Minnesota isn't the only state coping with declining deer populations.
South Dakota officials have announced big changes this fall to try to boost deer numbers there.
With decreased deer populations across the state, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission has proposed to reduce the number of licenses and tags for many of the state's deer hunting seasons.
The proposed East River deer season would result in a reduction of 7,240 licenses and 20,560 tags compared to 2013. The substantial decrease in antlerless tags is intended to increase deer populations in several management areas.
Officials said the response is being implemented where deer populations have declined over the past few years due primarily to outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), habitat loss and weather.
Here's more from a news release:
The proposed West River deer season would result in 3,775 fewer licenses with a corresponding reduction in tags by 25,120 (56 percent). Similar to the East River deer season, the most significant reduction in tags for the West River season will be antlerless tags, which are proposed to decrease by 86 percent or 23,145 compared to 2013.
The commission proposal for the Black Hills deer hunting season would have no antlerless licenses for 2014. The Black Hills proposal calls for 200 resident and 16 non-resident any deer licenses and 3,000 resident and 240 non-resident any whitetail deer licenses.
