CALIFORNIA NEWS: Statewide Deer Population Decline Continues

Since 1990, California has lost nearly half its deer population, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

"Our deer are surviving, they're not thriving," said Craig Stowers, deer program manager at Fish and Game. "Quite frankly, until people start taking this seriously, we're going to continue to experience these types of declines."

This forest icon is on the wane mainly for one simple reason: habitat loss.

Between 1990 and 2000, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 75,000 acres per year were converted to low-density housing across California. A recent Bee analysis of housing data showed a similar trend over the past decade, at least until the recession began. The rate was even greater before 1990.

This land conversion eliminated food and migratory corridors vital to deer.

Source: Sacramento Bee

MAINE NEWS: Fewer Antlerless Permits to be Available

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock is proposing to cut the number of such permits in the state's 29 wildlife management areas from 48,825 to 26,390, a drop of 46 percent. The antlerless permits are also known as "any-deer" or "doe" permits.

Antlerless permits are issued when the goal is to reduce deer numbers, and withdrawn when the goal is to increase deer numbers.

In the past five years, the deer harvest has dropped sharply, from 29,918 in 2006 to 20,063 in 2010, officials say. For 2011, the department is recommending that only bucks be harvested in 17 of the state's 29 wildlife districts.

Source: mbpn.net

CALIFORNIA NEWS: Black-tailed Deer in Decline Since 1989

The distinctive splayed antlers of black-tailed deer bucks have become an increasingly rare sight in California, particularly if you are accustomed to spotting the appendages through a rifle scope.

The California deer population has plummeted over the past two decades - by 46 percent - if the yearly count of bucks killed by hunters is a proper measure.

A team of scientists led by the California Department of Fish and Game is fanning out across the rugged mountains of Mendocino, Glenn and Lake counties in an attempt to figure out just what is going on.

"The deer population harvest has been steadily declining," said David Casady, an associate wildlife biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. "One of the things we're studying is whether the population has decreased or just the harvest. Most likely it's the population that has decreased and the harvest is just tracking that."

The Columbian black-tailed deer, or Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, is the smallest, darkest and most common of the three deer species that are prevalent in California, with bucks weighing up to 200 pounds and does topping out at 140 pounds. The other two most abundant deer species in the state are the California mule deer and the Rocky Mountain mule deer.

Black-tailed deer, combined with mule deer, inhabit about 75 percent of California's wildlands. They thrive on the edges of forests, where they can find the underbrush and grasslands they prefer and still find places to hide from predators.

Antlers, venison sought

The males grow multipronged antlers, which, along with the promise of venison, is a primary reason they are the state's most popular game mammal.

The number of bucks taken by hunters in California dropped from 27,846 in 1989 to 14,895 in 2009, according to Fish and Game statistics. That was out of 164,753 hunters who pursued deer in 2009.

The three-year study, which is being done in coordination with UC Davis, is documenting habitat changes, vegetation, predation, land use patterns and other factors that might affect black-tailed deer. It is focusing on the mountains east of Covelo (Mendocino County) because that area has historically had some of the best deer habitat in the state and has, for the most part, been unaffected by human encroachment.

57% drop in area

The area has nevertheless seen one of the biggest declines, from 3,013 deer harvested in 1989 to 1,297 in 2009, a 57 percent drop, according to state statistics. The state estimated that 38,037 people hunted deer in the area in 2009.

Heiko Wittmer, a UC Davis adjunct professor and senior lecturer in conservation and ecological restoration at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington, said he and several doctoral students began capturing deer last year and equipping them with collars and tags with radio and global positioning satellite technology.

So far, he said, 40 fawns have had their ears tagged and 26 adults have had collars placed around their necks.

The equipment alerts trackers if four or more hours pass without any movement, an indication that the animal has died. The researchers then use an antenna to find the animal. The goal is to perform necropsies within 24 hours to determine the cause of death and use DNA analysis to determine what, if any, predator was involved.

