Field Notes: State Park Boom

The eighth deer I'd seen since arriving before dawn at Great River Bluffs State Park lowered its antlerless head to eat acorns from the oak-leaf litter. It had paused in a clearing just outside the boundary of King's and Queen's Bluff Scientific and Natural Area.

I raised the JC Higgins 12-gauge I'd borrowed from my dad, centered its peep site behind the deer's shoulder, and joined 28 other hunters who successfully harvested a deer at the park in 2004.

Our harvest wasn't enough. The 3,067-acre park on the bluffs of the Mississippi River still holds too many deer, according to DNR harvest data. Like many areas of Minnesota—particularly in the southeast and northwest—the park's deer population continues to grow. This boom is despite recent DNR efforts to ratchet up the deer harvest by allowing hunters to take multiple deer and easily purchase permits to take antlerless deer (see "Balancing Act," Nov.-Dec. 2005).

As a possible solution to deer overpopulation, the DNR has launched a study of experimental regulations that aim to increase antlerless deer harvest in a few state parks and other reserves. The new regulations could also produce more large bucks. The key, say deer biologists, is getting hunters to shoot more does while allowing immature bucks to pass and grow older.

To that end, the DNR this year joined at least 20 states across the nation using restrictions on harvesting bucks to encourage hunters to harvest more does. At St. Croix, Wild River, Great River Bluffs, and Maplewood state parks, as well as Lake Elmo Park Reserve in Washington County, hunters were allowed to harvest a buck only after tagging an antlerless deer. At Savanna Portage, Itasca, and Forestville/Mystery Cave state parks, hunters were allowed to harvest bucks with at least three or four antler points on one side.

"Most hunters harvest one deer each season. Rather than harvesting a young buck, we'd like to see hunters harvest more does in areas with high deer populations," says Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator. "Antler point restrictions can shift the harvest pressure to does when hunters have good doe hunting opportunities."

The antler-point regulations will likely remain in place for at least three years while the DNR studies their effectiveness and takes surveys to gauge hunter opinions. Regulations will have to work biologically and socially, says Marrett Grund, the DNR deer research biologist leading the study. "The last thing we want is a regulation that lowers the deer population but is hated by deer hunters," Grund says.

Only four other states—Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and California—have statewide antler-point restrictions. Like Minnesota, most states are trying the regulations in specific areas to gauge their effectiveness. So far, results have been mixed. Since 1998 Arkansas regulations have required a buck to have at least three points on one side to be legal for harvest. Though Arkansas hunters say they're seeing bigger bucks, some are unhappy that the overall deer harvest has been down in recent seasons. In Georgia, where antler-point restrictions apply on certain public hunting lands, hunters lead the nation in doe harvest. Harvest of mature bucks is also increasing there.

If Minnesota's regulations prove biologically sound as well as acceptable to hunters, they could be used in specific areas of the state where deer populations remain stubbornly high. In the meantime, Cornicelli says the DNR will continue to work closely with deer groups, such as the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, Bluffland Whitetails Association, and the Quality Deer Management Association, to educate hunters on how antler-point restrictions can lower deer numbers and perhaps produce a few older bucks.

Jason Abraham
DNR staff writer