DOOR COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — As hunters get ready for the upcoming nine-day campaign, deer managers say some areas in Door County may have too many white-tails, and they hope their offer to harvest more antlerless animals will help the situation.
White-tailed deer are on the move in a lowland area near Forestville.
Door County Deer Advisory Council Chair, Greg Coulthurst, says a decades long chronic deer population situation may be moving closer to one of crisis.
“We don’t want too many deer on the landscape,” said Greg Coulthurst, Door County Deer Advisory Council Chair.
Experts say the animals can collide with vehicles, damage vegetation, and even get to the point where competing for food, can lead to a decline in the overall health of the deer.
“If you’re trying to maintain the herd, or decrease the herd, like Door County is, in these last three years, our population is starting to tick up again. So we have to start looking at that seriously, and start implementing all the tools to reduce that population,” said Coulthurst.
Coulthurst says Door County is offering four farmland zone antlerless permits with each deer hunting license sold. The county is one of only three across the state to make the proposition. The council is also holding a nine-day antlerless only Holiday Hunt, and extending the archery and crossbow season to the end of January.
“In a lot of these counties, these farmland counties, we need to be harvesting at least one and a half antlerless deer for every buck that’s harvested. We really should be harvesting two antlerless deer for every buck. And we rarely achieve that,” said Jeff Pritzl, DNR State Deer Program Specialist.
Jeff Pritzl says that’s not all. Public hunting areas make up about 10 percent of Door County. The other 90 percent is privately owned.
“It’s more of a messaging tool to the hunting community that there’s an abundant opportunity to take more deer. It’s predominantly private land. It’s the message to the landowners and the people that are hunting those properties. We don’t expect a lot of hunters to fill multiple tags, but we hope we have more hunters just fill one, or two antlerless tags,” he said.
“It’s a balance,” said Coulthurst.
“And we’re trying to figure out what that sweet spot is, and we’re hoping that four tags still helps reduce the population, but is not too cumbersome for everybody involved,” he said.
Deer managers say hunters are able to utilize deer donation programs, providing a protein source to area food pantries.
The nine-day gun season begins on Saturday.
