Nebraska to limit NonRes Deer tags

[mossyoak52]

I’ve hunted Nebraska public land for over 15 years. Used to be much better hunting.

When I filled out my survey this year I mentioned that Nebraska needs to limit NonRes hunters, and that’s coming from a NonRes hunter - I guess they read that one lol

How much habitat over those 15 yrs has been lost ? Might that also be contributing to mule deer decline? Honest question

 

[Laramie]

How much habitat over those 15 yrs has been lost ? Might that also be contributing to mule deer decline? Honest question

Not much has changed habitat wise other than normal drought cycles. EHD took them out. Nebraska has had it bad a few times in the last 10 years.

 

[Kurts86]

How much habitat over those 15 yrs has been lost ? Might that also be contributing to mule deer decline? Honest question

Lots of CRP has been removed from enrollment then put into row crops and tons of wind break treelines have been removed. That’s a midwest wide problem but prevalent in Nebraska. There are also issues with invasive eastern red cedar negatively affecting habitat quality.

Whitetail range has definitely been expanding and the WT to MD ratios in mixed areas have switched to favor whitetails in the last 10 years I’ve seen. Reducing mule deer tags and shooting whitetails is a good thing.

The public land aspect of the problem was always that guys realized that Nebraska was the closest AND cheapest mule deer tag. It was certainly why I went to Nebraska the first time. I had plenty of whitetails and zero mule deer when I went to Nebraska the first time. The public land got hit hard but no one cared because the state management is private land centric.

I hate to see more nonresident tags being taken away but the mule deer management changes are a good thing.

 

[Laramie]

i hunted antelope in the pine ridge years ago. I want to say at least 7 years ago and at that time the game warden told me that the mule deer numbers were way down. I can see the reasons for putting it in the MDCA.

i thought the early landowner was the previous three days before regular firearm season. Maybe something changed.

Special Landowner: Nov. 5, 2022 – Nov. 7, 2022
November firearm: Nov. 12, 2022 – Nov. 20, 2022

The 3 day weekend before was what it was last year. Nebraska's rifle season is always the Saturday closest to November 13th so the landowner will always be the weekend before that. Some discussion of that expanding to include more landowner relatives and possibly longer season. Landowners in the state hold all the cards as they own 97% of the land.

 

[mossyoak52]

Lots of CRP has been removed from enrollment then put into row crops and tons of wind break treelines have been removed. That’s a midwest wide problem but prevalent in Nebraska. There are also issues with invasive eastern red cedar negatively affecting habitat quality.

Whitetail range has definitely been expanding and the WT to MD ratios in mixed areas have switched to favor whitetails in the last 10 years I’ve seen. Reducing mule deer tags and shooting whitetails is a good thing.

The public land aspect of the problem was always that guys realized that Nebraska was the closest AND cheapest mule deer tag. It was certainly why I went to Nebraska the first time. I had plenty of whitetails and zero mule deer when I went to Nebraska the first time. The public land got hit hard but no one cared because the state management is private land centric.

I hate to see more nonresident tags being taken away but the mule deer management changes are a good thing.

Interesting thanks for explaining

 

[KHNC]

I’ve hunted Nebraska public land for over 15 years. Used to be much better hunting.

When I filled out my survey this year I mentioned that Nebraska needs to limit NonRes hunters, and that’s coming from a NonRes hunter - I guess they read that one lol

VERY long over due for sure. I have hunted nebraska since 2006. Last year was by far the worst ive seen it in the PIne Ridge for Whitetails. Plenty of non-huntable elk, but no deer. I wont go back for years. Population needs to recover. I have heard the Pine Ridge is limited to 180 NR tags. I hope that is correct.

 

[cnelk]

There was a program thru the state to remove all the cedars on the SWAs, something about the cedar trees sucking up the water.

 

[Laramie]

Lots of CRP has been removed from enrollment then put into row crops and tons of wind break treelines have been removed. That’s a midwest wide problem but prevalent in Nebraska. There are also issues with invasive eastern red cedar negatively affecting habitat quality.

Whitetail range has definitely been expanding and the WT to MD ratios in mixed areas have switched to favor whitetails in the last 10 years I’ve seen. Reducing mule deer tags and shooting whitetails is a good thing.

The public land aspect of the problem was always that guys realized that Nebraska was the closest AND cheapest mule deer tag. It was certainly why I went to Nebraska the first time. I had plenty of whitetails and zero mule deer when I went to Nebraska the first time. The public land got hit hard but no one cared because the state management is private land centric.

I hate to see more nonresident tags being taken away but the mule deer management changes are a good thing.

Are you getting info from bucket biologists or have insight I am not aware of? EHD, and other diseases are the #1 reason for the mule deer decline.

CRP enrolled acres are doing great across the state.


Cedar trees are not having a negative impact in the Pine Ridge - the area in question.

