Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

White-tailed deer hunting season has come to a close, and the initial harvest numbers from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources show a significant decrease from previous years. According to Wesley Gould, Law Enforcement Officer for the DNR for Washington and Keokuk Counties, this year’s harvest is down between 15-20% from last year’s count. In addition to unfavorable weather through most of hunting season, Gould believes there was a lack of hunters this year. He says, “If you look at the number of tags sold, they’re down as well. So that means fewer hunters out in the field, which in turn ends up being fewer deer killed.

“The number of hunters have decreased a little bit. I think there’s a lot of other activities for young people to do. That’s why I’d advocate for anyone that enjoys hunting, you need to take young people hunting to get them involved. If they don’t, you do that through enough years, there won’t be any more hunting.” The initial tally of deer harvested in Washington County this season is 1,581 total. Statewide there has been a total of 101,008 deer harvested. Gould says the DNR won’t know exact totals for another month, but the initial figures are an accurate depiction of the year’s harvest. See below for a breakdown of the deer harvest in Washington and area counties.

As of Wednesday, January 11th:
County: Does – Antlered Bucks – Button Bucks – Shed-Antler Bucks – Total
Washington: 759 – 650 – 167 – 5 – 1581
Henry: 548 – 512 – 135 – 9 – 1204
Iowa: 653 – 626 – 145 – 14 – 1420
Jefferson: 576 – 480 – 137 – 4 – 1197
Johnson: 841 – 684 – 149 – 17 – 1691
Keokuk: 446 – 520 – 105 – 3 – 1074
Louisa: 475 – 488 – 117 – 5 – 1085
Statewide: 45,967 – 45,252 – 9,131 – 658 – 101,008