Area hunters prepare for deer gun season
The figures indicate that deer keep the hunting machine chugging along in Ohio.
Between 2011 and 2018, an average of 83 to 85 percent of license buyers also purchased at least one deer permit. About 95 percent of permit buyers actually hunted deer, Ohio Division of Wildlife figures show.
A year ago, 344,885 resident and nonresident hunting licenses were purchased in the state, the division reported. Those license buyers bought 393,367 deer permits.
The reason more deer permits than licenses were sold is not all that mysterious.
Because the wildlife division offers the opportunity to take multiple deer during a hunting year, a segment of non-landowning hunters pursues multiple deer requiring the purchase of multiple permits, up to six.
About 37 percent of residents who bought a permit took a deer during the 2019-20 season. Among those, about three of four settled for a single deer.
Fewer than one in five successful hunters took two deer, one in 25 took three and one in 100 took more than three. Just 103 of the total permit buyers, about one in 2,000 hunters, maxed out on six tags.
All of the above translates into wildlife division revenues.
Hunting licenses in 2019 generated some $10.8 million, about 15 percent of the $72.6 million total, and deer permits accounted for some $8.8 million, about 12 percent. When the two are taken together, only federal dollars, some $23.8 million, or about 33 percent, accounted for a bigger block of the division's income.
Ohio's deer archery season began in late September.
As of Tuesday, 69,357 whitetails were reported checked. At the same point of the season in 2019, the number stood at 70,567.
That the number checked is down 1,210 whitetails from a year ago might be a little surprising given the wider availability of discounted deer-management permits. Windstorms on key days and rain discouraged some hunters.
Those permits may be used through next Sunday. The weeklong statewide deer gun season commences the next day, Nov. 30.
Sunday marks the second and final day of the youth deer gun weekend. A year ago, the youth hunt count totaled 6,249 whitetails.
Hunter alliance
Among the many organizations enduring financial hard times in this year of financial contraction amid the COVID-19 pandemic apparently has been the Columbus-based Sportsmen's Alliance. The alliance is a not-for-profit that's been working to preserve hunting, trapping and fishing rights since the late 1970s.
Though its current scope also is national, the alliance's founding dates back to the need for strong opposition to a well-organized effort to eliminate trapping in Ohio. Later, the alliance and its allies fought successfully to keep dove hunting legal in the state.
The alliance worked in Ohio to promote Sunday hunting, the apprentice license program and, not long ago, a boost in license fees to help ensure the continued financial health of the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Tom Vorisek, longtime conservation and hunting activist, former member of the Ohio Wildlife Council and president of Vorisek Financial Corp. of Worthington, hinted in a recent email the viability of the alliance might be in question.
“With 2020 being a fundraising train wreck, the Sportsmen's Alliance has launched an online raffle to raise funds to stay in business,” he wrote.
The Charity Navigator website gives the alliance three out of four stars, concluding that the organization spends 82.4 percent of its revenue on programs and services it claims to deliver. The revenue in fiscal year 2018 was a modest $1.67 million, while expenses totaled $1.73 million.
Being raffled are 75 items valued at $125,000. Find details at sportsmensalliance.org.
outdoors@dispatch.com