IDNR made no changes for the 2014/15 Deer Season after being hit hard by EHD for 2 years.. The Whitetail Deer Alliance attempted to help DNR, but all efforts were for nothing.. I believe the DNR Director Marc Miller is going to go down in history for destroying what was one of the best Deer herds in the country to one of the worst! You can now see outfitters who once had 140-150" minimum scrambling to stay afloat and dropping their minimums to 120-130 inches. Spoke to "Pete Switzer", past President of Illinois Taxidermy Association, and he is in disbelief..., his once "Whitetail Deer" only taxidermy shop (due to volume of bucks being brought in.), has now had to take on "African Game" to help his lost revenue.
I can't believe people are going to pay the extremely costly permit price's in order to hunt in Illinois (especially Central-Illinois)... Take a look at Pike, nationally recognized for it's deer, now in dire-straits! You can call any taxidermy shop in the county and ask them about how they've been affected and you will hear how dismal it has been and you can do that in each county west to east (centrally). I just can't believe after all the complaints by business' and hunters that the DNR has just sat on their hands. I am thanking the god, that I had not bought property a few years back for deer hunting purposes, because I can see wooded acre prices dropping like a rock quickly.. I can say I personally am buying 1 archery permit (via-mail), 1 permit for firearm and don't know if I will be buying a muzzleloader permit, that's half of the permits I normally buy.