A study requested by the Iowa Legislature from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources estimates the benefit of deer in the state far exceeds the damage done to crops and cars. DNR State Deer Biologist Jace Elliott says all the numbers they have on deer were combined into one.
The DNR worked with Iowa State University, the Iowa DOT, and the Iowa Insurance Division to estimate the population of white-tailed deer and their economic impact. Elliott says the population numbers confirmed the trends they’d suspected.
Elliott says they determined the economic impact of deer by using things such as hunting fees that they could track, but says it is hard to calculate all the impact.
The negative costs from the deer herd was much lower.
It’s not easy to make a plus and minus impact from the deer population — because if you hit one with your car, you re not happy. But if you bag a ten-pointer while hunting, you are happy.
He says the study shows the need to continue their practices in deer management, as the study says white-tailed deer were abundant when European settlers arrived in Iowa in the early 1800s, but by 1880 were rarely seen and in the deer season was legally closed in 1898. They were re-established and the estimate of the population in 1936 placed statewide numbers between 500 and 700. The population increased and the deer harvest topped 100-thousand for the first time in 1996.
