Northern forest gun-deer season hunting outlook From the desk of Mike Zeckmeister, Northern Region Wildlife Supervisor
News Release Published: November 5, 2009 by the Northern Region
Contact(s): Mike Zeckmeister (715) 635-4090
SPOONER - With another late opening date for this year’s 9-day deer gun season northern deer hunters are again being advised to prepare for changing weather conditions. And like last year, rutting behavior will likely be over by opening weekend.
Hunting success will be influenced by weather conditions which change quickly in late November and how deer respond to the acorn drop. Of late the area has seen more rain and snow than in past years.
There was an excellent acorn crop throughout much of the northern forest this year and deer will be seeking these areas to put on fat for the winter. DNR’s strategy going into the 2009 season will be to rebuild the herd in areas where we saw a decline in the deer populations. In other areas, we believe we can provide adequate pressure on the herd with a bucks plus quota season to keep the units closer to healthy overwinter goals.
A deer herd going into winter closer to goals and in balance with available food is critical to survive the winter since no one cannot predict the type of winter that may be in store for us.
The 2007-08 winter was hard on deer and it was followed with a long, delayed spring which reduced the numbers of fawns born and likely affected fawn survival. These two factors resulted in direct mortality and reduced recruitment going into the 2008 season.
The 2008-09 winter was much kinder to the northern deer herd compared to the one in 2007-08. This past year we had a moderate winter and a more normal spring that increased recruitment over the 2007-08 but fawn production is still below the long term average.
As was predicted, the 2007-08 winter was one of many factors that reduced the buck kill during the 2008 gun deer season. We will be seeing the impact of the 2007-08 winter and spring for several years because there will be a missing or reduced age class of deer. This year there will be fewer yearling bucks, next year fewer 2 1/2 year old bucks, and the year after that, fewer 31/2 old bucks, etc.
Of the 45 Deer Management Units (DMUs) that primarily comprise the Northern Region, only two will be in Herd Control Status in 2009. The remaining DMUs will be Quota Units where there is a prescribed antlerless quota to be removed through the purchase of Unit-specific Bonus Antlerless tags.
