two large zones will make regulating the herd even tougher. I know we will all never agree on how things should be implemented. But, i find it interesting to hear others ideas.

I'm with ya completely, you can't both manage effectively and paint with a broad brush. Too many variables across the different geographies of our state. County by county management would be too costly with the resources currently available, and with budgets being what they are right now, adding more resources isn't an option. I'd like to see several things: reducing the overall tags available, evaluating the costs of out of state licences to make them comparable to other destination states, expanding management zones for fine tuning, and regulating the expanding outfitter industry.

[taylor6400]

I didnt get to bow hunt as much as usual...only a couple times. I did gun hunt on opening day and that weekend. I can say that i saw the fewest deer in my few days (which may not be a fair comparison) in the woods as i ever have on our farm. Neighbors say the same. Of course they were the ones laying waste to the does the last coupel years.

[Deerhunter]

I would say way down this year. My neighbor and me usually see deer all over the place till the week of gun season , But this year he hunted every day of October and never saw a deer. Myself I have seen very few deer and I put a 100 pounds of corn out and it sat untouched for 2 weeks with only turkeys eating it. Trail cams dont lie :(

Thanks to the State and the new system I believe Poaching will be huge from now on...
OHIO is now like KY and the deer hunting will be crap from now on...

[Stonegod]

I'm starting to believe you guys on the population being way down, the last few seasons if you guys recall I was constantly busting bedded down does when I was going to my blinds. This year I haven't busted a bedded deer yet......either I've suddenly become a super stealthy hunter.....or the deer pop is way down this season for some reason......I'm leaning toward the latter.LOL We were getting tons of deer on the cams earlier this season (sept-oct) but something has changed in the woods. I sat several days this season without seeing/hearing anything.....not a bird....squirrel....zip!! It was like someone had dropped a bomb back there. And the weird thing is the area I hunt isn't hunted all that hard by other hunters.

[MICH]

what helps me out is the 1050 ac. H.S. pro-staffers lease across the street ( i'm sure ther aren't coming to ohio for doe's ) south of me -1/2 mile- there is 1400+ ac. of MEAD land that they clearcut 800 ac. of it 4 yrs ago, it looks very thick, that might be helping my deer pop....... like to see just 2 doe limit