"We are trying to estimate survival rates for fawns and for adults," Wittmer said. "Once we have that information, we can accurately measure death and birth rates and see if all of that together would result in a decreasing population."

Cougars, bobcats, black bears and coyotes are known to feed on deer. Remote cameras are being used to monitor coyotes and other predators, but only the mountain lion is known to have taken down a full-grown deer. That's why researchers have also collared a female mountain lion. They are planning to collar and track five additional mountain lions during the study, which is funded through June 2012, Wittmer said.

"One neat aspect of this study is that we are simultaneously looking at predators and prey," Wittmer said. "There is a lot of debate right now about whether the lion population is too high."

Hunting groups have claimed there are too many predators because of harvest restrictions and the elimination, albeit a long time ago, of bounties on mountain lions and coyotes.

Another theory, espoused by a fair number of biologists, is that the brush, grasses and foliage that deer feed upon are being choked out by nonnative weeds. The lack of food, the hypothesis goes, is being exacerbated by California's vigorous suppression of wildfires, which historically served to renew the state's grasslands and forests.

Forces of nature possible

The plummeting deer population could also be the result of a combination of factors, Casady admitted, including the tendency of hunters to fill with lead any buck with big antlers that they spot. Could it be that only the ugliest, nerdiest bucks are left and the does are simply turned off?

"It doesn't take many males to make sure all the females are bred," Casady said. "If the population was really that bad off, I think they would still breed with the ugly ones."

It may turn out in the end, Wittmer said, that the declining deer population is simply a reflection of what is normal in a balanced ecosystem.

"Maybe," he said, "if we want to have both healthy deer populations and healthy predator populations, then these densities are more natural."

The decline of black-tailed deer

-- Hunters killed 27,846 black-tailed deer in California in 1989 compared with 14,895 in 2009, a 46 percent decline.

-- Hunters killed 3,013 black-tailed deer in the study area in the forested mountains of Mendocino, Glenn and Lake counties in 1989 compared with 1,297 in 2009, a 57 percent decline.

-- Deer, which inhabit 75 percent of California's wildlands, are the most popular game animal in the state, attracting as many as 200,000 hunters a year.

-- Researchers have tagged 40 fawns and placed radio collars equipped with global positioning technology on 26 adult deer.

-- Cougars, bobcats, black bears and coyotes are known to prey on black-tailed deer and all four killed or scavenged fawns during the study, but the mountain lion is the only predator known to have taken down a full-grown deer.

-- A female mountain lion has been fitted with a satellite GPS collar and five others will be collared during the study, which is expected to continue through June 2012.

Source: SF Chronicle

NEVADA NEWS: Mule Deer Declining, Predators Targeted, Biologists Ignored

Declining western deer herds have biologists, sportsman groups and environmentalists clashing over whether mountain lions and coyotes are largely to blame and should pay with their lives.

On one side are those who believe the number of deer predators should be reduced through targeted hunting programs. Others say factors such as the loss of natural habitat and wildfires are the issue.

It's an emotional debate, says Jim Heffelfinger, regional game specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

"The scenario plays out in just about every state, Heffelfinger says. "When these things flare up, they're white hot."

That's the case now in Nevada, where the issue of killing lions and coyotes that prey on deer has state Department of Wildlife officials at odds with a governor-appointed commission that oversees them.

Nevada's mule deer numbered about 106,000 in 2009, down from a high of 240,000 in 1988, according to state estimates. Mule deer, characterized by their large, mule-like ears, are common throughout the western United States.

"We've got a war going on," says Cecil Fredi, president of Hunter's Alert, one of two hunters groups that petitioned the Nevada Wildlife Commission to approve three predator-control projects last December. It did so against the advice of department Director Ken Mayer and his biologists, who said killing mountain lions and coyotes was not scientifically justified.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services, which has the final say, refused to proceed. Doing so without full support of state wildlife officials would put them in an "untenable position," says Jeff Green, director of the western region for Wildlife Services.

