Zone 642 CWD

The DNR can have all the open CWD hunts it wants and endless tags. If you look at the preliminary 2024 harvest here in 642 it’s not statistically different than prior to the CWD designation.

In short, every landowner I know (including us) didn’t change their hunting or harvest plans regardless of tags available. They could issue us dozens and it wouldn’t matter. Whitetail hunting is a different hobby today than it was 30+ years ago. I don’t think you have to worry about people decimating the deer population.

Definitely get that – but as I have mentioned before – not all areas of 642 are the same for sure and the population is way down on the northern side.
I was more eluding to YOY we never find any adult deceased deer. They say CWD is 100% fatal. We just are not seeing it in the wild.

If you feel the population is down, it’s clearly not down due to harvest unless people are shooting hundreds of deer and not registering them.

I agree that CWD isn’t a widespread disaster in the area. I also feel that the MNDNR isn’t doing anything that’s going to impact deer populations one way or the other. Issuing more tags won’t increase the harvest. The MNDNR doesn’t have as much ability to impact deer populations as many people think they do in ag country. The days of 80-200 acre farms are gone, as is widespread party hunting. Our neighbor owns over 800 acres and hasn’t hunted a day in the last decade. That’s becoming a more common trend