Deer hunting, and the experience associated with it, tends to lie within the eye of the beholder.  Many things in life are that way, and hunting is no exception.  You can put multiple people in the same stand, at the same time, and all of them would describe their experience differently – some might be bored; some would be having a nice relaxing time; some might be having the time of their life, etc.

Since everyone’s perceptions are different, it makes managing a deer herd a difficult task.  And while the deer population in the Southern Lower portion of Michigan is out of control, people tend to turn a blind eye towards the problem.  Instead of looking at the big picture, which Phillip does an excellent job of explaining in his well-thought out post, they focus on themselves, their own experience, and not the overall health of the deer herd.

A prime example of this mentality would be the casual hunter;  the hunter who maybe hunts a few hours the entire season, only lays eyes on a handful of deer, and decides – based on his very limited observations – that the deer population is  “low”.  If he hunted a few more hours during the season, or took the time to pay attention to the massive amount of crop damage on the land he is hunting, it would be obvious that the deer population, in fact, isn’t low.  But he bases his “facts” on a few mere observations and his mind is made up.  With that in mind he stops shooting does, even though the actual population numbers require it, and the deer numbers start to escalate once again.

I truly believe that Michigan’s deer numbers are heading towards a crisis level; a level that is adversely affecting Michigan’s deer herd and the quality of our hunts.  More and more of us are shooting does – as we need to – but still there are many of us who refuse to do so based on their own observations during a few sits – for only a few hours – in a stand or in a ground blind.  They focus on me, me, me rather than looking at the scientific numbers and doing what is asked of them by educated biologists.

Now I’m just an average hunter, but some simple digging was all I needed to do in order to truly see where Michigan’s deer herd – and I’m especially referring to the Southern Lower Peninsula (SLP) – stands.

According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division Proposed Deer Population Goals, the proposed deer population in the SLP should be anywhere between 501,000 to 602,000, yet they estimated the deer population in the SLP to be somewhere near 806,000 by 2005…….and here we are in 2009.  Now I know there are plenty of variables not included in my representation, but still the shear fact that they estimated the deer population to be 200,000 deer above goal is astounding to me.  Is it any wonder that so many antlerless tags have been issued in this area of the state?

If we want to drill down even farther, the population goals for the South Central Lower Peninsula Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) were 179,000 to 213,000, with an estimated population in 2005 of 305,500; that is almost 100,000 deer over the recommended population goal, and the SC WMU isn’t a huge area of land.

If we take an even closer look – a look at DMU (Deer Management Unit) 23 (Eaton Co., where most of our hunts take place) it starts to look a little better.  DMU 23 is actually one of the more stable DMU’s, and is one of the DMU”s that is fairly close to goal.  Yet, even so, the document still expresses concern, along with the recommended solution:

In order to reduce the deer herd in DMU 023 from its current level to the expressed goal of 14,000-17,000 deer, hunters will need to harvest significantly more antlerless deer (the emphasis is mine and not the documents) than they do now and must do so on a consistent basis. By encouraging an appropriate antlerless harvest philosophy through information and educational efforts, and establishing regulations that provide an appropriate number of antlerless permits, a late antlerless deer season, and the newly expanded muzzleloader season, the necessary antlerless harvest needed to reduce the deer population in DMU 023 may be achievable.

The above paragraph definitely pinpoints the solution to the deer population numbers in most of the state:  kill more antlerless deer.  By doing so you increase the health of the herd, you increase, not only the number of bucks you will see by leveling the buck-to-doe ratio, but you’ll also increase the quality of bucks in the area as well.  I think that alone will help to increase the number of hunters who are happy with the number of antlered deer they are seeing (57% of hunters are dissatisfied statewide – click on the chart to the right). Of course abiding by these rules may result in a few more deer less sits on stand, but overall the quality of the deer herd, the quality of bucks, and the quality of the hunt will increase.

All of us hunters have an obligation to the animals we hunt to maintain a healthy population.  In order to maintain those healthy population numbers in Michigan we need to shoot more antlerless deer – and we need to do it based on scientific facts and data, not selfish observation.

In the end that is what is going to help to create a deer hunting environment like we see in other states.  If all the hunters in Michigan wised up, took a look at what makes Ohio’s and Iowa’s seasons so great, and put their selfishness to bed, Michigan could be a hotbed for deer hunting……and all that money that gets spent on out of state hunts could stay right here in the Great Lakes State.

Picture Sources:

“Draft Goals by Region.” Deer_Population_Goals_141443_7.pdf.

“Table 11.” MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES Wildlife Report No. 3499, June 2009.

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