By Kenn Young

"What the heck are you guys going to do about the deer around here?" the person on the other end of the line asked, somewhat irate.

For some reason, some of the locals here in the Ozarks still think that I work for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. In this instance, my protestations to the contrary fell on deaf ears, so for some 30 minutes I listened to him vent his concerns about the terrible status of deer hunting in his home area, which was northwest of Clarksville. It seems that he and his three buddies had hunted the entire first week of the modern gun season and seen a total of seven deer, none of which were legal bucks. According to him, this was in an area where they had seen 50-60 deer in a week during previous seasons - and now they weren't even seeing tracks!

Though possibly overstated, the concerns he voiced weren't that unusual here in the southern tier of the Ozarks. My own deer sightings were far less during opening week, and that included both bucks and does, a lament that was passed on by numerous others up and down the Arkansas River Valley.

Quite frankly, I can't remember a year in which there was more discussion, occasionally of a heated nature, about the direction of deer management in this state.

Part of that has to do with the number of deer killed this past (2003-04) season. It appears that 106,371 deer were taken - a far cry from the 181,530 taken as late as the 2000-01 season. That figure actually marks the third year in a row that harvest numbers have declined, and the state's hunters want to know why.

As a result, the AGFC input meetings held in January were the best attended in history. Even agency personnel were caught off guard by the heavy turnout. At Russellville, numbers were so high that some could not even get into the meeting room and had to stand outside the door.

Fanning the fire was word that "drastic" changes were being considered by the commissioners. In December, an article in the state's largest newspaper carried the headline "Radical Regulations Changes Proposed." Make no mistake - some of the options being tossed about at that time were just that: radical. But ultimately, nothing extreme passed.

On April 15, the commissioners met in Hot Springs to vote on seasons and bag limits for the coming year. The only changes of any real substance were: (1.) a one-buck limit in the various zones where deer numbers seem to be lowest; (2.) an exemption to allow young hunters (under 16 years of age) to make their first buck a "buck of choice;" and (3.) a new guideline outlawing hunting over bait from Jan. 15 through the end of archery season. That ending date was left at Feb. 15 - same as last year - even though there was considerable discussion about moving it to the end of January. Thrown in somewhere: four days added back to the muzzleloader season.

Let's first take a brief look at the changes for the upcoming season.

Photo by Michael H. Francis

One-Buck Limit: The one-buck limit, particularly here in the Ozarks and in parts of the Ouachitas, seems to be overdue. Consider the words of Bobby McAnally, the AGFC regional director stationed in Russellville. Being born and raised in Clarksville, Bob has spent a large part of his life both living and working in the Ozark Mountains. I can think of no one whose words carry more weight when discussing this particular region.

"Over a large portion of the Ozark region, particularly within the Ozark National Forest, deer numbers are as low as I've seen in a long time," Bob said recently. "Our overall fawn recruitment has been low, and keep in mind that has occurred during the past two years when our mast crop has been heavy, so lack of food has not been a primary factor."

I had an opportunity to view this deer shortage firsthand while participating in a spotlight survey on Piney Creeks Wildlife Management Area this past February. Driving a 25-mile route through the interior of this 180,000-acre area located northeast of Clarksville, on a night when weather conditions were about perfect, not one single deer was seen!

What are the reasons - aside from an overharvest of does the past few years?

"We may also have lost substantial numbers due to ice in the past. I can't prove it on paper, but when deer try to move on ice, they tend to fall spraddle-legged, typically dislocating their hips in the process. Since they can't get up, they become easy prey for coyotes and free-roaming dogs. We've had a lot of ice here in the mountains in recent years."

On the plus side, Bob went on to say that the zone quota doe permits will help the situation, and also that the one-buck limit throughout the area should have a positive effect.

Buck Of Choice: The notion of the "buck of choice" for hunters under 16 years of age is a change that I personally lobbied for. Every publication that I have read in recent years points out that young hunters are not becoming involved in the sport of deer hunting - or hunting in general, for that matter. Everyone has a reason for this, but being the past director of the Johnson County Boys Club gives me a perspective that I believe will hold up.

Today our youth have countless choices about what to do with their time. Computer games, athletics and peer activity all take away time that could be used for outdoor pursuits. When compared with spending hours sitting on stand - often in the cold - most of those choices are also far more fast-paced.

The thought behind the exemption is that if a youth goes hunting, sees a buck, and then can't take that animal because it does not meet antler requirements, he may become discouraged or disenchanted; this situation is avoided if the antler restriction is suspended for this one category of hunter. The rule change may also have some minute positive effect on that growing number of genetically inferior bucks currently protected by the 3-point rule.

