Whitetails:

Shoot More Doe
Habitat quality means pulling the trigger

By Wayne Laroche

It is good to know that deer still can bring out the passion in Vermont hunters. The department and Fish and Wildlife Board are still in the rulemaking process that we have to work through every year in order to set the number of antlerless permits for this fall. This process should be completed in August. 

Vermont’s deer herd has rebounded rapidly from the hard winters of 2001 and 2003 when on the order of 30 – 40 percent of the herd was lost. The proposed number of permits is about twice as many as last year. This did come as a shock to some hunters 

The department is proposing that 22,000 permits be issued this fall to remove doe and slow the growth of Vermont’s deer herd. Permit holders have a statewide success rate of about 19 percent. So, this number of permits is expected to result in a harvest of about 4,200 antlerless deer. The department is concerned that even this number may be too small to stem deer numbers that are burgeoning in some areas of the state. For this reason, we are also calling for return to a three deer annual limit. The proposed three deer limit would allow harvest of only two bucks.

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