PRST STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA, NE PERMIT NO. 36
Volume IV, Issue 9
Many changes wrought during five decades of deer hunting in Iowa by Emma Struve
The whitetail deer population exploded in Iowa in the late 1990s, but even when the animals were scarce the divergent interests of wildlife managers, crop producers, nature enthusiasts, hunters, and other stakeholders molded management policies to meet an amalgam of ideals. “The DNR (Department of Natural Resources) is kind of on a tightrope” trying to balance biologically based principals with people’s acceptance, remarked Larry Stone, outdoors writer and author
SEPTEMBER 2009
of “Whitetail: Treasure Trophy or Trouble? A History of Deer in Iowa.” Legislation, he continued, has always been politically motivated. In 1953 the first modern deer hunting season occurred in Iowa due, in part, to increasing legislative pressure from those who complained that there was damage to crops and too many roadway accidents. According to Tom Litchfield, deer biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the deer population was estimated at 14,000 individuals at the time. Four thousand deer were harvested. In contrast, the post-hunting season population in 2002 was estimated to be 275,000 and the deer population peaked in 2006 at nearly 400,000 animals. The 2008 post-hunting season deer popula-
tion was estimated at 340,000. Efforts began to decrease Iowa’s deer herd in 2003. “There are so many competing interests with the deer herd,” Litchfield stated. “It has always been social pressures and social acceptance that have guided deer management in Iowa.” So the DNR conducted stakeholder surveys to determine “socially acceptable deer densities,” he continued. Within each of Iowa’s 20 wildlife management units, groups of about five counties, Litchfield stated that it became the objective of the DNR to return deer population levels to those experienced during the mid-1990s. Continued on page 6