The deer harvest in Southeast Tennessee seems to have rebounded from a poor 2007.
Chattanoogan.com Outdoors has been monitoring deer harvests in the 10 Southeast Tennessee counties, including Bledsoe, Bradley, Grundy, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie.
During all the deer hunts held up until Nov., 10 ... the end of the most recent muzzleloader season ... hunters in those ten copunties have taken a total of 6,273 deer.
During the same time period in 2007 there were only 5,632 deer taken during those hunts. In 2006 the number was 6,317.
It should be noted that there were two additional hunting days during this year's muzzleloader season.
TWRA's Region III Deer Biologist Ben Layton says that the 2007 decline can most likely be attributed to fewer deer due to an outbreak of a virus called EHD. The virus routinely impacts Southeast deer herds, but some years are worse than others... especially drought years.
"I think there was also some concern among hunters because of the EHD issue," said Layton. "They may not have hunted as much in 2007 because of concerns about the EHD outbreak."
Layton says that EHD is not dangerous to humans.
DEER HARVEST COMPARISON
COUNTY... 2008 ... 2007 ... 2006
-- Bledsoe ... 467 ... 493 ... 487
-- Bradley ... 516 ... 429 ... 460
-- Grundy ... ..453 ... 535 ...518
-- Hamilton ... 944 ... 689 ... 812
-- Marion ... 620 ... 633 ... 613
-- McMinn ... 791 ... 841 ... 1036
-- Meigs ... 1077 ... 862 ... 864
-- Polk ... 40 ... 23 ... 28
-- Rhea ... 1027 ... 790 ... 1092
-- Sequatchie ... 338 ... 337 ... 407
TOTAL ... 6273 ... 5632 ... 6317
According to online records, there has been a significant decline of deer taken in McMinn County. Layton says however that, "Two of our major checking stations in McMinn have had problems. One changed owners and is trying to get the REAL (computer) system for checking deer back. The other one had equipment problems and started using the old paper tags. I probably have about 100 paper tags on my desk that haven't been entered into the computer yet."
For the entire Region III area, the 2008 harvest is up about 10 percent from 2007. The same is true for the statewide harvest to date. Layton says he would expect that to hold for the remainder of the year.
"We've got good mast and the deer appear to be in good shape," he said.
An earlier report this year on Chattanoogan.com Outdoors indicated a decline in this year's harvest. However we have since discovered, with Layton's help, flawed methodology which has been corrected.