Released November 14, 2008
STILLWATER, Okla. – It is about population control, protecting farmers from agricultural crop damage, controlling tick infestations and providing necessary funding for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. It is deer season in Oklahoma.
“We essentially lost our species back when we didn’t have seasons,” said Jim Shaw, a professor of natural resource ecology and management with Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. “White-tailed deer in Oklahoma were virtually extinct in about 1914.”
Great strides have been taken since the mid-1950s to restore the population of white-tailed deer in Oklahoma. Now, with a booming population estimated at more than a half million, deer hunting season in Oklahoma is a vital part of wildlife conservation efforts to manage the deer population.
“There are a lot of places in Oklahoma and the rest of the country that have too many deer,” Shaw said. “Deer begin to be a pest once they get past a certain population point.”
Not only can too many deer cause damage to agricultural plots such as orchards, they also can cause an increase in motor accidents.
“A number of people are killed every year and a lot of damage is done to vehicles from collisions with deer,” Shaw said. “It even affects insurance rates in some states.”
The negative effects are not limited to personal and professional economics.
“You’re also getting an increase in lime disease and a bigger tick population; in Oklahoma, this translates into a higher rate of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is the most dangerous tick-born disease in the region,” Shaw said. “There are all kinds of different effects of having too many deer. It’s not a healthy situation.”
Even with the recently extended rifle season in Oklahoma, the deer population has continued to rise. One wonders what would happen without any hunting season on deer.
“We would either have a much higher population, or because we couldn’t afford adequate law enforcement, poaching would be greatly increased to where the deer population would suffer too heavy of losses, putting the species at risk,” said Shaw. “The ODWC would be deprived of their major revenue stream from the purchase of licenses and tags. They do too much good work for that to be acceptable.”
The funding from licenses and tags is used to ensure a healthy population of wildlife in the state, including the use of game wardens to enforce the rules. Shaw said an operation like the ODWC takes a significant amount of money to operate.
Since the 1930s, a manufacturer’s excise tax has been placed on sporting arms and ammunition at 10 percent of the cost. This somewhat hidden tax has been passed on to the consumer and collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
After a 3:1 match from the federal tax, the ODWC receives millions of dollars in funding, which is only available for use in wildlife management. Shaw said that about a third of the ODWC’s budget comes from this federal aid.
“Between the license sales and the federal aid money, you’ve got big revenue sources,” he said. “It’s a self-funding system and has wide public support. Despite it being sort of a hidden tax, people don’t’ really give it a second thought. It’s a beautifully conceived system.”
Archery season in Oklahoma has been open since Oct. 1 and runs through Jan. 15, 2009, while muzzle-loading season and youth deer gun season has concluded. However, the bulk of the harvest will come during the first weekend of gun season, with opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs for 16 days.
For more information on deer hunting in Oklahoma, visit the ODWC at http://www.wildlifedepartment.com on the Internet.
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http://www2.dasnr.okstate.edu/Members/donald.stotts-40okstate.edu/oh-deer-it2019s-that-time-of-year
Contact: Sean Hubbard, 405-744-4490, sean.hubbard@okstate.edu
