Deer Numbers

[ortonville]

HC eyehunter

i am from ortonville and everything you said hits the nail on the head!!!i would love to see a paririe zone that would be the best thing ever

[Rost]

Good Call Ortonville- I hunted south in Ivanhoe area. Prior to the season my brother kept telling me that the deer population is way down. I honestly didn't believe him until I saw it for myself. And it's not only us, most of the other groups we hang with struggled to find deer as well.

The rest of the state may be different, but Western/SW MN in general needs a revamp.

[BLACKJACK]

HC, when they're cutting the trees down for prairie chicken habitat, are they on Wildlife Management Areas (yellow sign) or Waterfowl Production Areas? I know in this area, its the WPA's that are taking a hit, some of them look like barren wastelands when they're done, good luck finding a pheasant or deer on them.

Go figure, there are 600,000 deer hunters and 100,000 pheasant hunters in this state, lots looking for places to hunt on public land, so they're cutting down prime deer habitat and even shelterbelts that pheasants can use - just so a few prairie chickens can exist. You need to let the responsible agency know how you feel. Contact the local sportsmans clubs and get them involved. In our area, even people that aren't hunters are disgusted with all the tree cutting.

[HC Eye Hunter]

Blackjack,

I am not sure, it seems that everything around here that is not private and is above a certain sea level is getting hit.

My feeling is that if there are major decisions being made on public ground that affect the landscape, the wildlife and ultimatly our community economics maybe a new decision making process should be addressed. I am thinking of something like a citizen advisory board or something of that nature.

It may be helpful to all parties, DNR and outdoorsmen alike, to offer their views on major subjects like tree removal, zone restructuring, license options and all the other things that need to be addressed on an annual basis.

[BLACKJACK]

Quote:

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My feeling is that if there are major decisions being made on public ground that affect the landscape, the wildlife and ultimatly our community economics maybe a new decision making process should be addressed. I am thinking of something like a citizen advisory board or something of that nature.

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I agree but I think thats why you need to find out what type of lands they are. If they are Wildlife Management Areas, they are managed by the MN DNR. If they are Waterfowl Production Areas, those are federal lands and are managed by the Fish and Wildlife service. The problem is, even though it says Fish and WILDLIFE on their trucks and uniforms, they have ducks on their brain, they're managing for ducks only, their thoughts are that trees=predators. Do some burns and some selected tree removal, but don't make the whole landscape into a barren wasteland, think about other WILDLIFE.

[bigbucks]

I'm not opposed to some prairie chicken or duck habitat, if it isn't at a significant impact to the most popular & most revenue producing type of hunting. Like someone said 600,000 deer hunters compared to 200 prairie chicken or 100,000 pheasant hunters or whatever isn't exactly even. Of course I understand it's not anywhere that far out of proportion where as all 200 prairie chicken hunters will be in western MN & only a "mere" what 30-50,000 deer hunters will be there? There would seem to be some logic in more significantly limiting the deer take in areas where the numbers are extremely low, if it bears out that they're as low as it would appear from the comments on this topic.