State biologists say the deer's troubles are not due to predators but to continuing loss of habitat from development, wildfire and invading non-native grasses.

Tony Wasley, Nevada's mule deer specialist, says when lack of habitat is the problem, "all the predator control in the world won't result in any benefit."

Gerald Lent, chairman of the Nevada Wildlife Commission, says predators are an important part of Nevada's mule deer problems and addressing them is "long overdue."

The issue is also heating up in Arizona and Oregon. Arizona's mule deer number about 120,000, half the size of the herd in 1986, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Oregon's mule deer numbered 216,154 in 2009, down from 256,000 in 1990, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Duane Dungannon, state coordinator of the Oregon Hunters Association, says that even though mountain lion hunting is allowed year-round, "it's not even putting a dent in the state's cougar population."

"It's no longer that uncommon to bump into a cougar when you're deer or elk hunting, but it's becoming more uncommon to run into a deer or elk," he says.

Brooks Fahy, executive director of the non-profit Predator Defense, based in Eugene, Ore., worries the state's cougar population is "crashing" because of year-round hunting.

Source: USA Today

UK NEWS: Cold Weather Killing Deer

The "big chill" has delayed the arrival of spring flowers by up to one month and threatened thousands of deer with starvation as snow and ice bury the plants on which they survive.

With the Met Office warning of the possibility of icy weather again today, more evidence emerged, if we needed it, of just how the coldest January in years has hit wildlife and gardens at opposite ends of Britain.

Large numbers of red and roe deer are thought to have succumbed to lack of food in Scotland, with several estates having stopped deer shoots, although the annual cull of red deer hinds does not stop until next Monday. The Deer commission for Scotland has advised managers that they should continue with the roe deer cull, which does not end until next month.

One estate official told the BBC: "As the snow melts and people return to the hills, they will find dead deer. There's no doubt about that." Colin McLean, wildlife manager at the Glen Tanar estate on Deeside, added: "The sheer depth of snow has prevented deer getting at their food in certain places, and the frost has frozen the snow and they can't dig through it. It's nature at work."

But the commission said animals should still be shot on welfare grounds. "Natural mortality is an ongoing event, but this year it's going to be much greater than normal because of the weather we have had," said Robbie Kernahan, its director of deer management. "We'd encourage deer managers to get out and make sure they are removing the animals at greatest risk, which are likely to suffer through March and April."

Although this winter has been exceptional, UK spring has been arriving earlier than ever due to climate change. A major study released earlier this month compiled 25,000 records of springtime trends for 726 species of plants, animals, plankton, insects, amphibians, birds and fish across land, sea and freshwater habitats. It analysed them for changes in the timing of lifecycle events, such as egg laying, first flights and flowering, a science known as phenology. The results showed that more than 80% of trends between 1976 and 2005 indicated earlier seasonal events.

There were warnings of more snow, frost and ice today and tomorrow in areas as far apart as northern Scotland, the south-west, central and western England, eastern Wales, and Northern Ireland. But the good news is that spring, when it arrives, should be spectacular, according to the National Trust.

It predicted a riot of colour from the "perfect weather barometers" of its garden plants. The trust has widened its regular flower count from properties in Devon and Cornwall, where UK spring blooms traditionally appear first, to other sites. In the south-west, last year's wet summer and warm autumn put magnolias heavily in bud. So while they may flower late this year, the display will be "fabulous". At Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, the famous snowdrops collections are expected to be in full bloom next week, two to three weeks later than over the past decade.

Ian Wright, the trust's garden adviser in Devon and Cornwall, said that "once it warms up, everything will be blooming at once, rather than over a longer period of time, so we can expect a spectacular spring."

Source: The Guardian

MONTANA NEWS: Statewide, Mule Deer Numbers Decline

It’s tough to be a mule deer in Montana these days.

