Greetings to Everyone

Greetings to everyone,

This week the Department will announce changes to the deer season structure in the 300 series permit areas in southeast Minnesota for 2010 and beyond. Briefly these changes will include:

• Implement antler point restrictions in all 300 series deer areas
• Elimination of cross-tagging (party hunting) for bucks
• Extension of the 3A season from 7 days to 9 days
• Establish a 4-day youth hunt for hunters 10 – 15 years of age over MEA week in the southeast and some parts of the northwest.

These changes are being made on a conditional basis. We are committed to obtaining 3 fundamental objectives in our deer season policy:

1. Manage harvest to achieve and maintain deer population goals established through our public goal setting process.
2. Addressing very real and significant deer depredation problems suffered by many farm operators in the southeast.
3. Retaining the support of these regulations from a majority of deer hunters in the southeast.

We will reassess the impacts and support of these regulations over a three to five year period. Based on this reassessment we will recommend changes and adapt as necessary to ensure that we meet our fundamental objectives.

This is a significant change in the way we manage deer in Minnesota. I started my career with DNR in 1977 working at a deer check station in Faribault. The purpose of the check station was to collect information to assess and build support for the “new” deer season framework implemented in 1976 that was designed to rebuild a deer herd that was decimated by harsh winters and over hunting. The new structure restricted hunter opportunity by limiting the take of antlerless deer. Limiting opportunity was not universally popular at first but over time it worked and is now widely accepted.

In some cases it worked too well. For 20 years we were successful in managing for optimum sustained yield while gradually building herd size and hunter participation. During the past 15 years a shift in climate that included a long series of mild winters has required us to change to a maximum sustained yield strategy in many areas of the state to reduce overabundant populations.

During the past few years hunters have increasingly told us that they wanted to see more mature bucks in the harvest but were not in agreement on the strategy to get there. Hunter interest prompted a five year study of alternative deer management options by Lou and Marrett that has been instrumental in informing our decisions. At the 2008 Hunting and Fishing Roundtable we debated this issue at some length and at sessions end we announced that we were willing to take some risk and explore an alternative deer management strategy that would allow us to obtain our fundamental objectives and still shift the age and sex structure toward mature males but only if there was significant public support.

An exhausting series of public meetings, input process, discussions with Area Wildlife Managers and the Commissioners has culminated in the changes that we are announcing this week. Throughout this process I have been repeatedly impressed with the professionalism and willingness of Area Wildlife staff in the southeast, Research staff and Program staff to explore and try new options. I am very proud of the way we have handled ourselves in these difficult decisions. Likewise, I was also very impressed with the respectful dialog from hunters and landowners in all of our public discussion. Together we will move forward with an adaptive management process and I am confident that we will develop a deer season that meets our objectives.

Dennis

Dennis E. Simon

Chief, Wildlife Management Section

Division of Fish and Wildlife

MN Dept. of Natural Resources

651 259-5237