Most hunters don’t cull herd

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Managing Illinois’ deer herd is a balancing act between the pursuit of trophy bucks, such as these at the Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic, against the need to harvest does. In 2011-12 deer seasons, it was nearly dead even. | Dale Bowman~for the Sun-Times

Updated: February 23, 2012 8:12AM

I’ve shot the same number of deer in the last decade as my wife or I have hit with a car. That thought struck me Thursday when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources ­released the deer harvest for all hunting ­seasons in 2011-12.

The preliminary number was 181,411 deer, nearly identical to the 182,270 harvested in 2010-11, but well off the record all-seasons harvest of 201,209 deer in the 2005-06 seasons.

In breaking down the numbers with forest wildlife program manager Paul Shelton, he mentioned the vast majority of hunters shoot one or no deer.

While thinking about that — I’m not great at deer hunting, but I fall in the middle of normal — I realized we’ve hit as many deer as I’ve shot in recent years.

Even among hunters, managing Illinois’ deer herd is a juggling act. Who wants to see a deer, which bolts across the road unexpectedly, clobbered? Not hunters, not drivers, not any passengers, and not insurance companies.

Some hunters, and I fit in this group, just want a decent chance to shoot a deer. While a trophy, obviously, is the dream, it’s not the only aim. Other hunters simply want to fill their freezers.

A smaller, but more active, subgroup wants to use quality deer management techniques to allow bucks to mature and achieve their potential for quality racks. That is not just a selfish consideration. Illinois’ world-renowned deer herd draws in out-of-state hunters for a multimillion economic impact annually. There are powerful economic interests in managing Illinois’ deer herd for those reasons.

But there are also powerful economic reasons — vehicle/deer collisions and agricultural foremost — to keep the deer herd at reduced levels.

Illinois is near the point in which all those forces have reached an uneasy peace.

Before hunting started in the fall, Shelton said, “I’m not expecting a record harvest; it should be similar to that seen in the past few years.’’

Overall, that turned out to be almost exactly true.

Bowhunters reported 61,852 deer, down slightly from 63,570 in the 2010-11. The combined harvests for late-winter antlerless-only and the Special CWD seasons were 14,931, nearly identical to the 14,884 deer in ’10-11.

In the two firearm seasons, hunters bagged 97,886 deer, down slightly from the 98,944 bagged in ’10-11. There were 4,886 deer taken during the muzzleloader-only season and 1,856 during the youth season.

During all seasons, hunters took 49.2 percent does and 50.8 percent males. Shelton didn’t think that was a perfect split, but a workable one.

Of more concern to him was how individual management areas (done on a county basis) were doing.

“Some units are not where they want to be in terms of management, but most are near that point or even below it,’’ he said.

And he believes counties, while not perfect, remain the logical management area. Using smaller management blocks is not logistically possible, and larger units are not as accurate. In the end, expect some tweaks as the season numbers by county are analyzed, but nothing to the point where hunters challenge the records of ’05-06.

“If we stick to our goals and provide recreational opportunities, but also recognize there are other Illinoisans [with different interests and concerns], we should never reach those levels again,’’ Shelton said.

That has the bittersweet ring of a truth.