Pop. of zone C dwarfs that of other areas...

Population of deer Zone C dwarfs that of other areas
By Mike Moore
Editor
Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:12 AM CDT
Athens, Ohio - Before deer season started last fall, there were roughly 2,200 deer in west central Ohio's Darke County, about four animals per square mile.

Across the state in Guernsey County, the pre-hunt population was just under 20,000, or around 22 deer per square mile.

Darke County is in Deer Zone A, 20 counties concentrated in the western and northwestern corners of the state. Guernsey is in the 38-county Zone C, where the lion's share of the deer population lives in Ohio.

“You're talking nearly 10 times the number of deer,” in Guernsey compared to Darke, said Mike Tonkovich, a Division of Wildlife deer biologist. “And that pretty much holds when you start looking at deer per square mile,” in Zone A.

The most populated deer county in Zone A was Williams last year with just under 6,000. In the entire zone, deer densities range from five to 15 per square mile with Williams, Defiance and Fulton being the most heavily populated.

Deer densities in Zone C, Tonkovich said, run from 20 per square mile on the low end to more than 40 at the top.

Therein lies the fundamental difference between a Zone A county (Darke) and one that's in Zone C (Guernsey) where the division will push again for more antlerless harvest this fall.

If the Ohio Wildlife Council approves on April 2, gun hunters in Zone C would be able to use $15 antlerless tags during the traditional shotgun week. Those tags were offered for the first time last year through the first six weeks of archery season.

Looking at the sheer numbers in harvest totals from 2007-2008 would suggest that hunters are already killing plenty of deer in Zone C. More than 103,000 antlerless deer were killed there this past season and more than 102,000 were harvested the previous year. The closest any other zone comes to that total is in Zone B, where about 32,000 antlerless deer where killed in each of the past two seasons.

But, that's obviously not an apples to apples comparison. Zone C is 18 counties larger than Zone B and, as already demonstrated, deer densities don't compare, either.

“In spite of the fact that these harvests are high, you have to think about it in the context of how it relates to the overall herd,” Tonkovich said. “While the harvest is inching up some, it's not taking the recruitment that was just added to the population.”

In Zone C, Pike and Lawrence counties are the only two that are near the Division of Wildlife's ideal population for management purposes, Tonkovich said.

“Those are the only counties that are even close to being at goal,” he said. “All of the others are probably three or four seasons away from being at goal. We've got a long way to go in terms of turning the population around.

“We updated our target population back in 2000 (in Zone C) and we've moved in the opposite direction every year since then,” Tonkovich said.

It is a biological fact, Tonkovich said, that a third of the population must be removed every year to keep the deer herd stable.

But, with harvests over 100,000 in each of the past two seasons and the population continuing to increase, the question that begs is whether or not it's possible to effectively manage Zone C through hunting alone.

“I don't think it's out of reach, given the progress that we made this year,” Tonkovich said, specifically referring to the early season antlerless tags. “I think we've hit on something by making more (tags) available and by lowering the price.”

Tonkovich also said that deer processors that took advantage of grant funding in Coshocton and Washington counties - both in Zone C - also encouraged hunters to take more deer because they could donate them without paying the processing fee (Ohio Outdoor News, Dec. 7). That program could be expanded in future years to include more counties.

The division is exploring the expansion of the donation program and other incentives to help drive deer management, Tonkovich said.

“If we can get just a bigger bite out of the population for a couple of years in a row, we can turn it around and I think we are already in some of the (Zone C) counties,” he said.

Another factor working against a bigger harvest in heavier deer density zones is the relative abundance of deer most everywhere, Tonkovich said. Hunters don't have to drive halfway across the state to hunt deer anymore.

“We no longer have the luxury of being able to pull guys down (south) to hunt because there is deer in some many different places,” Tonkovich said.

Tonkovich also believes there will be more discussion about further reducing the cost of the $15 antlerless permit.

“I think there will be discussions to widen that (price) gap further between the opportunity to kill a buck and the opportunity to kill an antlerless deer,” he said.