Hunting Over Bait: The new guideline outlawing hunting over bait after Jan. 15 is likely to be a can of worms before it's all said and done. I understand the concerns of the commissioners, since deer are more likely to be drawn to artificial food sources during the depths of winter, when natural food sources are far less available, but implementation of the rule and its enforcement are issues that bear watching.

For instance, "baiting" in the AGFC regulations tabloid is defined as "the direct or indirect placing, exposing, depositing, distributing, or scattering of salt, grain, or other feed that could serve as a lure or attraction for wildlife to, on, or over any areas where hunters are attempting to take them."

It certainly seems to me that there are a lot of gray areas in that definition. When I posted the rules changes onto the chat room at the Arkansas Deer Hunting Web site (www. ardeerhunting.com), the first questioner wanted to know how this would affect hunting over food plots. AGFC personnel have since told me that food plots are not included in this restriction, but it does seem to me that they fall within the definition outlined above. I guess we'll see.

Additional Muzzleloading Days: Adding days back to muzzleloading season is pretty much a non-decision, since there were no justifiable reasons for taking those days away (which was done last year) to begin with.

So why did the major changes that were supposedly on the way get sidelined?

2004-05 SEASON DATES AND LIMITS The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission approved the 2004-2005 deer hunting season at the agency's meeting on April 15, 2004. The deer season will again split the majority of the state's zones into two periods. Modern gun hunting will be allowed Nov. 13-21 and from Nov. 25 to Dec. 5 in deer zones 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 13. Deer season in zones 4A, 5A, 9, 12, 14 and 15 will begin on Nov. 13 and continue through Dec. 12. Deer season in Zone 4 will be Nov. 13-14, and in Zone 5 the season will be Nov. 13-14 and Nov. 20-21. Deer season in zones 16, 16A and 17 will be from Nov. 13 to Dec. 30. Archery season will remain the same as last year, with the season beginning on Oct. 1 and running through Feb. 15, 2005. One change for archers is that it will be unlawful to hunt deer over a baited area from Jan. 15 through Feb. 15. Muzzleloader season in zones 1, 2, 3, 4A, 5A, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 will be Oct. 16-24 and Dec. 18-20. Zones 4 and 5 are closed for muzzleloader season. Muzzleloader season in zones 16, 16A and 17 will also be open Oct. 16-24 and Dec. 31, 2004, through Jan. 2, 2005. The Christmas holiday modern gun deer hunt will be Dec. 26-28. The commission approved the statewide bag limit to remain at three deer. Approved changes include limiting the bag limit to no more than two legal bucks or two does of the three-deer limit. Hunters will be able to harvest more than three deer with deer camp doe tags, which are issued through the AGFC's Deer Management Assistance Program, or bonus deer on some WMAs. Although the statewide bag limit is three, there are doe and buck bag limit restrictions in certain zones. The new seasons also include a statewide plan to allow youths under the age of 16 to harvest any buck as their first buck in the bag. The second buck will have to conform to the WMA or Zone requirement. Youths must comply with the buck harvest guidelines on Choctaw Island Wildlife Management Area.

One influence had to be the results of a study aptly titled "Opinions, Preferences, and Attitudes of Hunters on White-Tailed Deer Management in Arkansas," which was presented to the commissioners in January.

The study was conducted by the Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, which operates under a cooperative agreement between the AGFC, the University of Arkansas, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Wildlife Management Institute.

Beginning back in June 2002, researchers sent an 8-page questionnaire to 15,000 Arkansans who had bought hunting licenses the previous year. These were selected at random, and came from all regions of the state. Of that number, some 5,496 people responded, or roughly 37 percent. If you were part of the nonresponsive 63 percent, you did all of us a disservice.

Here are some of the things the commissioners learned from the results of this study:

(1.) Thirty-eight percent of those who responded said that the AGFC management plan should be geared toward improving antler quality and the physical condition of the deer herd by restricting the kill so that more bucks reach the 2 1/2-year age class. That was also the primary stated goal of the 3-point rule when it was instituted back in 1997.

(2.) Twenty-eight percent of those responding said that major emphasis should be put on increasing potential for trophy deer by restricting the kill to allow more bucks to reach the 4 1/2-year age-class.

I'll interject here that adding those two together means that 66 percent of those polled prefer management for antler quality.

(3.) The remaining 33 percent said the management focus should be on maintaining present herd densities.

Overall, 74 percent thought the AGFC was doing a good job managing the state's deer herd.

