Hi all,
I wanted to take an opportunity to send a deer program update out to everyone, because there are several updates. Some of these are good news and bad news, but first the bad news.
I’m Leaving – I am leaving Indiana and my last day working for DNR is tomorrow. The opportunity fell in my lap to move back to North Carolina (my home state) and take the Deer Biologist job there. Not only is this home, but my fiancée starts graduate school in North Carolina in January, so this move is a very good one for both of us. I sincerely hate that I am leaving Indiana so soon, as there are so many projects that I wanted to see come to fruition. However, the time was right and I couldn’t pass the opportunity. I have full intentions of buying a license to come back and deer hunt every fall though, because the hunting here is just spectacular. The Deer Biologist job is already being advertised on job boards and the hope is that we can get someone new in the position very soon. I do not anticipate the job staying open as long as it has in the past.
Proposed Deer Rule Changes – As you all know there are several deer regulation changes that we have proposed in hopes of making the deer licensing system here more simple. These are available for public input for two more weeks at on.in.gov/gotinput So far, we have received a lot of support for most of these changes and I am hopeful that they will be eventually adopted! We will see what the Natural Resources Commission says when they review these proposals, but I am very optimistic! The one proposal that is losing steam is the combination of the archery and crossbow licenses. There has been opposition to this proposal and some great points were made during our engagement with various deer hunting groups that such a combination would reduce our ability to estimate success rates for crossbow hunters.
EHD – It has been a very quiet year for EHD in Indiana. This is not surprising given the fact that we are still enjoying a great deal of herd immunity from the 2019 outbreak in southern Indiana. We have only had seven suspected cases of EHD reported to DNR so far this year and have not been able to confirm any cases through a laboratory.
Deer Report – The deer report is almost done. It has been written and waiting for some time before the formatting process even began, but now it is finally moving quickly. I predict this should be published before the end of the month, maybe even sooner.
New Deer Management Survey Data Dashboard – What I’m most excited to share is a brand new data sharing dashboard that was just published to our website this afternoon (see the screenshot below). We have been working on this project since January and I was worried for a bit that it wouldn’t be approved by our web team, but it has cleared all of the hurtles and is now live! This dashboard allows you to view data from the Deer Management Survey all four years the survey has been used so far. On the dashboard you can filter by county or DMU. You can also select multiple counties or DMUs, as I did in the example below, this filters all of the data on the dashboard for the counties or DMUs you select. The dashboard is available here
www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/wi...led-deer/deer-management-survey-results/ We are also working on a second dashboard that will be formatted similarly to this but will display all of the population data: Archer’s Index sighting rates, hunter harvest, deer vehicle collisions, and hunter success rates. The plan is for both of these dashboards to replace the county and DMU datasheets that we have published in the past. The old datasheets did not meet 508 Accessibility standards which, but these new data dashboards do. They also afford users a great deal of flexibility in filtering data which makes it even more useful. If you want to see the data in a tabular format you can click the table symbol in the top right corner of any figure. Let me know what you think!
It has been an honor to work in the Deer Biologist role for the last year and I will miss Indiana. Speaking as an outsider that came here, worked, and is now leaving, I must say that the folks within the Division are all terrific and I think the world of them. Indiana has got a great team of scientists working to progress fish and wildlife management in the state! Take care and hopefully we cross paths again someday soon. Good luck in the woods this fall!
-Moria