The big-bodied deer draw lots of hunting pressure all over the state, although not always the same hunters. For the past three years, mule deer numbers have been declining and state Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials are trying to turn the trend.

In western Montana, poor mule deer numbers are tracking equally poor white-tailed deer populations. But the two species are regulated differently, with more liberal either-sex hunting opportunities for whitetails. That puts the focus on the other predators: wolves, mountain lions and bears, according to Region 2 wildlife program manager Mike Thompson.

While wolf predation has been getting most of the attention lately, Thompson said lions shouldn’t be discounted. The agency increased its lion hunting quota last year to see what impact extra cat hunting might have. That data should be coming later this spring, when hunting regulations might see further lion focus.

Montana’s wolf quota filled quickly in the two western hunting districts last fall. Wildlife managers are studying the results of the hunt over the winter as they await a federal court ruling on the wolf’s threatened species status. That decision will either allow or prohibit a 2010 wolf hunting season.

Habitat is another concern, according to Thompson’s counterpart, Jim Williams, in Kalispell’s FWP Region 1. Mule deer are less common in the northwest, but no less treasured.

“The country is so rugged – all these alder-choked basins – but you can kill some beautiful old bucks,” Williams said. “It’s a brutal physical hunt. A lot of big bucks die of old age.”

They don’t die by wolves so much because their high alpine haunts don’t overlap with the packs’ preferred whitetail zones. But those areas have seen decreasing snowpack and increasing forest invasion over the past decade, which reduce the forage mule deer desire. The downward deer trend still needs more research to figure out the trend drivers, he said.

Lions and two-legged hunters are the main challenge in the eastern plains, according to hunters there.

“We’ve got zero wolf impact,” said Red Bone Outfitters owner Bud Martin of Zortman, near the popular Missouri Breaks hunting grounds. “All the predation impact here is mountain lions. Around the Little Rockies (mountain range), a mountain lion hunt is just a 10-minute jog.”

Martin said he’s seen a particular lion increase (and mule deer decline) on the C.M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, where federal regulations prohibit mountain lion hunting. But he also laid some responsibility on FWP hunting policies, which he said ran down western deer herds and encouraged excessive numbers of hunters to head east.

“That’s why people come to eastern Montana to hunt,” he said. “They get tired of hunting where success rate is 2 or 3 or 4 percent. And so every fork-horn mule deer out here gets blasted.”

FWP state wildlife program manager Quentin Kujula noted mule deer have always been helped and hindered by their local situations – whether its predators, weather or the species’ own up-and-down population cycle. Lions in the eastern part of the state are a relatively recent factor, he said, but one to watch.

FWP biologists also acknowledge that liberal license sales in past years have hurt deer populations. That was the rationale behind proposals eliminating over-the-counter doe tags in most of western Montana and dropping the eight-day either-sex period of the 2010 hunting season.

Those changes, and other reductions to mule deer license availability, will go before the FWP commissioners at their Feb. 11 meeting.

Source: The Missoulian

MAINE NEWS: Another Low Harvest Predicted for this Year

Maine’s deer kill is expected to be the smallest in at least 25 years this fall because the deer herd has been shrinking across the state.

The harvest during November’s deer-hunting season is projected to come in at 19,476. That would be the smallest harvest since 1984, when hunters bagged 19,358 deer.

To pump up the dwindling deer population, the state has issued fewer permits this year that allow hunters to shoot female deer. George Smith, head of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, expects fewer hunters to take to the woods this fall.

“We continue to lose a key part of our hunting heritage,’’ Smith said.

Maine’s deer herd has become smaller following two straight winters with deep snowpacks and cold temperatures. Contributing to the decline, Smith said, is increasing predation from bears and coyotes. Bears prey on deer fawns, and coyotes prey on both adults and fawns.

Last fall’s deer kill came in at 21,062, which was 27 percent below the 2007 total.

