Landowner's Respond to Deer Population Survey

Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A Game, Fish and Parks Department survey of landowners’ opinions about wildlife on their property offered some surprising results. After years of hearing about the state’s booming deer population, the majority of landowners who responded to the survey in Hughes, Roberts, Grant and Ziebach counties said they didn’t have enough white-tailed deer on their property.

On average, landowners responded that white-tailed deer numbers were just about right in Marshall, Moody, Hutchinson, Gregory, Jackson, Haakon, Stanley, Corson, Harding, Codington, Deuel, Lake, Turner, Lincoln, Hanson, Douglas, Charles Mix, Lyman, Tripp, Bennett, Fall River and Perkins counties. The majority of landowners in other counties reported that to varying degrees there were too many white-tailed deer on their property.

In addition to white-tailed deer, landowners were also given the opportunity to respond about depredation problems caused by mule deer, elk, antelope, turkey and Canada geese.

The department contacted the landowners through its Landowners Matter newsletter which has about 16,000 subscribers. Of those who got the survey, 3,260 responded.