Eastern Nebraska EHD impact on deer populations?

[JimP]

I was looking at gas prices and my thin wallet and contemplating not making the annual trek out to  God's Country (100 degrees west Longitude, a bit above 40 dgrees north latitude) for firearm deer season in November ...so I asked a local guy with lots of landowner contacts about places to hunt.  Last fall he had assured me that you could not swing a cat wthout hitting a whitetail on land that farmers in the local area (eastern Cass and Otoe county) would just love for you to come perforate and police up. So tody I asked him where I should start knocking and he said he wasn't going to even get a permit this year, as EHD (epizootic hemmorhgic disease) has killed so many deer- he claims to have seen 25 dead deer on one property alone....

What are you all seeing?

[kozball]

Last year, A friend of mine took me deer hunting for the first time ever. We went to a farm down by Greenwood in Cass County. He has been hunting the same tract for 30yrs. Trail cams were always busy. When I shot my 1st Doe in October there were 13 deer in the field in front of our stand. He recently told me that the 8 cameras that he has out has only caught 2 does, 1 with 1 fawn, and 1 with 2 fawns. No Bucks. The fawns were very small. He has the same feeling as Jim. No permit this year.

Also, on the G&P website, they are cutting back on Seasons Choice permits by 50%. Can't be good.

[RobertH]

we must be lucky.  around my family's place near Wayne, we have not seen any dead deer at all.  i still have my good sized buck on it with a few does and fawns.  i hear and see a lot of dead deer pics online.  scouting is paramount this year.

[KY57]

I am just north of Plattsmouth and usually there are 5-10 deer in the field around dusk.  Haven't seen to many this fall though.

[lefty]

Visited with a friend in the Albion area and he had just been out scouting his ranch and found 4 recent dead deer.  :-(  He is hoping for a heavy frost, hopefully to slow the deaths down.

[bkoenig]

I hunt up north, between Neligh and Clearwater and we haven't seen any EHD on our land.  We're about 5-6 miles from the Elkhorn river, though, and around the river there have been reports of it.

[Husker_Fan]

I hunted the River Antlerless season last week. The land we hunt is on the south side of the Platte not far from Columbus. I saw just as many deer as I normally do and a few weeks ago scouting the property we did find one dead deer. It didn't look to have had much of an impact.

[bk09]

Well tonight I saw my first deer of the season while hunting(Two Rivers SRA, West of Omaha). Had a couple yearlings come in at 20 yards, but I wasn't able to stand up and grab my bow before they were out of range. They kept lookin at me but couldn't figure out if I was a threat, they would have been nice and tender too... I haven't found any sign of dead deer at that SRA yet, and I have walked a good chunk of the open areas and trails, just too thick to get far off the trails.

[bkoenig]

I hunt up north, between Neligh and Clearwater and we haven't seen any EHD on our land.  We're about 5-6 miles from the Elkhorn river, though, and around the river there have been reports of it.

Update....we've now seen 2 or 3 dead deer during harvest season.  On a related note, the deer damage to some of our cornfields was the worst we've ever seen.

[bk09]

Update....we've now seen 2 or 3 dead deer during harvest season.  On a related note, the deer damage to some of our cornfields was the worst we've ever seen.

If you need any help thinning the numbers to help future crops let me know.

[RobertH]

Update....we've now seen 2 or 3 dead deer during harvest season.  On a related note, the deer damage to some of our cornfields was the worst we've ever seen.

my family got done harvesting about a week ago and they saw no dead deer, my brother said he chased out about 2 or 3 deer while combining.  my dad also complained about deer damage and i saw quite a bit of beaver damage, a lot more than usual.  hopefully i can make some beaver jerky after i go trapping.

[Mudinyeri]

I've had the opportunity to scout a few places around the eastern half of the state.

160 acres near Tekamah - 1 dead, 2 live
240 acres near O'Neill - 1 dead, 2 live
240 acres near Norfolk, 20 dead, no live

Proximity to water seems to be the key.  The 240 acres near Norfolk is spread over two farms.  One has a pond on the property with a bit of water still in it.  The other has a pond only a few hundred yards to the east.

I usually hunt my own place (near Norfolk), but I'm thinking about giving it a break this year.