Deer-hunt numbers follow downward trend

The latest deerhunting numbers in Ohio speak loudly, though the message is not altogether clear.

Hunters checked 172,040 whitetails in the 2018-19 season, which began in late September and finished last Sunday. That is a decrease of more than 14,000, or 7.6 percent, from the 186,247 checked a year ago.

More telling, the 201819 total was the lowest since 2001, when hunters checked 165,124 deer just before a record era of harvest numbers.

The next season, Ohio hunters checked more than 204,000 deer, sparking an 18-year stretch in which the deer kill surpassed 200,000 in 10 years, capped by the 2009-10 total of 261,314.

Since the 2013-14 season, however, the harvest has failed to reach 200,000 in any season. Gun-season numbers likewise have declined, decreasing from more than 114,000 in 2009 to an average of about 70,000 in recent years.

Weather doubtlessly scuttled the 2018 weeklong gun season from Nov. 26 through Dec. 2, when hunters checked 60,557 whitetails, 12,257 fewer than in 2017.

Outside of gun week, hunters checked more than 111,500 deer in 2018-19, about 1,900 fewer than those taken outside gun week a year ago. That’s hardly a statistical ripple.

Weather notwithstanding, what seems remarkable is that before 2018, the last year fewer deer were taken during gun week was 1986, when the 55,756 deer checked during the sixday kill accounted for almost 83 percent of the deer taken that year.

The gun game has changed. Bow-hunters in 2018-19 checked 79,893 deer, far surpassing the gun-week count and even outstripping the 70,182 total after adding the bonus gun weekend. Guns still killed the most deer, but only when numbers included the two-day youth hunt and the four-day muzzleloader season, neither of which existed several years ago.

The trajectory seems to indicate a downturn starting a decade ago, followed by slow growth or none. The deer business not only provides major funding for the Ohio Division of Wildlife but, as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources points out, hunting generates an $853 million annual impact on the state.

Some herd downsizing was intentional, of course, as a government response to demands from farmers and others who judged the deer population too large and crop damage too extensive. The huge kills of a decade ago were abetted by regulations that included liberal season limits and antlerless permits.

In part to answer hunter concerns about too few deer, the Division of Wildlife in recent years has restricted the use of antlerless permits to a handful of counties. Also, to protect pregnant does and next year’s fawns, the division made it illegal during this season to take does on many public hunting areas after gun season.

Other possible influences may be beyond anyone’s control. Though this year’s harvest was down almost 90,000 from its peak, the reason might be related to fewer hunters as much as fewer deer.

The hunting population is aging and dwindling. Land increasingly is being taken off-limits by deeppocketed hunters.

What’s ahead in coming years will unfold like any mystery, but what has occurred can be counted:

Coshocton led Ohio counties with 6,040 whitetails checked, down more than 500 from 2017-18. Tuscarawas was next with 5,221, likewise down 501.

Licking led central Ohio counties with 4,573 deer checked, followed by Fairfield (1,793), Delaware (1,406), Union (921), Franklin (733), Pickaway (727) and Madison (489). All numbers were down from a year ago.

outdoors@dispatch.com