Borderland deer hunters should expect a hunting season similar to last year when the Minnesota firearms deer season opens Nov. 5, according to Larry Petersen, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources area wildlife supervisor.
“Hunters should see similar results as last year,” Petersen said. In Borderland, the hunting season ends Nov. 20.
Nearly 500,000 people are expected to participate in the firearms deer season.
Minnesota’s whitetail deer population is about 1 million. The DNR manages the herd based on population goals established with public input, with officials expecting this year’s harvest to be similar to the 207,000 deer harvested in 2010.
Petersen said the deer population in Borderland is around the DNR’s established goal, “so we’re not trying to bring the harvest down. We had a severe winter and we’re trying to stabilize that and build it up, so that’s why we cut back on antlerless permits. In some places, the deer will be a little harder to find, but in other places, there will be plenty of deer.”
Petersen said DNR staff are not seeing as many fawns with does in the areas to the east and south in St. Louis County which experienced a little more snow than the Falls area, while areas to the west didn’t see as deep a snow cover. Petersen said signs that deer have been browsing on balsam fir are indicators that the deer are stressed. Those indications were seen to the south and east of the Falls.
“Every time we have those conditions with extended deeper snow, we see impacts on the herd,” he said. “But we still have plenty of deer.”
Petersen said the winter was not so severe as to cause the DNR to take further steps to conserve the herd by having a bucks only season. “We’re not anywhere near that,” he said.
He explained that the most restrictive season would be a bucks only season and the least restrictive would be a season that offers hunters the ability to harvest five deer. In other areas, hunters are offered a choice of sex, but they may only harvest one deer.
“We’re in between the hunters choice and bucks only options,” he said.
Deer are going into the winter in good shape, he said. But the severity of this winter could be critical for the deer population in the area, he said.
“It’s a year-by-year thing,” he said. “We can have a cumulative effect if we get several severe winters in a row. But deer easily rebound with one winter that is somewhat severe.”
During the late 1990s, deer populations were at high levels in many areas due to a succession of mild winters. The DNR enacted liberal hunting regulations to reduce the population, resulting in Minnesota’s deer harvest peaking in 2003 at 290,000.
Meanwhile, Petersen reminded hunters that the deer stand height restriction is no longer in effect.
And he noted that again this year there are additional opportunities for people aged 10 and 11; a free hunting license is available, but while hunting, the hunters age 10 and 11 must be within immediate reach of a guardian.
“Part of that is to encourage participation in hunting,” he said. “Like the youth hunts within the state, this is another way of making it easier for young people to get involved in the sport.”
