Choosing to do that is something most Minnesota hunters want to keep as a personal choice, not a forced decision, said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association.

"Many of our members practice balanced management but they are telling us that they don't want it forced on them," Johnson.

Johnson said he thinks the best thing Minnesota hunters can do is look into the possibilities, determine how it fits into their own personal hunting plans and then make the decision that best suits what kind of deer hunting experience they are after.

"The most important thing for MDHA and other organizations is to work with the DNR to give them the latitude to try some management tools they haven't tried in the past, and if they work, wonderful. If they don't, then it's back to the drawing board," he said.

One thing for sure is that the woods in Otter Tail County near Perham are going to be well attended this year, because Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be there for the third annual Governor's Deer Hunting Opener. Since Pawlenty hosted the inaugural opener in 2003, the event has raised thousands of dollars for habitat and conservation projects in Minnesota. The intent of such an event is to highlight the fact that each year about 475,000 Minnesotans take to the woods every year in search of deer -- and they spend $240 million in the process.

HEALTHY HERD
The health of our herd is excellent, though down slightly, said Mark Lenarz, a wildlife research biologist for the DNR's Forest Research Group in Grand Rapids. That slight downturn is actually not bad news, he explained. "We've been working hard to bring the population down a bit because the upward trajectory it was on would have caused nothing but problems down the road," he said.

In 2004, 260,640 deer were killed throughout the state, 202,000 of which by firearms. This year's models suggest the harvest numbers could be in the 245,000 range, which is not a significant adjustment.

Population estimates are conducted several ways, though computer modeling is the most reliable method. In the farmland portion the DNR bases some of their count based on the number of fawns killed along roads.

"The computer simulations we run to identify the approximate deer population is done for each permit area and also helps us make estimates into the future," Lenarz said.

These numbers determine which permit areas will be designated as lottery, managed or intensive harvest areas. The estimates take into account the annual harvest but the hardest variable to figure out is the number of deer that don't survive the winter. Lenarz's assessment of this past winter is that it was moderately severe to severe in the Arrowhead Region running from east of a line from Duluth to International Falls. Even though it was tough for those deer, a lot of them were probably saved by the warm April that rapidly melted most of the snow and exposed the forage.

"Mortality was fairly low in that area, just as it was in the rest of the forest region, which had a fairly mild winter," Lenarz said.

ZONE CHANGES
The DNR made regulation changes this summer that included a significant number of permit areas changing zones, thus impacting season dates.