Published: December 01, 2009 05:55 pm      

DNR awaiting tags to count deer harvest in annual hunt

The jury is still out and no verdict is possible on this year’s firearms season for deer until all the tags are rounded up late next week.

One thing is certain: Nasty weather likely kept the numbers well below normal in the Eastern Panhandle.

“Anecdotally, you hear different things, but we don’t have any information at all,” assistant wildlife chief Paul Johansen of the Division of Natural Resources said Tuesday.

“It varies so much across the state with regard as to what the weather conditions were the first couple of days of the season. I would hazard to guess what the overall deer kill is going to be look like. We’re just waiting for the tags to roll in.”

Weather was the key factor, since it varied greatly during the early part of opening week — traditionally the time when the majority of the bucks are taken.

“In the Eastern Panhandle, the weather was terrible,” Johansen said.

“Looking at a station we had in Hampshire County, where I was working, it was probably down 20 to 30 percent from what we had previously checked in at comparable locations. I know other parts of the state had really decent weather.”

Before the season began, the DNR was projecting a deer kill exceeding that of the 2008 season, based on the number of carryover bucks that survived when poor weather conditions held sway over most of the state in the first week.

“Where we had decent weather, I think we’re going to have a really good kill,” Johansen said.

“Where the weather was not up to par, I think the kill is going to be down. In the Eastern Panhandle, we had some pretty miserable weather for hunting. I suspect the kill is going to be down somewhat over there.”

Weather was considered more suitable in the rest of the state, and in some instances, almost ideal, although in some locales “maybe a little warmer than what we would liked to have had,” he said.

So in those regions, the tale of the tags might show a higher kill than in 2008, he sad.

A year ago, hunters bagged 67,365 bucks, which was 152 above the 2007 harvest, and in the past five years, the kill has ranged between 60,000 and 67,000.

Deer hunting is more than a popular tradition in West Virginia — it also is a major economic contributor, pouring some $250 million into the state’s economy on an annual basis.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com