Wednesday, July 21, 2010

MISSOURI NEWS: Urban Hunt Cancelled, Liability Concerns Cited

Managed deer hunts near Fellows Lake and Lake Springfield scheduled for later this year have been canceled while the Missouri Department of Conservation and City Utilities work through legal concerns.



"Basically what's happened is City Utilities ... had some concerns about some hunter liability issues," said Francis Skalicky, a spokesman for MDC's southwest region office. "We weren't able to reach a consensus before registration started, so it's delayed until next year."

The archery-only urban hunts, meant to curb overpopulation of deer in and around city limits, garnered broad support during City Council discussions in late 2009.

Conservation agents, who had urged an urban hunt since the 1990s, cited deer populations four to eight times the preferred density.

Springfield-Greene County Health Department officials chimed in with concerns about a rise in tick-borne diseases.

Homeowners in Ravenwood, Spring Creek and Ravenwood South wrote to City Hall to complain deer were creating a hazard on the roadways -- backed up by police crash statistics -- and a nuisance in their gardens.

Full story at: Springfield News-Leader

Monday, July 19, 2010

MICHIGAN NEWS: 2009 Deer Hunting Season Summary

Michigan hunters harvested almost 10 percent fewer white-tailed deer across the state last year, likely because of poor weather conditions and unusually late-standing corn crops that made hunting difficult during the regular rifle season, hunter data shows.

Across all Michigan deer hunting seasons, buck harvest slipped roughly 14 percent to 214,937 last year from 248,350 deer in 2008. Doe harvest also dropped to 229,111 from 241,573, or about 5 percent. A significantly higher percentage of those deer were taken in archery and late antlerless seasons in 2009 than in ’08, which increased roughly 10 and 30 percent, respectively.

Hunter success dipped by 4 percent statewide to an overall average of 47 percent in 2009.

“We had warm weather in a lot of the state, rainy weather in some areas and a lot of standing corn still up. Thirty percent (of corn) was harvested as opposed to 70 percent normally,” said Brent Rudolph, DNRE deer program leader.

The number of Michigan hunters dropped by about 1 percent to 686,392 this year from 693,817 in 2008, following a decade-long trend.

Source: MLive