Iowa to reduce number of deer licenses

By Erin Murphy, Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES - Fewer does will be hunted this year in Iowa under changes adopted Tuesday by the state.

The state will issue 10,000 fewer hunting licenses for antlerless deer this year, and no antlerless hunting will be allowed in northwest Iowa's 27 counties during the early muzzleloader and first shotgun seasons.

The state also eliminated the January antlerless season.

The reductions are an attempt to slow or halt a population reduction effort employed over the past seven years. Department of Natural Resources officials said the state's deer population once deemed too high has been reduced to levels at or lower than those recorded in the mid-1990s.

'We were in a reduction mode for a number of years. Now we are in a stabilization mode. We're trying to keep the numbers similar to what they are,” DNR spokesman Kevin Baskins said.

Iowa DNR director Chuck Gipp said the state's deer population was too high in 2006, so the state increased antlerless tags to thin the herd. Gipp said that goal has been achieved in most parts of the state, so in those areas the number of antlerless licenses will be reduced.

According to DNR statistics, from 2006-13 the deer count observed by bowhunters and reported to the state was down 22 percent.

During a public comment period, roughly two-thirds of comments were in support of the new rule, officials said.

'In the last couple of years, probably, the pendulum has swung to where we're getting more complaints from hunters (over a lack of deer) than we are from people who think there are too many deer,” Baskins said.

Gipp said most of the concerns expressed over the new rule were from Iowans who still see too many deer in their region.

When asked about the changes, the Iowa Farm Bureau issued a statement that said the organization believes individual landowners are the best to decide the size of a deer herd on his or her property.

'Iowa Farm Bureau members prefer that a greater number of antlerless deer be harvested,” said a statement emailed by the bureau's public relations coordinator Andrew Wheeler.

State officials do not believe the rules changes will impact the number of hunters this season. DNR officials said the new quota for this year is 10,000 fewer antlerless licenses than were sold last year, when 22,000 went unsold.