DNR NEWS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Steve Merchant, wildlife populations and regulations program manager,
651-259-5220, [email protected].
Following a milder winter and a conservative deer season last year, hunters this fall may see more deer on the landscape during the archery deer season and while scouting for the Saturday, Nov. 7, firearms deer opener, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“Hunters will experience another conservative deer season in 2015,” said Steve Merchant, wildlife populations and regulations program manager with the DNR. “This year, they may see deer they can’t shoot, but this helps provide more opportunity in the future. We are continuing to build the deer population across much of the state, and we do that by harvesting fewer antlerless deer.”
For the 2015 season, one-deer limits remain in most of the state. This season will mark the second year of a management approach to rebuild deer populations based on goal setting and listening sessions that indicated a desire for more deer in many areas.
“For most hunters, it’s rewarding to see deer while hunting,” Merchant said. “So far in many areas, the season looks favorable for both deer sightings and the opportunity for harvest, based on reports from the fields and forests.”
Acorns have been dropping over the past couple weeks, providing food for deer and also giving hunters areas to focus on for hunting and scouting. Deer are shedding their reddish-brown summer coat in favor of the coarse grey coat of fall and winter. In many parts of the state, crop harvest is just beginning, which is a week or two later than normal.
The DNR strongly advises hunters to review new deer hunting regulations, permit area designations and boundary changes. Current and up-to-date information is available on the deer hunting Web page at www.mndnr.gov/hunting/deer. Information about deer management and deer population goal setting is available at www.mndnr.gov/deer.
