DNR Studying Ways to Increase Deer Population in Southwest Iowa

(Lewis) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources hosted several public meetings on the importance of managing the deer herd. John Lorenzen from the DNR Office in Lewis says some areas of the state, including southwest Iowa, currently show a significant drop in the deer herd needed to satisfy deer hunters.

Lorenzen says the reduction in the deer population in this region of the state is not due to habitat, and it’s not coyotes, but rather a combination of liberalizing the doe harvest and disease.

Lorenzen admits EHD is out of the DNR’s control, so it comes down to regulating the harvest. So, the DNR proposes to remove the 750 antlerless tags in southwest Iowa.

Lorenzen says the proposal to limit it to a buck-only tag during the first season in Pottawattamie, Shelby, Mills, and Fremont Counties should result in significant growth in population within five years.

The DNR monitors deer populations in many ways, and each way shows similar trends from 1999 to 2023; vehicle incidents involving deer are down 59 percent, spotlight surveys showed a 36 percent decline from 2008 to 2023, bow hunter surveys showed a 25 percent drop from 2008 to 2023, and harvest of antlered deer is down 52 percent since 2008. “The data is obvious; our deer population in southwest Iowa is a fraction of what it was in the early 2000s,” said Lorenzen.