Jan. 19–Following a fall in which hunters killed the fewest deer in more than a decade, the volume is rising among some quarters of Minnesota’s deer hunting community calling for change.
Specifically, they want more deer.
A petition from the head of a prominent bowhunting group is making the rounds, and the head of the state’s largest deer-hunting group says its members are increasingly unhappy with what they perceive as inadequate deer numbers.
It’s unclear what the impact will be, but officials with the Department of Natural Resources are hearing it.
For the moment at least, agency leaders are walking a delicate line: They say they understand the concerns, but they’re also pushing back. Meanwhile, a planned effort to re-examine deer population goals and hunting bag limits will move ahead as scheduled.
The agency says 80 percent of the state’s deer hunting zones are “at goal,” meaning they have the right deer density according to goals that emerged from a 2005-to-2007 process. Critics say if that’s true, then the goals were too low.
This fall, hunters killed roughly 171,000 deer, the third straight year of decline.
But what troubles Brooks Johnson, president of Minnesota Bowhunters Inc., is that hunters he has spoken with have been seeing fewer deer.
“It started a couple of years ago,” said Johnson, 46, of Monticello. “The guys were starting to talk about how they just weren’t seeing deer out there.”
Johnson, who spends about 20 days hunting each year, decided to survey members of his chapter of the Quality Deer Management Association — serious deer hunters — on the amount of food they were able to feed to deer at off-season feeding areas on their lands, and how many deer they saw.
“Our numbers pointed to a 70 percent decline,” he said. “That’s a big deal, and we feel like the DNR hasn’t been paying attention.”
Johnson has started a petition demanding that the DNR’s deer population goals “be substantially revised and increased” in time for the 2014 season. A link to the petition and Johnson’s Minnesota Deer Density Initiative can be found at mnbowhunters.org.
Leslie McInenly, the state’s top deer manager, said “it’s fair to question the goals” the agency sets for various deer hunting zones throughout the state. But when it comes to Johnson’s specific claims against the agency — Johnson alleges one area has more hunters than adult deer — McInenly said Johnson is either improperly applying DNR data or missing the nuances of deer management.
“We’re not managing so that every hunter has 100 percent success rate,” she said.
The DNR is planning to alter its goal-setting process over the next three years, beginning with most of the 300-series zones in the southeastern part of the state, with public meetings next month.
Responding to criticism from the previous process, McInenly said she hopes to make this go-round more transparent. But she acknowledged she’s struggling with aspects of that.
“My initial intent was to make the committee members’ names public,” she said, referring to committees of hunters, landowners, farmers and others that recommend whether the deer population in a given area should increase or decrease. “But there is a danger that we might lose some people as a result of the heat on this issue.”
It’s unclear under what legal basis, if any, the DNR could withhold the identities of committee members, whom the agency picks. Johnson said he wants the names made public.
As for the demands of Johnson’s petition, McInenly said the DNR reviews each zone every year. While no widespread action is planned for areas outside the southeastern part of the state until 2015, she said regulations on individual zones can be changed.
“It’s too early to say because we haven’t even looked at all the data, but my sense is there will be some more conservative areas,” she said.
By “more conservative,” she means regulations intended to grow deer numbers, either by lowering the total bag limit or making it harder to kill does. In other words, if the DNR believes the state’s deer herd needs to grow, that will likely result in fewer deer killed next year.
“I hope the harvest does go down,” Johnson said.
It’s hard to know how widespread the criticism is among the 500,000-strong deer-hunting public.
At an annual gathering of 300 hunters, anglers and other DNR stakeholders in Bloomington last weekend, there was chatter about falling deer numbers but little roar. In a snap survey of about 50 people who attended a session on deer management, more people said they were satisfied with their 2013 hunt than were dissatisfied by 8 percentage points.
As for his own experience, Johnson said, “The quality of my bowhunt goes up every year, but I’m the exception because of how I manage my land. Am I satisfied, if you ask me that question? Yeah, but is it fun for me to walk into the tavern when no one there is seeing any deer? No. It all depends on how you ask the question.”
Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said he’s hearing increased frustration from all areas of the state except the southwest portion, where deer numbers are traditionally low, and the southeast, where the DNR has enacted special regulations to grow mature, large-antlered bucks.
“Is the frustration really that widespread? Yes,” said Mark Johnson, who is no relation to Brooks. “There’s also concern that this is shaping up to be a severe winter, much like last winter turned out to be. I think a lot of hunters are worried about how many deer will survive.”
Neither Brooks Johnson nor Mark Johnson wants legislators to prescribe deer population goals or hunting regulations, but both said the DNR will need to respond to growing dissatisfaction.
Dave Orrick can be reached at 651-228-5512. Follow him at twitter.com/OutdoorsNow.