Deer starting to rebound

While I understand the healthy deer population in our city centres across Northwestern Ontario drives everybody nuts, especially who want to have a garden or grow flowers, it really isn’t an indication of the deer numbers outside of town, where deer took a massive hit following tough winters in 2013 and 2014.
For nearly 10 years, I spent a significant part of my fall guiding deer hunters, mostly Americans who came to Sunset Country in search of a big buck.
When I started up my little business back in 2005, this region was one of top places in all of North America to hunt whitetail deer. It also was one of the only places that non-resident hunters could hunt on their own, free of a guide or outfitter, at least in some parts of the region.
It didn’t take long before it was almost impossible to book a room during the first two weeks of November as hunters travelled from all over North America to take advantage of the great hunting and lenient regulations.
It was good for the region, however, as restaurants were full, gas stations were busy, and tourist operators had a great opportunity to stay busy for an extra month or two after the fishing season wrapped up.
But a combination of hunting pressure, lack of quality forage, an increase in the wolf population, and mostly the brutal winters that seem to pop up every few years led to a sharp decline in deer numbers, especially over the past five years.
I have taken a break from my outfitting business the past few years because there simply weren’t enough deer, especially the larger bucks, to justify all the work and expense there was to do it.
I didn’t feel right charging my clients the money I needed to make it worth my while when I did not feel we had the quality hunting we were accustomed to.
The reality is, I love deer hunting. Not the killing the deer part. I have a bunch of motion-activated game cameras that I put in the woods and monitor a couple of times per week and I really enjoy checking the cameras to see what’s out there.
I also like the social aspect of talking deer hunting with my friends but mostly I love being outside.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the woods. And while deer numbers are starting to come around in some areas, there still are pockets where they are having a tough time getting back on track.
For me it seems like the farther out of town and more remote you get, the worse off the deer are. These are the places that were the best back when the numbers were way high.
Wolves likely are factoring into slowing the comeback in some of these areas because they tend to like the more remote areas, away from people, as well.
Hopefully we have another good winter across Northwestern Ontario and we stand a good chance to see our deer population continue to grow outside of town.
Will we ever see the population and numbers of trophy bucks that we did 10 years ago? I’m skeptical of that but who knows? It would be nice to see the population rebound to where we are an attractive destination for hunters.
We have the beautiful landscape and massive areas to hunt—but we need the deer, as well.
It certainly would benefit our economy across the region, and deer hunting provides many locals with a quality activity during the fall.