Swamp Wolf has it correct. DNR's getting lots of funding and jobs over CWD. Think Covid!

This^^^^ is what a lot of the country has evolved into...^^^^^

My cuz and I were just talking last night about this same thing. When we started hunting in the 80s (down here in southern Ga) there were few deer in most of the area. Seeing tracks on a dirt road or seeing an actual deer standing in field was cause for excitement. Seeing a deer in town or ran over on the highway never happened. When we hunted, we shot the first one we saw.....if we saw or killed one with antlers, we thought we had really accomplished something.

On into the early 90s, we began travelling to other parts of Georgia (public land) that we heard had lots of deer. We hunted middle Ga (Piedmont NWR - lots of bigger deer and bucks), Georgia's coastal islands (Sapelo, Ossabaw, Cumberland, and Harris Neck NWR - populations of 80 to 100 deer per sq mile)....we couldn't believe the numbers we were seeing. During all this time our local populations were steadily increasing. We began hearing about something called crop deer damage and farmers wanting to kill em.

In the early 2000s, our local deer were approaching 40 or more deer per sq mile in most areas and deer were being seen or ran over everywhere...even in places in the middle of towns. Killing a deer had became very easy of you spent any time in the stand. Selective antler harvest crept in as seeing a buck was also easy. Many folks here started passing small bucks and it gradually took ahold over a large area here. But, as passing bucks became common....not killing enough does increased too.

We have reached the point in deer management time (in this area) that now we have high populations. Deer are everywhere...every half acre block of cover has 1 or 2 deer in it right now. Hunters run cameras and hold out for the bigger bucks they pics of and pass many antlered buck. They see that they have a high doe population and know its needs to be managed, but getting some deer meat is too easy and they just dont want to shoot does as needed. Im as guilty as the rest. Crop damage is everywhere and permit shooting is not doing much on a broad scale. The cycle continues and the deer numbers are still increasing slightly towards a high level literally everywhere...no voids left.

Also, factor in that my age group (I'm 60 years old) is the largest deer hunter age group in Georgia. As we age out, less deer hunters are coming along. And those that are care little about deer management. They have not experienced a time without deer and have good numbers of deer doesn't really excite them as us old Coons. Getting deer meat has been easy for the younger crew. They surely care not about shooting a bunch of does.

Now...Mother Nature seems to be intervening. Everything in our world cycles....and during our lifetime we usually only see part of those cycles. It is sure different now that it used to be in the southern Georgia deer woods.

Ah yes! Factor in the money!

The Ft McPherson site now Tyler Perry Studios that I trap just had WS in to remove deer. They removed 40 off a 300 acre site. The property is inside the Atlanta perimeter.

Plus last time i half way looked id have to hire a lawyer now if i wanted to hunt a deer. More restriction's, less place's to hunt UNLESS YOUR RICH and it doesn't surprise number of hunters is going down every year! Least we won't starve during the next depression.

I have been tooting this horn for years.
We have been doing a terrible job at managing the deer herd.
Hunters look at me when I say there are too many deer, they say, how can you have too many deer?
Ignorant they be.

I can remember when I first started hunting deer in the early '70's. the harvest state wide was less than 100,000. It peaked around 2000 at around 600,000, in the last 2 decades its been around the 300,000-400,000 mark. 4-5x what it was back in the '70's.
In 1970 approx 500,000 licenses sold, 2024, just under 800,000.
So more hunters, more opportunities to shoot a deer, and more deer.
Yet there are too many deer.
DNR estimates approx 25 deer/sq mile.
Biologist say healthy herd size relative to habitat is around 6/sq mile.
You can't plant a White Oak seedling without the deer killing it.
A white Oak sapling is indeed a rare thing to behold around here.

With this density its just a matter of time till diseases run thru the herd. I'll not shed a tear when it happens, a serious thinning is long over due.