Photo by D. Robert Franz.

Changes in regulations are in store for Bayou State deer hunters for 2007: This fall, hunters will have to attach actual tags immediately upon taking whitetails in Louisiana.

Here's David Moreland, wildlife division chief with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, explaining the new tagging system: "All deer hunters regardless of license type" -- big-game, lifetime, senior hunter -- "will have to obtain three antlered and antlerless tags at point-of-sale sites around the state. Hunters purchasing big-game and senior licenses will obtain tags upon purchasing their licenses.

"No one pays anything extra for these tags. These tags will be printed for all license holders at the site of transaction."

Upon harvesting a deer, hunters must tag the deer with the appropriate carcass tag and document the kill on the deer tag license. Within 72 hours, the hunter must validate the kill and record a validation number on the license. The validation number will be obtained by calling a designated number or entering data online. "You will have to enter your LDWF ID number, the tag number, antlered or antlerless kill, the harvest date, the parish, and the type of weapon used," explained Moreland.

Moreland also remarked that hunters harvesting deer under the Deer Management Assistance Program or Landowner Antlerless Deer Tag Program can validate deer per instructions by the LDWF using DMAP and LADT harvest data sheets.

"This tagging program should be a better solution to estimating accurately our statewide deer harvest each and every season," he said. "Our biologists will be in a much better situation to make management decisions with the use of such data."

According to Moreland, LDWF field surveys continue to estimate deer numbers at somewhere near 1 million animals statewide. However, according to the LDWF's deer study leader Scott Durham, Louisiana is losing much of the beloved whitetail's precious habitat in areas such as the Florida Parishes (across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans) and central Louisiana parishes like St. Landry.

"Hunters have blamed many agencies for the lack of deer on our public lands over the last few years, but the major culprit here is loss of habitat due to development," said Durham. "People desire both numbers and quality, but many don't realize the type of habitat necessary for both. As a result, management options will become difficult in the future."

On statewide public lands, approximately 5,000 whitetails are harvested each year during managed hunts, which typically occur on holidays and weekends in October, November and December. Access to some of these hunts is to be had by lottery only.

According to Scott Durham, deer hunters using these lands should find at least as many deer as last season -- with the exception of Region V, whose hunters may actually see an increase in their harvest numbers this season.

REGION 1
According to Durham, deer habitat here is extremely favorable in terms of producing big numbers of whitetails. The records of private lands under the DMAP and of WMAs demonstrate deer harvests to be above average. The habitat type in this district consists chiefly of pine and mixed pine-hardwood habitat types managed by various timber companies and the LDWF.

The very popular Jackson-Bienville WMA is 12 miles south of Ruston in north-central Louisiana. This public area's 32,185 acres contain rolling, pine-blanketed hills and hardwood stands scattered through bottomland areas. The major landowner, the Weyerhaeuser Company, leases these lands to the LDWF without charge. Chief strategies during managed hunts here include hunting deer corridors leading to food in the early season.

Dates for gun hunting begin in mid-November and progress through December, with many either-sex days. Last season, managed hunts here produced 131 whitetails for 988 efforts, or 1 deer per 7.5 efforts.

Another area, 4,084-acre Loggy Bayou WMA, is a special favorite of local bowhunters. The 2006 harvest records at this tract in the southernmost part of Bossier Parish indicated that 255 hunters took 59 whitetails. Managed gun hunts for whitetails usually occur in the three days following Thanksgiving; a special muzzleloader segment usually follows the gun hunt, and archery hunting makes up the balance.

For maps or more information regarding Jackson-Bienville and Loggy Bayou WMAs, write contact the LDWF, 1401 Talton Street, Minden, LA 71055; (318) 371-3050.

REGION 2
Private and public lands in this district offer hunt participants solid numbers of deer.