Even with those deep snow depths, Lenarz said the winter was moderate compared with the harsh winters of a decade ago.

"Everywhere else, it was mild and didn't affect the herd," he added.

A significant portion of the forest region is being examined by a variety of stakeholders, including hunters, landowners and business owners. The DNR pulled these folks together in 2005 and earlier this year to determine if the number of deer per square mile is adequate. The process revealed there's a desire to reduce deer numbers throughout the forest, which is good news for hunters looking to kill more than one whitetail this season. Check the regulations and the map to see which permit areas are down and which ones have increased. Also, check the managed and intensive harvest permit areas that have increased since 2005.

FARMLAND HERD STATUS
Minnesota's farmland zone is an interesting one that stretches from the northwest corner all the way down through the Twin Cities to where Minnesota runs into Wisconsin and Iowa. Points west of St. Cloud and Alexandria are part of this zone as well. All of Zone 4 is located in this region, not to mention most of Zone 3 and a portion of Zone 2.

The buck harvest is very high in this region of the state because the wood lots where bucks tend to hunker down are fragmented. This allows hunters to focus on small patches of CRP and small ravines, and achieve a relatively high rate of success.

"It's very difficult to generalize the region because it's so different from permit area to permit area," said Marrett Grund, the DNR's deer project leader with the Farmland Wildlife Populations & Research Group. "Something we are finding in the southwestern portion of the state is that we have the highest yearling buck harvest in the state, with 75 percent."

That number is the highest in Minnesota, but it's not as high as he has ever seen. When he was in Pennsylvania, there was part of the state where 90 percent of the yearling bucks were killed.

"Still, that area is where our highest buck harvest rate can be found," Grund added.

Grund said the extreme south and south-central portion of the farmland have seen deer densities decline, so they are backing off the antlerless allocations a bit to allow populations to stabilize and increase. Another area where deer densities are actually declining is around Lac qui Parle.

"Deer densities have declined over the last 10 years fairly steadily, and we'd like to be more aggressive in stopping that decline or to at least stabilize the deer density where it's at," Grund said.

The rest of the farmland region is full of deer, Grund added, and the spigot is wide open for harvesting as many antlerless deer as possible. But one of the challenges of this area is finding a place to hunt because only 2 percent is public land. Because of the lack of public access, the DNR has to manage the area with landowner concerns in mind. While many landowners are also hunters, their first priority is not always deer hunting.

"We are trying to get more deer programs and policies with what landowners are willing to accept," Grund said.