Photo by Kenny Bahr.

Based on last year's deer kill, West Virginia's hunters have every reason to look forward to the upcoming whitetail season. After all, hunters bagged 136,289 deer during the combined 2006 buck, antlerless, archery and muzzleloader seasons -- a slight increase from the 135,361 they harvested in 2005. Looking strictly at the numbers, the difference doesn't seem significant. It was, though, for at least three reasons.

One, it marked the first harvest increase since 2002. Two, it contained significant increases in the firearms buck kill and the archery kill, bellwether indicators of overall hunter success. And three, the 2006 season coincided with the first decent mast crop since 2003.

Paul Johansen, assistant wildlife chief for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR), said the season was exactly what sportsmen and biologists were looking for.

"This is what we had hoped to accomplish," he said. "The hunting regulations we had in effect for the previous two seasons did what we wanted them to. In counties where we had too many deer, we continued to reduce the population. In counties where we had too few, we allowed the population to expand."

Hunters began clamoring for expansion after DNR officials succeeded -- some say too well -- at reducing overpopulated herds through long hunting seasons and generous bag limits. Between 2002 and 2005, the deer kill plunged from a record-high of 255,356 to an 18-year low of 135,361.

Hunters and biologists gradually realized that they had overshot the resource, but by then, deer populations had shrunk to levels not seen since the late 1980s. That's when DNR administrators enacted more conservative hunting regulations for the 2005 and 2006 seasons, but the changes took nearly two years to begin having an effect.

"There's usually a lag when you make changes like that," Johansen explained. "You don't reduce deer populations overnight, and you don't expand them overnight. It takes a while to put a fawn on the ground and it takes a while for that fawn -- if it's a buck -- to become a legal buck. You can increase the population within a year, but it takes a year or two longer before that population increase is reflected in the buck harvest."

The fruits of those changes showed up last year with increases in the buck and archery kills. The buck kill rose 16 percent, from 56,901 to 66,103. The archery kill jumped 13 percent, from 21,949 to 24,572.

At the same time, the state's antlerless take fell 20 percent and the muzzleloader harvest dropped 16 percent. Biologists had predicted declines in both those numbers, mainly because of the conservative antlerless-deer regulations that were in effect then.

This year's regulations won't be quite as conservative.

"The regulations we propose for each county's antlerless-deer season are based on the number of bucks killed per square mile in that county," Johansen explained. "Last year, the buck kill increased enough in several counties to trigger regulation changes."

Biologists proposed to increase the number of counties with antlerless-deer seasons from last year's total of 37 to this year's total of 41. In late April, members of the state Natural Resources Commission approved the increase. They also proposed an increase in the antlerless-deer bag limit, from last year's maximum of three to this year's maximum of four.

Hunters who need to stay abreast of the changes should consult the state's 2007-08 Hunting and Trapping Regulations booklet, which should currently be available at license outlets and at all DNR offices.

To determine which Mountain State counties offer the most promise to this year's collection of hunters, West Virginia Game & Fish calculated each county's 2006 total kill as well as each county's kill per square mile of deer habitat.

Very small counties, such as Hancock at only 61 square miles and Brooke at just 76, tend to skew the deer-per-square-mile statistics. Hancock, for instance, averaged a state-best 23.8 deer per square mile, but ranked just 40th in overall harvest with 1,452 whitetails taken.

Because sportsmen need room to hunt, only counties with more than 240 square miles were considered for best-bet status. In cases where tiebreakers were needed, counties with more public hunting acreage got the nod.

Monongalia County topped this year's list. Hunters harvested 4,746 deer within its borders last year, the state's fourth-best total. A countywide average of 15.2 whitetails per square mile was good for fifth place in that statistic.

With rolling, farm-like terrain in its western half and the soaring ridges of the Allegheny Mountains in its eastern reaches, Monongalia has deer habitat that appeals as readily to city-dwelling hunters as it does to iron-lunged ridge runners. Moreover, it has quite a variety of public-land hunting options.