Last season, Louisiana deer hunters were faced with tragedy and disaster. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged most of Louisiana's coast, including the urban areas of New Orleans and Lake Charles.

"The effects of both hurricanes certainly brought extreme challenges to the state's deer hunters last season," said David Moreland, wildlife division chief with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "From what we understand, hunting license sales were down significantly. Unlike the situation with our freshwater fisheries however, we don't foresee significant mortality in the deer herd. Some areas in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya deltas are already recovering in terms of habitat."

Despite the effects of the hurricanes, a few trophy whitetails were taken last season. Also, much of the state's choice habitat areas for record book deer were undamaged since they lay far inland.

Not all of it escaped, though, and LDWF deer study leader Scott Durham sees more challenges ahead for Louisiana deer hunters, including those who seek trophy whitetails.

"We are losing some trophy whitetail habitat in some areas -- especially the Florida Parishes located across Pontchartrain Lake from New Orleans," said Durham. "Even prior to the hurricanes, human progress has made huge inroads there. The hurricanes further increased new construction in the area. The Parishes of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and East Feliciana have probably lost more trophy deer habitat in this area when compared to others."

Other areas, including St. Landry Parish, are also slowly being deforested owing to the establishment of much needed businesses in the area. Tracts of forests in central Louisiana are getting smaller because of industrial development and new home construction.

"There's going to be challenges ahead of us here in terms of managing the remaining habitat areas for both numbers and quality," said Durham. "We're getting limited on habitat issues, and deer hunters have recently clamored for quality. Management options will become difficult in the future as a result of progress and change."

Durham asserted that on private lands, landowners and clubholders enrolled in the state's Deer Management Assistance Program are much more serious today about managing both habitat and deer in an effort to grow more of the state's younger bucks into high-quality adult whitetails.

"The parishes of East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Concordia, Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee should offer the private-lands hunter quite a few respectable trophies," said Durham.

As for public lands, Durham emphasized that certain parcels deliver better odds on taking trophy whitetails than do others. "Public lands in the Mississippi River drainage region offer the best opportunities at a trophy, and these lands include Big Lake Wildlife Management Area in Franklin, Madison and Tensas parishes, Three Rivers and Red River WMAs in lower Concordia Parish, and Thistlethwaite WMA in St. Landry Parish."

Lake Ophelia NWR in Avoyelles Parish has only relatively recently attracted notice as a destination for trophies taken by primitive weapons.

To define the antler characteristics of a trophy whitetail, Durham said, Louisiana uses the same measuring system established by the Boone and Crockett and Pope & Young Awards Programs. The Longhunter Society uses the Boone and Crockett measuring system to rank trophy whitetails taken by muzzleloader.

New minimums for trophies were established in Louisiana in 2001. The new minimum standard for a whitetail taken by gun is 130 B&C points for the typical category and 165 B&C points for the non-typical category.