Program helps landowners manage deer population
Jul. 10—A new program is available statewide that can help landowners manage deer populations.
The Deer Management Assistance Program through the Missouri Department of Conservation allows qualifying landowners to receive additional antlerless permits to be used during the firearm season to manage deer populations. To enroll, landowners need to have clear goals related to recreational population management or evidence of deer damage to agriculture.
Kevyn Wiskirchen, a private lands deer biologist with the conservation department, said areas like Northwest Missouri that have a lot of crop acreage can support higher numbers of deer, which can potentially cause some damage.
"Those populations can grow pretty rapidly and over time get out of hand to the point where there's probably more deer than what a farmer would like to see," Wiskirchen said. "It can certainly cause damage to the point where there's economic loss. And so especially in north Missouri, where there's a lot of agriculture, a lot of acres and row crops, that can certainly be an issue."
Landowners dealing with damage to agriculture who want to be part of the Deer Management Assistance Program must call their local conservation agent or wildlife biologist for a site visit to determine if additional Deer Management Assistance Program permits are warranted.
If landowners have specific deer population goals on their property, such as evening out the ratio of male to female deer, they need to contact Wiskirchen directly. He will determine eligibility based on game camera footage, property maps and other observations.
"By targeting the female segment of the population, which are the reproducers, by removing more of them, you slow that population growth," Wiskirchen said.
2022 is the first year the Deer Management Assistance Program is available to the whole state, but it has been tested in different areas since 2019. Wiskirchen said Northwest Missouri was eligible for the program in 2021 as part of the trial, and now it's just about getting the word out to let landowners know this is available as a resource.
"Whatever your management goals are, there's a place for DMAP more than likely," Wiskirchen said. "That's the primary message that I'd get out to folks is that it can really be beneficial to anyone."
Landowners wishing to enroll must have at least 500 acres outside of municipal boundaries or 40 acres inside of city limits. Wiskirchen said neighboring parcels of land can be combined to meet the acreage requirement, as well.
Statewide, there were 90 landowners enrolled in the program in 2021 and around 1,500 Deer Management Assistance Program permits were issued. Permits are issued through the program on a case-by-case basis.
"We're really happy to see the program grow organically just based on the need for it," Wiskirchen said. "So, we don't have a target number of properties or a target number of permits we'd like to see issued through it, it's really just a tool we wanted to make available everywhere in the state."
Each permit authorizes the harvest of one antlerless deer and costs the same as a standard permit. It can be used only on the property for which it was intended for. Landowners can list other hunters on the application, as well.
The enrollment period for the program runs until Oct. 1. For more information, go to mdc.mo.gov.
Morgan Doyle can be reached at morgan.doyle@newspressnow.com
