As deer gun season approaches, Athens County’s deer population remains high

In the midst of deer gun hunting week, the deer population in Athens County is begging the question of whether or not it is out of control. 

Deer hunting season is well underway, a final number of harvested deer checked by The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) of Wildlife is not yet available for this season. However, past numbers have shown a steadily increasing deer population in Ohio.

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife’s final harvest report, 196,988 deer were checked by ODNR last hunting season. The average final harvest for the previous three seasons was 184,746 deer checked. 

The current bag limit, or how many deer a hunter can harvest in a season, for Athens County is three. According to Athens County Wildlife Officer Ryan Donnelly, this bag limit has remained fairly consistent through the years. 

“Hunting bag limits haven’t changed in a while, in the last four to five years it's been pretty stable,” Donnelly said. “This usually indicates a pretty stable population, when we get really high bag limits that means we have a higher deer population. We use hunting as a way to harvest the deer and control the population.”

Stable bag limits have not been the only thing contributing to a higher deer population. A lack of natural predators is another key reason. 

Former Athens County Commissioner candidate and avid environmentalist, Bill Hayes, mentioned the absence of predators: “We pretty much eliminated the predators long ago, back in the 1800s. So, there are no more wolves around here. We have brought back coyotes and that is having some impact, but still, there’s quite an imbalance.”

Additionally, climate change has been a factor allowing for more deer to thrive. 

“Climate change has allowed for longer growing seasons. So, there’s more fodder for them, a lot more food and that encourages the population increase,” Hayes said. 

As Athens County becomes more populated, deer have been forced to accommodate. Deer are highly adaptive animals and have learned to live off of small gardens and shrubs in neighborhoods. It is not uncommon for Ohio University students to spot deer on their way to class or just around the City of Athens.

“They (deer) have such a wider range than they’re used to,” Hayes said. “Southeastern Ohio used to be all small farms. There was no cover for the deer and the farmers saw them as competing against their cattle for fodder, so they were pretty liberal about shooting them. They were basically considered vermin then.”

As the times have changed and people have moved away from hunting, the deer have gone unchecked. 

“The deer population is so high because of the reduction of hunters, even local schools have stopped taking off for the first day of gun season and youth hunting is lower than I’ve seen in years,” former lead hunter for the Athens Conservancy at Skunk Run Preserve Bobby Salata said.

If the deer population continues to grow out of control, there could be a real cause for concern around both deer and human safety. 

“We could see an increase in wasting disease if there is not enough kill off. This could lead to more car accidents due to running. Farmers could increase the amount of permits they lease due to too much consumption of their product as well,” Salata said. 

Wasting disease, also known as chronic wasting disease (CWD), is a disorder with symptoms that “include drastic weight loss (wasting), stumbling, listlessness and other neurologic symptoms,” according to the CDC. There is no treatment or vaccine for CWD. 

Despite the high population, a significant problem does not exist yet. Rather, Hayes and others see the high population as something the county should capitalize on. 

“What I’d love to see is a small business sprout up here in Athens that ran its own auction site,” Hayes said. “I’d love to see people around here auctioning off hunting leases, instead of putting them out there for a set price. The reason for this is simple, we are one of the poorest counties in the state…we have literally no idea how much someone from a different financial situation would be willing to pay to come here and hunt deer.”