Quality Deer Management in Minnesota – Time for change?

            There has been a lot of effort lately in Minnesota regarding the need to re-think the way our deer herd is managed. We have had traditional management for over 30 years now, which means major pressure on bucks and often an under-harvest of does. At one time this was somewhat needed to build up the herd, with season actually needing to be closed for a year in the early 1970’s. Now we have a lot of deer, the adult buck to doe ratio is very skewed toward females, which causes several problems in itself, more crop damage and deer/vehicle collisions, and the threat of disease is hanging over our heads. Many of us think its time for a change.

            What has really kept our deer herd in control more than anything is bad winters, which we have not had since ’96 – 97. Our deer herd has become out of balance within itself as well as the environment. It’s all quantity and very little quality.

            I conducted a survey in Northwest Minnesota in 2000 to try and find out what deer hunters wanted – 486 folks responded. Ninety percent of hunters wanted to see more mature bucks (3-year old or older), 73 percent want to see more does taken, and the average hunter sees a mature buck about every 15 years! Yet all but a tiny percent of our bucks in Minnesota are harvested as buttons, yearlings and two-yr old bucks, all young or immature. This scenario repeats itself year after year.  There is a huge gap between the kind of deer hunting we want and what we have. QDM closes this HUGE gap. We feel that informing hunters and non-hunters on how we created this situation is the first step toward changing it. Minnesota QDM is not interested in blaming anyone for our current hunting atmosphere; we simply want to correct it.

            Deer management has to start with hunter education and management. This means changing the way we hunt! Every time you pull the trigger you are either helping control our herd or making things worse. Until QDM came along hunters had very little knowledge on deer management. In the old days it didn’t matter, we mostly had a meat-hunter mentality. But for the last 30 years we have been filling too many of our meat tags with young bucks, and wondering why we don’t see mature bucks anymore. Why do so many hunters think its better to take a small young buck rather than a doe for meat? There are really two products we get when taking a deer, meat or antlers. When you shoot a small buck and throw the horns away, all you have left is venison and you just made the problem worse.

            While every deer hunter would like to reap the benefits of a well-managed herd, the majority of hunters don’t seem ready to take any firm steps toward making it happen. Party hunting is an easy way to abuse the resource for some hunters. I know party hunters who shoot every buck they see, yet save their buck tag for the “big one.” This only makes the problem of an unbalanced deer herd much worse while giving hunters a bad reputation. We as deer hunters have become a society of takers with little regard for the consequences that are inflicted on the resource. The licenses we buy have led us in this direction until recently with the management and intensive harvest tags.

            Some form of newer deer management that is biologically balanced is needed, weather you call it quality deer management, balanced deer management, sensible deer management or come up with your own name. One thing I know is that every State that has mandated some form of quality deer management in the rulebook has continued to do so. None have started and stopped. The concept quickly becomes popular with hunters, landowners, and even non-hunters once they understand it with post-hunt approval ratings of over 90% consistently.

             Pennsylvania is the most recent State to mandate buck restrictions and currently have two years of QDM under their belt. It was a battle getting QDM to pass (which it always is). All it took was one hunting season and now all we hear are positive remarks with hunter satisfaction extremely high. They also had an accidental find, their first year of QDM was the safest year hunters had in their States history! All of this in a State that has over twice the hunters of Minnesota, all crammed into a State that is much smaller than ours. If QDM can work for them, it should be easy for us in Minnesota. But anything that requires any significant change is never easy.

            The fishing world in Minnesota went through the same battles in the 80’s. People were initially against the harvest and protective slots as well, but within a few years the benefits were being reaped and it became popular with most. The same thing will happen with deer hunting in Minnesota. We are just in the very early stages of this concept. By reading all of the different articles recently published on QDM one thing seems clear. Everyone agrees it’s time for a change with our deer management. The Minnesota DNR and Minnesota QDMI will be holding meetings this summer and fall to gather information from the public as well as educate the public abut QDM. Here is our chance to make a difference folks, do we want to remain stuck in the past or start planning for an exciting future of deer hunting? For more information on Minnesota QDMI or if you want to have a QDM seminar in your area contact us at 218-782-2881. That is a big step in the right direction.

 

Thank you – Clyde Stephens, President – MN QDMI

clydestephens@hotmail.com or www.mnqdm.com