Fawn crop

[Farmsfulltime]

Sounds like feed and high quality feed and habitat are whats needed then, maybe the adult does would have been barren no matter how many were in the area , The DNR cannot control the weather yet , if there had been twice as many how many of those would have starved

[Early Riser]

We were up at our cabin in the Grand Marais area over the first week in August and I saw a few deer with fawns, including twins and one fawn that kept coming down to the river bank where I was fishing early one morning. Every time I caught another fish, it would get curious about the splashing and other noises, and walk back to within about 30 feet of me. Later I heard it bleating to its mother as it must have stayed too long in my area while mamma wandered away.

I saw very little deer sign in most areas greater than one mile inland, including on our trails and along the road. Most sign and deer sightings were down by the lake where a number of folks were feeding them during the past severe winter.

[laker1]

You get Brainerd and north it was just a hard winter controlled by mother nature,that is just the way it is,nature rules. Happenned before and will happen again.

[PurpleFloyd]

They were handing them out like candy for longer than a decade and the population was fine. Lots of this is just knee jerk because we had weather that has had an impact on their ability to recover but rest assured, they can and will recover and can get back to the levels they were at before on their own god willing and if he gives them the weather they need.

To be honest I think this came along at just the right time because it made everyone step back and rethink their priorities and in the end i believe the sport and the deer will benefit. As far as the comment that they are not rats- yeah, they are a living creature and we do owe them respect. In fact we need to respect all of them and not just the big ones. they are all a goft and when they are provided to us we need to be glad no matter what size they come in. He doesn't always give us what we want, but he always gives us what we need.

[smsmith]

The sport and deer will be better for it...if and only if deer hunters and our DNR learns something. If not, the days of harvesting 200-220K are gone forever in this state.

Two bad winters in a row are not solely responsible for our current situation.

[Farmsfulltime]

The DNR will handle the deer population goals just fine as they always have . The DNR are good honest professional people that have the herds best interest at heart, Some weather help and there will be plenty. And yes there are people that view deer as only trophies with horns and quite often have a different perception of the deer herd because they haven't seen any shooter bucks ! May also be a little more prone to a knee jerk reaction

[smsmith]

The DNR are good honest professional people that have the herds best interest at heart

Do you know any folks who work for the DNR on a personal level? I can tell you for a fact that many of them do not care much for deer. Deer are not what most folks go to school to study and then manage. Deer are viewed by many wildlife professionals as secondary to other critters. I have no doubt that the vast majority of DNR staff are what you say...good, honest and professional. Deer however are not their passion. If our DNR had the herd's best interest at heart, they would have spent more than 13% of the deer license revenue received in 2013 on actual deer management.

[Farmsfulltime]

Never got that impression that they don't care ect, To my knowledge DNR has always reacted to what the public wants from them it may take awhile to accomplish but they will and address all parties interested . No do not know any DNR personally , but I don't much care for some people or groups lumping the entire department as bad ect . They are in a thankless job with many tasks, never right, always wrong no matter what they do or accomplished . As far as expeditures on deer im sure as more is required from them the more they will need this stuff isn't free . There are more than one deer organization in Minnesota that probably isn't that far percentage wise from 13% spent on actual deer projects, Can I say upper management does well in those also in fact some lobby groups are probably formed to extract money from concerned groups of hunters with no intention of helping deer. maybe not in the beginning but give it time it will get there

[smsmith]

give it time it will get there

You're a more patient man than I am

The way I see it is that the DNR has had quite a bit of time already. Yes, they have a good start now (for those of us who'd like to see more deer on the landscape anyway) but I have significant concerns that this will be a one or two year "reprieve" and then we'll be right back where we are.

We need a DNR deer management plan (we have none), we need an outside evaluation of the deer model, data inputs for that model, and the public stakeholder process. We need to make sure deer and deer management get the time, attention, respect, and $$$ they deserve. I certainly don't expect 100% of deer license revenue (about $18 million the last few years) to go to deer management. However, I do think 50% of that revenue being spent on actual deer management isn't an unrealistic expectation.

[flipper]

I am a deer hunter and I like watching deer but I am also of the opinion that the deer numbers in Minnesota were too high in what some of you consider the "glory years". Deer have a large negative impact on habitat when there numbers are too large. It is tunnel vision and short sighted to simply think high numbers=good, low numbers=bad.

There are still plenty of opportunities to see and shoot a deer if you are willing to put in the effort. It's great to be out in the woods even if you end up with tag soup.

[laker1]

Number one,we don't need any outside management. Things are going in the right direction and you have to look at deer management from North Dakota to the east coast. Most were using the same modeling population tool(many are changing),second many were over harvesting for many reasons-some were disease. Harvest rates have to be adjusted down.

We got to harvest rates of over 200,000 because of over harvest,so I don't know if that rate would be sustainable long term

Yes I know DNR wildlife managers and many work weekends on there own time trying to keep up. Also many retired DNR wildlife managers are staying very active in the outdoor field trying to improve the resource.

Also I believe to have quality deer hunting we don't need to increase the number of hunters.

This topic is getting off coarse-how is the Fawn crop?

[flipper]

This topic is getting off coarse-how is the Fawn crop?

From what I see the fawns are plentiful in south central MN.

[PurpleFloyd]

This topic is getting off coarse-how is the Fawn crop?

[laker1]

Still not seeing many fawns yet in the Mille lacs area? On game cameras or otherwise.

How about you folks?

[Jameson]

Since its a metro observation I don't think it translates away from the metro bird feeders, but I saw a pair of small spotted fawns a couple three days ago. First fawns seen this year for me, but its common for me not to see many fawns.

[Glenn_S]

Last weekend, saw a number of fawns along the road in the Brainerd area. Went up to set cameras in our hunting area today and saw as many hoof-prints from fawns as adults, and we saw a lot. This is zone 183 near the Nemadji State Forest. Also jumped a couple really nice does.

If things continue to look this way, it may be a good year. This is our first year in this area. Hopefully we'll see something with antlers on the cameras in 3 weeks...

[not_nuf_time]

I hunt around Moose Lake and only have one camera out. I'm seeing plenty of fawns just with the one camera we've got twins and singles, spots still and no spots.

[Greybeard53]

Our land is about 10 miles west of Garrison. Lots of fawns on the cameras.

Some singles, but mostly twins. All the deer look very healthy.

[icehole10]

I hunt northeast of the Bagley area, and we are seeing a lot of fawns this year. Last year we saw very few. Hopefully we can get a decent winter and things will definitely be looking up.

[Jmnhunter]

have 3 cams around the baxter area and same thing, mostly twins with a couple of single fawns