Other northern New England states had mixed results last year. In Vermont, hunters killed 17,046 deer, up 17 percent from 2007. The 2009 season is expected to be comparable to last year.

New Hampshire’s deer kill came in at 10,916 deer, down 19 percent from the previous year. The 2009 deer kill is expected to increase, especially in southern and western areas, where winter weather has been less severe.

This year’s deer kill in Maine could be one for the ages - but not one that hunters will like. If the kill comes in lower than projections, it could fall to levels not seen since 1971, when 18,903 deer were killed.

The smallest kill before that took place in 1934, when hunters took 13,284 deer.

“We’re right on the cusp, in that the deer harvest could go a bunch of different ways, on where it goes in the record books,’’ said Lee Kantar, the deer and moose biologist with Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Officials issue fewer permits when the deer population needs a boost, and more permits when the herd needs thinning.

Source: boston.com

NEVADA NEWS: Fractal Stupidity in Deer Management

Fractal stupidity - exhibiting stupidity at every level of analysis.

State wildlife officials have announced a plan to kill more mountain lions to help increase the deer population, a move criticized by animal advocates who say drought and development are more important factors in the decrease of deer numbers.

The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners told agency staff last week to employ the help of sport hunters and contract employees from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services for the state wildlife department's new "program of intensive, sustained predator reduction."

Ken Mayer, director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said his agency would use science to figure out the number of lions to be killed in areas where the predators have been found to adversely affect deer numbers.

"It's not an effort to exterminate mountain lions," Mayer said. "It's an effort to better manage lions with the prey base. Some hunters think the solution to the deer problem is to kill a lot of lions and the deer will come back."

The state's deer population fell from 240,000 in 1988 to 108,000 in 2008, while its current lion population ranges from 1,500 to 2,400, according to the wildlife department.

Nevada already allows lion hunts, each year issuing a quota of lion tags that a hunter can obtain. Commissioners set the quota at 306 tags for the year beginning March 1 and increased the number of tags allowed each hunter from two to three.

Lion advocates compared the new policy to the "Sarah Palin method of wildlife management," which wildlife biologist D.J. Schubert described as removing "animals with big teeth in order to promote the animals hunters like to shoot."

"It's an archaic form of wildlife management," said Schubert, of the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute. "Unfortunately, they're making the mountain lion a scapegoat, despite the importance of the mountain lion as a top-line predator in any ecosystem."

Palin, Alaska's governor, supports a predator control program that allows private citizens with permits to shoot wolves from the air in an effort to reverse a decline in moose and caribou numbers.

Don Molde, a former board member of the Defenders of Wildlife and a member of the Humane Society of the United States, called the plans "nonsense."

"This is a nonscientific effort to kill an animal just because they don't like it," he said. "It's an irrational dislike of an animal that has every right to live here."

He said similar programs in Washington, Oregon and New Mexico were cut back because of unintended damage to lion numbers.

Wildlife commissioner Scott Raine of Eureka said no one was trying to eliminate the population of mountain lions. He cited studies that showed lions eat one "deer-size"
animal a week.

"We just want to bring them down to a reasonable number, a sustainable number. Otherwise, deer will continue to die off," said Raine, a hunter.

In 2007, hunters killed 145 lions and Wildlife Services killed 37 lions in the state.
Commission chairman Gerald Lent did not return phone calls seeking comment over the weekend.

Source: AP (Google Hosted)

NEW BRUNSWICK NEWS: Significant Winter Deer Mortality in 2008

Fewer deer hunting licences will be available this year because of the high mortality rate for deer over the winter, says the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources.

About 25,000 deer died over the winter months in New Brunswick, because of starvation, predation and collisions with cars, said Rod Cumberland, a biologist with the department.

About a quarter of the province's deer population died during the winter, Cumberland said.

In the north, where the most snow fell, the mortality rate reached about 34 per cent, he said.

