Northern Minnesota Deer harvest plummets

Department of Natural Resources area wildlife managers Tom Rusch at Tower and Rich Staffon at Cloquet said deer registrations were down an average of 38 percent and 34 percent in their work areas, respectively.

“A decline of 34 percent — that’s pretty significant,” Staffon said of his work area. “We might see 10 or 15 percent some years, but that’s substantial.”

The harvest dropped from 13,526 last year to 8,956 this year during the first four days of the season in Staffon’s work area, he said. In the Tower wildlife area, harvest dropped from 8,623 last fall to 5,348 this fall.

Are these areas shared with wolves?

Northeastern Minnesota’s deer harvest bounced back quite a bit over the past weekend, at least in a broad area surrounding the Department of Natural Resources Cloquet and Tower wildlife management areas.

Harvest in the Tower area had been down 38 percent from last year after the first four days of the season, but after the first 10 days of the season, the harvest in that area was down 19 percent from the same period last year.

“(Over the) second weekend, the weather was ideal with sunshine, cool temperatures and calm winds and excellent hunting conditions,” said Tom Rusch, DNR area wildlife manager at Tower.

This is the first time in many years that we have zeroed through the first 2 weekends.

We visited with the CO opening weekend who mentioned that the wolves are thick in our area (Togo, MN). It was his opinion that if a season on wolves isn’t opened in the near future; deer, moose and other critters will take a huge devastating hit in populations.

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Are these areas shared with wolves?

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I think I’ve exhausted that topic. Cheryl aka “Fishing Queen” prohibits me from talking about wolves in particular anymore on this medium anyway. Looks like the harvest has bounced back to only be down around 20% in that area. Harvest is a tough way to predict a deer herd. For example the buck harvest in those areas was down 35%. That means many of the hunters of course filled a tag with a doe. If you see 20 deer and shoot 1 it provides the same “Harvest” information as seeing 1 deer and shooting 1. I would say the overall buck harvest will better detail the herd population than simply total harvest though of course that is down significantly as well.

Still pretty significant considering Zone 100 doesn’t have a huge robust harvest to begin with. This of course is one selected area I’ve been able to find info on. This is south of where we are considerably.

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This is the first time in many years that we have zeroed through the first 2 weekends.

We visited with the CO opening weekend who mentioned that the wolves are thick in our area (Togo, MN). It was his opinion that if a season on wolves isn’t opened in the near future; deer, moose and other critters will take a huge devastating hit in populations.

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Yes Sir. Sickening.

I just got back from hunting northwest of Grand Marais for the past 7 days. All I can say is we saw 1 deer for three guys and I sat dark to dark 4 of the 7 days. We had a inch of fresh snow wed morning so I told my father to walk my trail and look for deer tracks after he gets cold.He said he walked 2.1 miles and cut 1 deer track after 50 yards two wolves were on the track. I know wolves have always been up there but we saw way more wolf sign then deer sign this year.

Wasn’t opening day windier than all get out across the whole state? I am just throwing that out there because I believe a significant number of the deer harvested get harvested on opening day and if conditions suck for seeing deer…….

dd

Also, wasn’t last winter pretty severe?

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Also, wasn’t last winter pretty severe?

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I guess that really depends on who you talk to. In my mind I remember the back to back winters of 1995 and 1996 as being considered severe. We had both long periods of cold and lots of snow those years. In my opinion, last year was an average MN winter and was quite nice compared to ’95-’96.

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I just got back from hunting northwest of Grand Marais for the past 7 days. All I can say is we saw 1 deer for three guys and I sat dark to dark 4 of the 7 days. We had a inch of fresh snow wed morning so I told my father to walk my trail and look for deer tracks after he gets cold.He said he walked 2.1 miles and cut 1 deer track after 50 yards two wolves were on the track. I know wolves have always been up there but we saw way more wolf sign then deer sign this year.

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That is a very pretty area. Yes with snow on the ground there is little guess work on how many deer are in an area.

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Wasn’t opening day windier than all get out across the whole state? I am just throwing that out there because I believe a significant number of the deer harvested get harvested on opening day and if conditions suck for seeing deer…….

dd

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Yes hunting conditions were not ideal on opening weekend. High circulating winds make hunting tough no doubt. A lower harvest by no means brings gin clarity to herd numbers. Still the DNR estimates the herd based on previous years harvest, so you can draw your own conclusions. Double edged sword I guess.

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Also, wasn’t last winter pretty severe?

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I guess that really depends on who you talk to. In my mind I remember the back to back winters of 1995 and 1996 as being considered severe. We had both long periods of cold and lots of snow those years. In my opinion, last year was an average MN winter and was quite nice compared to ’95-’96.

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Last year was a powder puff winter in comparison to the deadly 95-96 winters. Winter in itself did not decimate numbers. It is a popular theory though when the elephant is in the room.

