OUTDOOR CORNER: NEW APPLE CREEK DEER REGULATION SHOULD HELP HERD

Deer hunters will have a new regulation in effect on Apple Creek Conservation Area in Cape Girardeau County during the Fall, 1997 firearms and muzzleloading deer seasons.

The new regulation will allow the harvest of bucks only with a firearm or muzzleloader on the area during the proper seasons. Archery hunters will still be allowed to harvest a deer of either sex during the open season under statewide regulations.

The Conservation Department brought about this change for a number of reasons. A decrease in the deer herd at Apple Creek Conservation Area the last few years has been obvious to area managers. Complaints from hunters have also increased steadily. The decrease can be attributed primarily to an over-harvest of female deer. The deer habitat on the conservation area is excellent and efforts are underway to improve it even more. Public lands, however, are exposed to extreme hunting pressure and an over-harvest of does can be expected unless more restrictive regulations are made.

This decrease in populations has been noticed throughout the entire area of deer management unit 44. Wildlife biologists have reduced the number of any-deer permits in the unit from 4,500 in 1995 to 3,000 in 1997. The decrease in deer numbers can also be contributed primarily to an over harvest of does.

Management practices to be carried out at Apple Creek Conservation Area to help increase the deer population are:

1. Timber management: Timber sales have been conducted to create openings which provide more hardcore escape cover and browse.

A one acre opening in a forest often provides as much as 10 times the amount of plants used by wildlife as one acre of mature timber. Timber stand improvement practices are used to promote the health and quality of a forest stand. Stream and river corridors are being reestablished to trees after the floods of 1993 and 1995.

2. Field management: Crop fields will continue to be farmed with several acres of corn, soybeans, milo, sunflowers and wheat left in the fields to provide food and cover during the cold winter months. Old fields are being converted to stands of native grass or clover. Prescribed burning is being utilized to promote native grasses and forbes, release nutrients, control ground litter and some unwanted plants, stimulate seed production and help improve plant diversity.

3. Five new wildlife ponds have been constructed south of Highway CC.

These management practices will benefit a number of wildlife species on the area besides deer. Both game and non-game wildlife species will benefit from these management practices. For questions about the new deer regulations, please contact the Perryville Forestry Office at (573)547-4537.

Gene Myers is a Missouri conservation agent in Cape Girardeau County.