Why the Zone Doe Quota Permit was eliminated

Managing deer populations across the state requires maintaining a controlled harvest, particularly female deer. The Zone Doe Quota Permit was initiated in 1993 and utilized until 1997. These permits allow for a conservative harvest of does, while offering some doe hunting opportunity. This management strategy proved successful with the deer population in these areas responding positively. From 1998 to 2002, the zone bag limit was modified and a doe was added in the seasonal bag limit. During this time multiple does were allowed to be harvested throughout the muzzleloader and modern gun seasons. A very liberal doe harvest and long season structure resulted in a population decrease due to over-harvesting of the female segment. The Zone Doe Quota Permit was reinstated in 2003 and maintained for many of the original zones until today.

Since 2003, the deer population has increased in the Zone Doe Quota Permit Zones (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11). As a result, Deer Zones 1 and 10 were removed from the Zone Doe Quota Permit requirement during the 2007-08 hunting season, and both were allotted five days of muzzleloader and two days of modern gun hunting for hunters to harvest a single doe. After removing the Zone Doe Quota Permit requirement, the doe harvest met the population management goal for Deer Zone 1 of an increasing to slightly stable deer population. A similar increase in doe harvest percentage was observed for Deer Zone 10 after removal of the Zone Doe Quota Permit requirement. The doe harvest met the objective for a stable to slightly decreasing population.

Based on the increased deer population in the current Zone Doe Quota Permit Zones (2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 11) and the successful removal of Deer Zones 1 and 10 from the permit system, we proposed removing the Zone Doe Quota Permit requirements for Zones 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 11. Removal of these zones from the permit system will increase opportunity for all hunters, not just those successful in drawing a permit. Furthermore, removal of these zones from the permit system will allow all Deer Zones across the state to be managed via doe days, thus simplifying regulations.