We really don’t have any wolves in our area (Central MN) to speak of and the numbers are still very low.

I don’t know about you guys but I think allowing hunters to take 5 deer a peice might have had something to do with the decline in numbers?

Yeah 5 deer a piece is the DNR’s decision;The same managers of big game in question at times. I assure you nobody is allowed to take 5 deer a piece in the northern part of Zone 100; Wolf Range. I expect much of Zone 100 will be buck only next season. BTW we were this season.

I feel for you guys. You have the wolves and we have greedy “sportsmen” who take WAY more than they could possibly eat.

I had to chuckle when I heard the DNR blamed the low harvest on the wind. It could never be that they miscalculated the deer pop

I hear ya Joe!!

One of my most frustrating things is when for some reason I think guys want deer hunters to feel guilty to want a healthy herd. Of the healthy herd a man will harvest a deer. I believe this comes from some deep rooted heritage as hunters. My family eats venison. I also happen to want healthy fisheries so we can all catch and EAT fish.

Those who know me clearly understand I have a deep passion for a healthy arena to both hunt and fish.

The theory that HUNTERS are biased by wanting a healthy deer herd?? Is it considered wrong when fishing to WANT to catch fish?? Interesting I guess. I’d also be interested if cared to who currenlty funds the big game managment on a state level. This may point to that Deer Hunters might actually have the most say in what happens. If you aren’t funding the program in any level do you have any skin in the game??

I believe there is a real chance Deer hunters mayu organize a sit out for a season or two. There has been some discussion in doing so. Stop the money flow. It seems often times a shot to the pocket book will be the only way people will listen.

TRUTH; When reports keep rolling in of 7 days seeing 1 deer? That will drop revenues for Northern Minnesota to start. Many hunters may then increase pressure in more robust areas of the state. That increased pressure will cause several different problems. I think a healthy herd of deer is more important than many might think.

I hunt in Central Minnesota and like alot of others we had a rather tough season. The reason given by hunter in our areqa is the same Wolves. I ask everyone who says that if they have ever seen a wolve and the answers always the same NO but I know there are alot of them out there. You would think will all the hunters in the woods and with all the trail camera’s hunter are using these days. There would be a lot more sightings if the problem is as big of a deal as everyone seems to think. I’m not saying that wolves are not a problem I just don’t believe they are as big of a problem as some think. I know in our area the wind the 1st weekend did play a big role in the poor hunting sucess. I saw 5X more deer the 2nd weekend than the 1st. I also know the Tough winter last season took a big hit on the population. I saw a fair amount of does this tear with either only 1 fawn or no fawns.

Hunt with the in-laws northwest of Virginia Mn and we did not see a thing until day four where the brother in law was fortunate enough to harvest an eight point. Other than that no deer were seen in a total of six days by four of us. However, we saw a total of 7 wolves between all of us and heard many more after sun down. This in my opinion cannot be a good ratio. Being from west central Wisconsin we are beginning to see a higher volume of wolve sightings and wolves on trail cam. Will this problem be resolved or dealt with in time ? Or swept under the rug until it is completely out of control which in my eyes is not to far off.

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. I ask everyone who says that if they have ever seen a wolve and the answers always the same NO but I know there are alot of them out there. You would think will all the hunters in the woods and with all the trail camera’s hunter are using these days. There would be a lot more sightings if the problem is as big of a deal as everyone seems to think.

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We do see them from time to time and also see sign (tracks) of them in our area. The neighbor next to us had a trail cam set up in two loctions this fall before the season. Each time the card was checked there were approx. 25 pictures taken. Of the 25 pictures, only 4-5 pictures were of deer and the rest were of wolves.

Yep they’re here, these pics were from bear baiting last year, a young dark male made evident in the second pic. Sorry the pics are so dark, but when I made them smaller, they got darker.

Better management without politics and our highest court of law needs to be able to keep the States ahead of other concerns, that will get us into proactive management.

Chris, I am on your side, but as in WI walleye management, there are a lot of other factors that are making management of these wonderful animals (deer, bear, elk in WI, wolves, ‘eyes, ‘skies & trout) difficult!!!

Mark

Gotta run, time to see if there are any deer in central WI…

We have had trail cameras out since August and we have plenty of photos of wolves.That never discouraged us because like I said they have always been there.The big difference I see is,the last two years I hunted deer in Canada.In Canada they take pride in their deer herd and they do everything they can to manage the wolf population.Wolves are as smart as they come, they make a yote seem dumb. Which is why you rarely see them. I feel someone needs to step up within the DNR and accept the facts that we need to manage the wolves. They obviously have their spot in nature, but we cant continue to let them have free run on the rest of the animals without trying to keep their numbers in a acceptable spot. We also found two moose carcasses when we where up hunting? I dont think they are to picky. This is just my opinion.

Wolves on trail cameras here are common.