State ends program pairing hunters, farms

Well, that one didn't work out -- the HuntOhioFarms.com Web site and program launched in August, 2009, in hopes of putting together well-behaved deer hunters and willing landowners in hopes of whittling down deer-damage on cropland.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife last week said it will discontinue the effort "due to lower than anticipated participation from Ohio's farming community," an official statement said. HOF was a joint effort by the division and Ohio Farm Bureau.

If there are deer damage problems here, it partly is because 94 percent of the state is privately owned, and that, no surprise, is where most of the deer hang out. Often too many hunters are concentrated on too little public land and deer yard up where hunters cannot tread.

Admittedly, bad behavior by slobs has a multiplier effect in the posting of land. One bad experience for a landowner may nix the chance of anyone ever again hunting his land. HOF was an attempt to reduce that credibility gap; prospective hunters were screened, had to agree to background checks, running the whole nine yards of distrust.

I know that because I was one of the HOF applicant-hopefuls. No cigar. I never got the first call from "landowner with deer problem seeking willing, well-behaved hunter." There are lots of us.

In the first year more than 9,000 hunters enrolled with 83 landowners signing on in a four-county test area. The Farm Bureau and wildlife division tried to expand the program to 38 counties across southeast Ohio in 2010. Despite direct mailings by the division of wildlife and marketing efforts by the bureau, what was billed as "an insufficient number of landowners" signed up. At the end of the second year, 5,000 more hunters had enrolled with only 40 additional farms.

Wildlife authorities said that they will continue to work with the Farm Bureau to solve deer crop damage using deer hunting and other means. But that shouldn't include a return of doling out truckloads of free "deer-damage" kill permits, a former system rife with abuses that too often set up cozy deals and at times local overkill.

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With a forecast of fair cold weather for the weekend, expect good numbers of hunters afield Saturday and Sunday for the extension of the Ohio deer-gun season.

Many hunters were shut out by heavy rains during the week-long gun season after Thanksgiving, an observation borne out by a 14 percent reduction in the kill from the same period in 2010, this with a preseason deer herd still hovering at a whopping 750,000 animals.

A bag in the 20,000 to 25,000 range can be expected, though it could go higher with enough participation. The extra weekend was added in 2006 in response to requests from hunters for more weekend time to hunt.

Hunters are reminded to heed the season-total bag limits in the three deer zones -- one in the 12 northwest counties of Zone A; two in the 38 counties of Zone B, and three in the southeast and southern counties of Zone C.

Only $24 either-sex permits will be valid. If you have an unused $15 special antlerless tag, burn it, unless you plan to use it in urban deer units or division of wildlife-authorized controlled hunts. Antlerless deer permits had to be purchased prior to Nov. 27 and are no longer available.

Hunting regulations and maps of the state's deer zones are listed in the free digest, 2011-2012 Ohio Hunting Regulations, available wherever hunting licenses are sold, online at wildohio.com, or by calling 1-800-WILDLIFE.

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Ohio hunters took 1,375 birds during the seven-week fall wild turkey season in 48 counties, the wildlife division said. Last year's kill was 1,425 in the same season.

Prior to the start of this fall's hunting season, Ohio's wild turkey population was estimated at 180,000. As many as 15,000 individuals, not counting private landowners hunting on their own property, participated, the wildlife division said.

Top counties in the kill were Ashtabula with 67, Knox with 55, Guernsey and Tuscarawas with 53 each, Noble with 50, Monroe with 45, Coshocton with 44, Holmes with 42, Licking with 40, and Carroll and Richland with 39 each.

Contact Steve Pollick at: spollick@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.