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The message from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources this year seems to be 'there are lots of deer, please harvest them.' The DNR estimates that deer population in Minnesota is rising to record levels. In response, the DNR increased the number of antlerless deer permits by 43 percent this year.

'Basically, the deer population has come back remarkably well after the hard winters of 1995-1996 and 1996-1997,' said DNR Wildlife Research Biologist Mark Lenarz. According to Lenarz, the deer population grew more quickly in central and southern Minnesota than it did in northern Minnesota, but the DNR estimates that there are 1,113,000 deer in Minnesota. That is about as many deer as the DNR estimates there were in Minnesota during the population high-point of the early 1990s. It is almost twice as many deer as the DNR estimated during the population low-point Minnesota in 1997. After the harsh winters of the mid-1990s, the DNR estimated that there were 683,000 deer in Minnesota. Last year the DNR issued 50,070 antlerless deer permits in wildlife management zone 1, which includes most of northern Minnesota. This year they are issuing 71,850, the second highest number ever issued.

The DNR is taking these steps to control their deer population and avoid the problems that Wisconsin and Michigan have run into with their runaway deer populations. 'In Wisconsin, (the DNR) is really trying to get people to harvest antlerless deer in special hunting seasons, but some people don’t want to have two deer in their freezers,' said Lenarz. Even anecdotal evidence supports the idea that the deer population is rising. 'A lot of people are reporting seeing 15 deer in fields where they saw 10 deer last year.'

The DNR has also received more reports of deer being nuisances by eating in gardens or consuming specialty farm crops. 'The word is that deer are starting to cause real problems, but they are not as bad as they were in the early 1990s,' said Lenarz. While the DNR is adjusting the deer harvest to control the population, Lenarz admits that weather has the greatest potential to control deer populations. Human harvest is the second best control (taking 211,777 deer in 2000) and predators have the third largest impact on deer populations (wolves take an estimated 43,000 deer each year). Lenarz said that in the late 1980s, the DNR set a population goal for 10-15 deer per square mile in Minnesota.

Though those goals need to be updated, he estimated that we are close to those densities now with about 12-14 deer per square mile. As the deer population has risen since 1997, so has the number of Minnesota hunters. When the deer population crashed in the mid-1990s, the number of hunters also decreased. But according to Lenarz, the number of hunters is rising again, with an estimated 470,000 hunters in 2000. That is good news for the DNR and their deer control program.

Source: Timberjay - www.timberjay.com