The heavy snow cover in the province made it difficult for deer to find food, and the crusty snow conditions made them easy prey for predators, Cumberland said.

The mortality rate is about double the usual figure for a winter in the province, he said, which means the province will offer fewer hunting licences for deer.

"Two-thirds of the province will see a decline in their licences," he said. "They might even be as scarce as hen's teeth in some places."

Regulating the number of licences, especially for does, will give the herd time to recuperate from the winter's losses, he said.

"It minimizes what we take as hunters, so the herd can get a jump start and start growing again in some of these areas where we'd like to see more deer."

It will take about two years for the province's deer herd to recover from the winter, Cumberland said.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/6axf9g

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Unified Sportsmen of PA Sues Game Commission (Again)

For the second time in two years, the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit it hopes will derail the Game Commission's controversial deer-management plan and allow the state's whitetail population to expand.

Unified's suit, filed Sept. 7 at Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, says the commission used inadequate scientific data in determining the number of licenses available to hunt antlerless deer. Unified also is asking the court to issue an injunction that would halt all antlerless deer hunting on State Game Lands and State Forests until the commission gathers additional data on deer populations and reproductive success.

''The commission readily acknowledges they do not know how many deer exist in Pennsylvania and have resorted to subjective and ambiguous evaluations to determine deer densities rather than sound, scientific and numerical data,'' Unified Chairman Gregory Levengood of Boyertown said in a news release. ''Such unconventional and careless decision making has resulted in a dramatic, and quite possibly an unsustainable, decline of our public land deer herd.''


Commission officials dismissed Unified's suit as baseless and harmful to sportsmen.

''Unified once again is attempting to waste the Game Commission's limited resources on frivolous lawsuits that have no merit,'' Joseph J. Neville, director of the agency's Bureau of Information and Education, said in a prepared statement.

''Such a lawsuit, filed at this late date, only serves to create confusion for hunters looking forward to hunting seasons. This lawsuit also will result in a diversion of money and staff time that could be better spent managing the state's wildlife resources.''

Unified attorney Charles B. Haws of Reading said the commission has until Oct. 10 to file its initial response with the court. No hearings have been scheduled, and despite Unified's request for an injunction to block doe hunting on public land, Haws said it is unlikely the suit will have any short-term impact on deer-hunting activity.

''There would have to be a hearing regarding the merits of our complaint before the court could issue an injunction,'' Haws said. ''That could take a year. It could take less. It could take more. It depends on how vigorous the debate is between the parties.''

The lawsuit signals the start of a new round in an ongoing battle between the commission and Unified, a statewide hunting organization that says it represents more than 30,000 members.

In recent years, Unified has been the most vocal critic of the commission's deer program, and Unified filed a similar lawsuit against the agency in 2005. Although the legal arguments in that were eventually rejected by a judge, the court ruled that Unified and other sportsmen's groups have legal standing to challenge commission policies.

Commission biologists say the deer-management program is designed to balance white-tail populations with available habitat to limit the damage caused by deer eating small trees, agricultural crops and landscaping. Officials say their goals are to produce healthy deer and healthy habitat while also reducing the number of deer-human conflicts.

But in its lawsuit, Unified alleges the management program relies too much on ''qualitative'' data such as the results of forest regeneration surveys and not enough on ''quantitative'' data such as deer densities and reproductive success.

Therefore, Unified says, the agency does not have sufficient data to make credible deer-management decisions, and as such, there is no legitimate basis for the agency's decision to allocate 865,000 general antlerless licenses for the 2007-08 hunting season, plus an additional 19,136 licenses provided to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources specifically for State Parks and State Forests under the Deer Management Assistance Program.

The suit alleges that because the commission doesn't have enough data, the agency has abused its discretion in making arbitrary antlerless license decisions and violated its legally mandated duty to promote Pennsylvania's hunting heritage.

