Randy Scheel of Garrison poses with a 150-class buck that he took in Iowa. Photo courtesy of Dan Anderson.

It's midsummer, halfway between the close of last winter's deer hunting seasons and opening day of this year's first whitetail hunting season. It's a prime time to look back on last year's harvest, survey the condition of the standing deer herd, and get a sneak peek at what Iowa's timberlands hold for hunters this fall and winter.

FEWER BUT BETTER
Final figures from wintertime aerial surveys, springtime surveys and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' new electronic registration system weren't fully tallied as this went to press, but visits with wildlife biologists and hunters from around the state indicate contradictory trends in Iowa's deer population.

"There seems to be a subtle shifting in the structure of our deer population," said Terry Hainfield, IDNR wildlife biologist for Howard, Chickasaw, Allamakee and Winneshiek counties in far northeast Iowa. "We're starting to see a population that is lower in overall numbers, but higher in quality, as far as trophy bucks."

That observation pleases Willie Suchy, the IDNR's statewide deer management guru. Suchy and his fellow biologists have struggled since the late '90s to curtail Iowa's skyrocketing deer population without degrading the world-class hunting now available to our hunters. The challenge was to reduce the deer herd in areas of the state where favorable habitat encouraged excessive deer numbers, without over-hunting agricultural areas with smaller deer populations.

"The comments we got from hunters (last winter) were that deer numbers were down nearly statewide, but that they still had good hunting," said Suchy. "Going into the 2006 hunting seasons, we estimated we had around 310,000 deer in Iowa. Our goal, with the seasons and licensing we established, was to get that number down to around 270,000. Based on hunters' comments and preliminary survey reports, we're getting really close to where we want to be."

Some hunters, especially in northwest and north-central Iowa, have expressed concern that Suchy's phrase "where we want to be" means tougher hunting in that flat, treeless region of Iowa. Suchy said hunters in Iowa's flatlands won't have easy deer hunting, but should have good hunting if deer populations stabilize near current levels.

"A few years ago there were too many deer for the available habitat, even in northern Iowa, and hunters up there had it pretty easy," said Suchy. "We liberalized the licensing up there for a few years and got the deer population down closer to what the habitat will support. We cut back on (the number of tags) we issued last year, and will probably cut back some more this year in the northern part of the state, to allow deer numbers to rebound just a little bit."

Suchy noted that hunters in northern Iowa still have plenty of opportunities to fill their tags despite fewer deer in that part of the state. "We've only gone from 'excess' to 'adequate,'" he said. "We're still seeing 80 to 85 percent success rates from our deer hunters. When you factor in the segment of our hunters who pass up shots at any deer that's not a trophy, percentages like that tell me that anybody who really wants a deer is getting shots at them.

"For the majority of our hunters, even in northern Iowa, the question isn't 'Will I see a deer?' as much as 'Which deer do I want to shoot?'"

Habitat is the key to deer populations in Iowa, and its relevance is easily documented in far northeast Iowa. Of the counties that wildlife biologist Terry Hainfield manages, Howard and Chickasaw are relatively flat and heavily farmed, while Winneshiek and Allamakee are part of Iowa's rugged "Little Switzerland."

"We've had complaints from hunters in Howard and Chickasaw counties that we've overhunted those counties, but I think we've just cut back on excessive deer numbers," said Hainfield. "There's actually excellent deer hunting in the habitat that's available in those counties. There just isn't as much habitat."

Allamakee County is traditionally one of Iowa's top two counties for total deer harvested, simply because the rugged patchwork of forested ridges and agricultural bottoms supports some of our state's highest per-square-mile densities of deer. The local population of deer is so strong that the IDNR is still liberalizing licensing in that area to try bringing deer numbers down.

"We'll probably issue a few more antlerless tags this year up in Allamakee, Clayton and some of the other areas where we still have high numbers of deer," said Suchy. "The same goes for southeast and southern Iowa."

SOUTHERN EXCESSES
Extra antlerless tags, along with bonus antlerless hunting seasons in January, have encouraged hunters in southeast and southern Iowa to kill more deer. Suchy noted that deer populations in the southern two tiers of counties are down, but still not to optimum levels.

"There are a couple things going on with our hunters that seem to keep us from getting ahead of the herd in (southern Iowa)," he said. "South central Iowa doesn't have any large cities, so we just don't have lots of hunters down there to take advantage of all the deer. So we've had to add seasons, add things like the bonus antlerless high-powered rifle season in January to get people to travel and hunt in those areas.