State ups the number of deer hunting licenses in hopes of cutting herd

The state will issue 30-thousand more “antlerless” deer hunting licenses in an effort to cut the state’s deer population. Terry Little of the Department of Natural Resources says the state will more than double the number of “antlerless” licenses available. In a normal year, 20-thousand are issued. This year, there’ll be 50-thousand. Little says surveys show in spite of record deer harvests in the past two years, the number of deer in Iowa continues to increase. He says officials believe it’s time to “be aggressive” and issue more “antlerless” deer licenses.Little says that means more does will be shot, and that will help reduce the ability of the deer herd to grow. The licenses will be good for all deer hunting seasons, beginning in mid-September and ending on January 19, 2004. Little says the licenses are distributed so that every county has a “quota” or set number of licenses, a system set up to grant the largest number of licenses in the counties which have the largest number of deer. You can only take one deer for license, but hunters can buy as many as seven licenses, so they can take multiple deer. Landowners can take an additional number of licenses. Hunters in Iowa have shot about 136-thousand deer in each of the past two years, but the deer herd in Iowa is still growing.