 

[KHNC]

Interesting thanks for explaining

415 posts since May 2022. You certainly are making your mark. Mostly in defense of Montana and bears looks like. Do you have any input on Nebraska deer as well? Are you a mossy oak staffer? If so, i can understand why you are so opiniated.

 

[mossyoak52]

415 posts since May 2022. You certainly are making your mark. Mostly in defense of Montana and bears looks like. Do you have any input on Nebraska deer as well? Are you a mossy oak staffer? If so, i can understand why you are so opiniated.

obviously you can click on my profile sooooo if you don't like my opinion or what I post click on it scoll down under my name and hit IGNORE problem solved that's exactly what I do
Have a great day see ya bud

 

[KHNC]

obviously you can click on my profile sooooo if you don't like my opinion or what I post click on it scoll down under my name and hit IGNORE problem solved that's exactly what I do
Have a great day see ya bud

Thanks for the info, Buzz.

 

[Kurts86]

Are you getting info from bucket biologists or have insight I am not aware of? EHD, and other diseases are the #1 reason for the mule deer decline.

CRP enrolled acres are doing great across the state.
View attachment 422165

Cedar trees are not having a negative impact in the Pine Ridge - the area in question.

View attachment 422164

Eastern red cedar is a problem in the sandhills specifically hence that yellow shading in Cherry county. Nebraska national forest has done projects at Bessey and Mckelvie units http://wildbirdsbroadcasting.blogspot.com/2019/04/cedar-tree-removal-to-continue-in.html?m=1

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/cs/projects/nebraska?sortby=3&archive=1&ss=110207

I just saw that Nebraska seems to be absorbing the CRP enrollment limits. It’s picked up only recently but suffered a decade plus decline before that. Tons of wind breaks have been removed throughout the state.

I’m aware EHD is the #1 problem especially with 2021 drought conditions with overall deer numbers but there are definitely other contributing issues for mule deer.

 

[JLW66]

The 3 day weekend before was what it was last year. Nebraska's rifle season is always the Saturday closest to November 13th so the landowner will always be the weekend before that. Some discussion of that expanding to include more landowner relatives and possibly longer season. Landowners in the state hold all the cards as they own 97% of the land.

as noted to the left, I live in Eastern Nebraska and own land. I spoke out against the early landowner season. Bow hunting our property the week before rifle opener you can hear the rifle shots in the surrounding hills. Now I know that people will tell you that they are sighting in for the opener, but my gut tells me that some of those targets are live. My game cameras tell me that deer disappear before the opener. I am not sure if there will ever be a happy medium here, but i do know that we have alot less deer now than i can remember in the last 15 years. there are many factors that play into it, seasons and disease are my top two. I am also sure that this situation plays out all over the US with game in all states, not just here.

Best of luck to you guys this fall. Be safe.

 

[Laramie]

Eastern red cedar is a problem in the sandhills specifically hence that yellow shading in Cherry county. Nebraska national forest has done projects at Bessey and Mckelvie units http://wildbirdsbroadcasting.blogspot.com/2019/04/cedar-tree-removal-to-continue-in.html?m=1

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/cs/projects/nebraska?sortby=3&archive=1&ss=110207

I just saw that Nebraska seems to be absorbing the CRP enrollment limits. It’s picked up only recently but suffered a decade plus decline before that. Tons of wind breaks have been removed throughout the state.

I’m aware EHD is the #1 problem especially with 2021 drought conditions with overall deer numbers but there are definitely other contributing issues for mule deer.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of those projects. I personally don't believe the red cedars have an impact on mule deer populations unless they get out of control but I do respect the problems they do create. Combined with grazing, they can limit the carrying capacity of a given range. I do find it strange they refer to them as invasive though since they are a native tree to Nebraska.

 

[Titan_Bow]

It will be interesting to see what impact the private land rifle opener has. Where I hunt, that last week of archery was always my favorite week to be out there. On larger public tracts there is a possibility it could actually work in your favor, who knows.
I know the tract I hunt has got more pressure every year from non residents, but I’ve always killed deer and always had a good hunt. It does surprise me every year seeing license plates from damn near every state, Lol. When I first started hunting out there, you’d see a few other guys, also from Colorado, and that was it. Last year, I saw license plates from Idaho, New York, Washington, California, Georgia, Wisconsin.
One big negative impactor that I’ve noticed last several years with Covid, they aren’t planting crops on the state land like they used to, and some of the local land owners that used to plant corn and beans hadn’t planted some of their fields last few years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lukem]

Can a NR buy and hold bonus or preference points in Nebraska? Thanks.

Yes, preference points are on sale during the draw period (closes today) and are available to NR. Purchasing points was an option that was added last year. The only draw units are Frenchman MDCA and Platte MDCA. Pine Ridge MDCA wasn't added to the draw list this year because there wasn't enough time in the regs process to do so. It will likely be added for next year.

Also, the disease impact on MD has been meningeal brain worm, EHD/BT has minor impact on MD but greater impacts on WT.