Photo by Curt Helmick

During the 2004 archery season, West Virginia stick-and-stringers harvested 26,540 whitetails, which was 11 percent below the 2003 tally of 30,243. And this number is 10 percent below the five-year average of 33,370. Is the state's deer herd in trouble? Is there cause for concern or even alarm? Quite the contrary, maintains West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife biologist Scott Warner.

Warner and the DNR believe that the state is making good progress in reducing deer numbers to more manageable levels. And in many areas of the Mountain State, this is a very good thing for the deer herd and wildlife habitat, as well as property owners and motorists. In many Southeastern and Northeastern states, deer populations have exploded out of control and the result has been herds that are suffering from small body weights and that are more prone to disease.

Another negative result has been more damage to farmers' crops and landowners' vegetable and flower gardens, as well as an increase in traffic accidents involving deer. Simply stated, ever-increasing deer harvests are not good for the resource. The deer herd is healthier if it is at or slightly below the carrying capacity of the land -- instead of being above the carrying capacity. A positive result of there being fewer deer is that bucks will have more of an opportunity to grow to larger weights and sport more impressive antlers.

Not all counties need to have their deer numbers reduced, of course, especially some of those in southern West Virginia. But, generally, the bow harvest being down was not a surprise and not a bad thing for the state's archers.

Across the state, the top 10 counties were: Preston (1,106), Nicholas (898), Randolph (894), Mason (776), Greenbrier (765), Kanawha (733), Monongalia (726), McDowell (681), Mercer (671) and Fayette (645). All figures above are tentative, as the final harvest figures were not available at press time. Here's a region-by-region look at the top counties.

DISTRICT I
The Northern Panhandle
Last Oct. 22, I made a 5 1/2-hour drive through southern West Virginia, past Charleston, and on into the Northern Panhandle and Marshall County. The reason why was so that I could turkey hunt in Marshall on Saturday and bowhunt for deer on Sunday, as it is still one of the few counties that offer Sunday hunting.

Unfortunately, on Sunday morning, I awoke to rain and heavy fog. I went home without ever venturing forth to a tree stand. I didn't want to take the risk of wounding a whitetail and losing the trail in the rain. Now the question arises why I would drive such a long way for the chance to hunt deer in Marshall County, which only accounted for 499 bow-killed whitetails last year, compared to the 1,106 deer bagged in Preston County.

The reason is that although a county may lead its district in bow harvest, as was the case with Preston -- and even the state (as was also the case with Preston) -- that does not make it necessarily the leading county in the state as a bowhunting destination. Biologist Chris Ryan told me that such is definitely the case in West Virginia, as the largest counties in acreage almost invariably lead their districts in deer harvest -- regardless of the number of deer present.

Richard Hall, supervisor game management unit for the DNR, told me that there are counties in each district that "produce a significant number of deer and still need their herds to be reduced to bring them in line with the Buck Harvest Objective (BHO) listed in our five-year Whitetail Deer Operational Plan."