''By improperly authorizing the killing of too many antlerless deer, [the commission] has improperly reduced the Pennsylvania deer herd below its natural and appropriate population and, as a result, [the commission] has failed to provide an adequate opportunity for the members of USP to hunt deer,'' the suit states.

Unified is asking the court to halt all antlerless deer hunting on State Game Lands and State Forests and order the commission to gather comprehensive, statewide data on deer reproduction and deer population densities.

Haws said Unified is not seeking to halt antlerless deer hunting on private land because the group supports landowner rights and also believes most property owners do a good job of balancing deer numbers.

''If the [commission] would manage public land deer as well as private landowners manage the deer on their land, we wouldn't have any problems,'' Levengood wrote in an e-mail about the suit.

There are about 950,000 hunters in Pennsylvania, according to the commission's 2006 license sales data.

Source: http://www.mcall.com/sports/outdoors/all-lawsuit0918.6039654sep18,0,5586678.story

SOUTH CAROLINA NEWS: Densities Down, Buck Quality Up

WHILE SOUTH CAROLINA’s deer harvest has declined 23 percent during the past three years, the quality of antlered bucks remains high: 136 record-list entries were recorded this year.

That, said S.C. Department of Natural Resources deer biologist Charles Ruth, is a pretty good indication that fewer deer in the population benefit from increased available nutrition.

“South Carolina’s deer herd is in good condition, and it appears that after many years of rapid population growth the herd stabilized in the mid-1990s,” he said.

Recent estimates put the deer population at about 750,000, which is down from the 1-million-plus estimates in the1990s. Ruth said the annual harvest the past few years has been about 250,000.

The DNR’s recently published 2005 Deer Hunter Survey listed a statewide harvest of 244,045 deer last season — 123,503 bucks and 120,542 does — down 2.9 percent from 2004. Ruth said prospects for this deer season, which opened Tuesday in several Lowcountry counties, are very good.

He cited three factors that are believed to have attributed to the decline: a major drought from 1998 to 2002 that reduced populations, the growth of pine stands more than 10 years old, and an abundance of natural foods and unseasonably warm fall temperatures that decrease deer movements.

The top typical buck, which scored 162Ø, was found dead as a road kill on the Savannah River Site in October.

A 13-point buck taken by Manning Lusk of Anderson in a remote area of Lake Thurmond in McCormick County, had the top non-typical rack with a score of 187½.

DNR biologists scored 463 sets of antlers in the spring; 132 typical racks and four non-typical racks made the state records list, which requires 125 points for a typical rack and 145 points for a non- typical rack.

There are 4,641 sets of antlers on the state record list, 4,475 typical racks and 166 non-typical.

VIRGINIA NEWS: Group Forms to Fight Declining Deer Population

Deer hunters concerned with a declining deer population on national forest land have created an alliance to increase the presence of the animals.

Myron Reedy, co-founder of the Shenandoah Sportsmen’s Alliance, said Rockingham County needs a group dedicated to improving the habitat for deer.

"It’s a shame to not have enough deer in the forest for hunting," he said. "Hopefully this group will be able to figure out some corrective changes."

For the last five years, the number of deer killed during hunting in Rockingham County has declined. According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, 5,536 deer were killed in 2000, compared to 4,085 killed in 2005, a 26 percent decrease.

Rodney Mongold, another co-founder of the alliance, worries that future generations will become bored with the outdoors if there is nothing to hunt.

"This is about the children," he said. "I don’t want my kids out on the street or playing video games. But if they get bored being in the outdoors, that’s what they might do."

The concerns of the alliance stem specifically from a decreasing number of deer killed in the George Washington National Forest. According to the game department, 1,050 deer were killed on national forest land in 2000. Last year, 656 were killed, a 38 percent decrease.

"I don’t want to have to drive to Kentucky to get a nice white-tailed deer," Mongold said. "We’re losing tax dollars if no one comes to the state to hunt."