A 74 percent approval rating is pretty good in anything, so that last percentage probably had as much as anything to do with the commissioners finally deciding not to change anything drastically. After all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Is the study accurate? I suppose that those of you who don't agree with its findings would say it's not. But until we develop some sort of system that provides every single person purchasing a hunting license the means to voice his or her opinions, it's the best we have.

So where does that leave us? Well, I recently read an article that declared deer management here in Arkansas to be "at a crossroads." After thinking it over, that's probably as good an interpretation as any. But before we discuss what that actually means, let's take a look at where deer management here in the Natural State has come from.

That sad state of affairs was brought about primarily by market hunting during the first part of the 20th century and the extensive land clearing that took place about that same time as more and more settlers moved into the area.

The turnaround to that situation had actually begun a few years earlier, in 1926, with the formation of federal game refuges throughout the state. State-controlled areas were being formed by 1927, and there was some 250,000 acres in the overall program by 1945.

Those refuges probably saved the whitetail in this state. Typically established in areas in which no deer existed, they were stocked with animals both from other areas within this state and from other states. The very first deer imported here were obtained from North Carolina in 1931. Others later came from Texas, Wisconsin and Louisiana.

By 1950, whitetails were re-established in 71 of the state's 75 counties, and the total population had grown to 31,500 animals. From that point, with the additional help of established and enforced hunting seasons, bucks-only harvest and increased habitat through modern timber harvesting methods, the herd steadily grew. By 1960 there were more than 200,000 animals roaming the hills and flatlands; today, it's generally estimated, we have 1,000,000 animals here.

Now that little history lesson makes it easier to understand the mindset of both hunters and management personnel in this state during much of the 20th century. To men who grew up in a time of few or no deer, more deer was certainly desirable. The AGFC, until 1996 totally funded by outdoorsmen (through license sales and taxes on outdoor equipment), merely gave its customers what they wanted. So "quantity" deer management was the order of the day.

But during the 1990s, things began to change. In 1994, the AGFC enacted an antler restriction in the form of a 3-point rule on selected state WMAs - the first step ever taken by our state game agency to promote and improve buck quality.

In 1997, a group near Stuttgart known as the Arkansas County Deer Management Association lobbied for and received a special area designation to operate under the same 3-point guideline that had been instituted three years earlier on the WMAs. Their interest in promoting buck quality set the stage for other, more sweeping changes in the future.

Soon other hunters from different areas questioned the commissioners about enacting similar guidelines in their areas. To gauge how much interest was actually out there, in the early spring of 1998 a statewide survey was conducted. It surprised everyone concerned when over 70 per cent of those polled stated that they favored "quality" deer management.

With the input from that survey certainly playing a major role in their decision, in April of that year the AGFC commissioners voted into effect a statewide 3-point rule.

The results were predictable. For the first few years after the rules changes deer harvest totals soared. 167,305 animals were taken in 1997-98, 179,225 in 1998-99, and 182,132 in the peak year of 2000-01. But in recent years those numbers have declined, which brings us to the crossroads mentioned above. At present, the AGFC remains committed to the quality approach, but a new management direction may provide more hunters a choice for the future.

Donny Harris, head of the AGFC's wildlife management division, has been quoted numerous times as saying that the next shift in deer management emphasis will be toward private lands management, with site-specific strategies designed to give those landowners what they want on their property. Some will naturally want quality, others quantity.

When you consider that only 10 percent of the hunting land in Arkansas is public, most of which lies inside the Ouachita and Ozark national forests, that shift makes a certain sense. Also, as far back as 1999 some 64 percent of all hunting done was on private land. Today that figure can only be higher. Another factor has to be that the very designation "public" means that far fewer management options are available there.

By attending public meetings conducted by the National Forest Service concerning management direction for "recreational purposes" within particularly the Ozarks. It quickly became clear to me that hunting is not a priority.

The implementation of that philosophy will come through the commission's Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), a two-year-old program that allows agency personnel to work directly with private landowners. Seeing how far this method has come in such a brief time, clearly it is the wave of the future.

I recently reviewed a copy of an interesting blueprint for action done by the "the deer team" within the AGFC's wildlife management division. Baldly titled "Strategic Deer Management Plan," it was completed in August 1999. I'd like to point out here that this is a plan, not a study, and that it was endorsed by the commissioners.

This is how the document described itself: "The major purpose of the plan is to provide strategic, long-term guidance and direction for the commission's whitetail deer program." How much it is actually used today is open to debate. But I did find one of the stated objectives interesting: "Goal III: Maintain a minimum statewide hunter satisfaction rate of 67 percent."