I'm in a discussion with an anti hunter and need some help. I said our deer herds are larger and healthier now than 100 years ago. This is her response. Can I get some details from someone from the states listed?

Thanks in advance.

"I sure haven't heard that deer herds are the healthiest they have been in 100 years. They aren't in NE, IA, or WY anyway."

Gimphunter

Nopt from any of those places but if you Google "deer populations since 1900" you'll get more info than you can stand to read.

I am sure she is refering to CWD, not sure what else she could be eluding too. However....there is no CWD in Iowa, and the deer herd is healthier than ever before. The DNR has been reducing the herd through increased antlerless tags the past 3 or 4 seasons, and they just about have met their goal of about a 20% reduction. We have no disease problems like other states with higher deer densities and I like it that way. The only way to keep the deer numbers down and prevent major CWD or EHD outbreaks (not to mention more car crashes) is....you guessed it. That is how I would explain it anyway.

If she pulls something about deer contraceptives then just walk away. She doent know what she is talking about, its entirely impractical for anthing more than a pen full of deer.

Holy Smoke.

Please no more. I did as skb2706 recommended. No kidding, there were over 62000 listings. You guys rock.

I only copied about 20 of the e-addresses for her. I told her of the numbers. Now I've asked for her sources. [:@]

This was a cut and paste from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commision website, www.outdoornebraska.com:

At the turn of the century, there were only about 50 deer in the entire state. Today, the Nebraska deer herd stands at 300,000 to 350,000.

The link: http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/hunting/guides/biggame/BGdeer.asp

Iowa is desparate to get hunters to get does even considering cheaper out of state tags to get people to come in and take does.

Don't know exact numbers, but I do know that the past 3 years the number of deer harvested have been well below DNR targets. In fact this past year in December they added an extra does only season to try to boost the harvest and get the numbers down!

If she doesn't believe it, I'll take her on my running trail, I saw 9 deer in a half hour run on Monday on a heavily travelled trail (saw 20-30 bikes and 10-15 walkers/runners in that same time period).