EHD & your Deer Season

[White Oak]

The deer population here in Nebraska was hit quite hard in 2012 by EHD largely due to drought.In our area it really showed. We saw only a fraction of the deer we normally see.
After harvest many reports came from farmers with irrigated fields of large numbers of dead deer being found. I have heard figures as high as 60,000-90,000 lost to this disease.
My son finally tagged a nice 4X during the Dec. ML season.
I hope to see some changes in our permits next season. The herd needs a brake.
Anyones area affected by this?
Ed

 

[Jaeger]

I think the Michigan DNR estimated a loss of 20,000 deer in 2012.

 

[S.Kenton]

I have not heard of any EHD cases in Ohio, but did notice a decline amount of deer that I normally see. I hope it was just me and not EHD...

 

[larry wv]

It killed a lot of Deer in western Wv and southern Ohio.. The Dnr will act like it didn't happen and issue the same amount of tags as last year. Seen it ever 3 or 4 years. It's all about the money more Licenses sold more money. Larry Wv

 

[White Oak]

Larry,
I would expect to see the same here next year. Our G&P commission had ample time to close some of the seasons after it became apparent that this disease had hit hard. At the very least the January late season, when only antlerless deer are legal, could have been closed. These deer were mainly bred does that would rebuild the herd.
I suspect next season will be business as usual. The more tags sold the more $ taken in.

 

[Roguedog]

We had that problem here in Tennessee back in 2007. We had a bad drought, didn't rain a lick it seemed for almost 3 months. A lot of the water holes had dried up and the deer were congregated in the few areas where water remained. Long story short, the kill off of deer was enormous. I definitely noticed the lack of deer sighting for the next several years. Things seem to be back to normal for the most part but the hunting was lean for a few years afterward.

Jeff