JDPTF makes recommendations for deer management
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Joint Deer Population Task Force made final recommendations on deer managment. On January 7, the task force made recommendations that included: extending portions of the deer seasons, to amplify educational programs, and make some seasonal permits more readily available to the public.
They recommended that the permits for the antler-less only late-winter season be sold over the counter. The permits would be county specific and be directly related to the counties deer population status. The late-winter season would be catagorized into two groups: counties slightly above goal levels and counties that are significantly above goal levels. The counties only slightly above ideal herd levels will have a one permit purchasing cap while the significantly higher herd levels would have an unlimited amount of permits to issue. It was also recommended that the season be extended from three to nine days
It was recommended, that the Firearm Deer Season permits that are not claimed after two lottery drawings should be sold over the counter. They will be available on a first come, first serve basis. It was also recommended that an additional day be added to the first firearm season, making it run from Friday through Monday.
The task force also recommend to drastically expand educational programs concerning deer management. The ideas are: creating a new website which will be titled, "Living with Illinois Deer", more support for the Sportsman Against Hunger Program, supporting a program that will grant hunters easier access to private land, and deer-traffic safety programs.
The IDNR wildlife staff is currently reviewing the recommendations and considering implementation.
The preliminary total for the Illinois Whitetail harvest of the 2008-2009 season was 172,279 dead deer down, according to data drawn by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The total number of Whitetail harvested in firearm season was 105,595, which was slightly higher than the 2007 season. 54.5% of the harvest were reported as bucks, while 45.5% were reported as does. Randolph County claimed 2,489 Whitetail during the 2008 firearm season, the fourth highest county take in the state.
Preliminary muzzleloading season number were 4,310, which was slightly lower than last years count of 4,333. The record year was 2006, when muzzleloading hunters took 5,941 Whitetail. Randolph County hunters claimed 70 of the muzzleloading Whitetail harvest this year.
As of January 6, 2009, the preliminary archery season numbers were at 62,374 which was slightly ahead of the 61,173 whitetail taken during the 2007 archery season. To date, 50% of the Whitetail taken during archery season were bucks, while 50% were does. Randolph County hunters have claimed 917 whitetail during archery season as of the latest reports.