2011-12 WMA forecast

Biologists discuss top wildlife management areas for 2011-12 hunting season.

Many hunters envisioned deer carcasses littering the productive Delta when the waters receded, despite assurances from state biologists that there would be no hunting-season changes necessary.

“… (W)e expect minimal long-term impacts to deer abundance because flood waters rose slowly, which gave deer time to seek higher ground,” the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said when the waters were highest.

And a look at the WMAs within the impacted area has proven state managers knew what they were talking about.

“We’ve been on Shipland (WMA), and we are seeing deer,” acting WMA Coordinator Jackie Fleeman said in late July. “They have moved right back on it.”

That’s saying something, since Shipland (which lies inside the levee) was the lone WMA to be completely covered with many feet of water throughout the flood.

Fleeman said deer know how to deal with high water, and simply found higher ground. That meant the majority of the deer passed over the levee to safety, but there were those that didn’t make it.

“You might have had some that found high spots (inside the WMA), and when the water came up they didn’t make it,” Fleeman said. “But, basically, we aren’t figuring on there being a major influence on the deer herd.”

Other concerns about the high flooding — namely lack of underbrush and a negative impact on fawning — also should prove to be non-issues.

Consider the impact of the standing water on the underbrush, which provides groceries for deer.

“What (flooding) does is it knocks it back,” Fleeman said. “We went to places that the best I could figure it had been out of water for 10 days, and it looked like springtime.

“Everything was sprouted out.”

And this new growth is exactly what deer want.

“It’s an explosion — basically another spring,” Fleeman explained. “All that stuff that comes out is grade A deer food.

“It’s tender; it’s got all the nutrients in it that deer need. They’re going to fill up quickly.”

Shipland WMA was the public area most impacted by the flooding, with only three others receiving waters from the backed-up Yazoo River.

“About half of Sunflower (WMA) flooded,” Fleeman said. “About a third of Lake George and Mahannah were flooded.”

However, none of those areas suffered anything unusual.

“The depth of the water wasn’t bad at all,” Fleeman said. “It happens all the time (along the Yazoo River).”

The bottom line across all the flooded WMAs is that hunting should not be impacted at all.

“Hunters won’t be able to tell it happened,” Fleeman said.

And that flooding really was the biggest threat to public-land hunters this year.

There were some concerns elsewhere about flooding earlier in the year, but Fleeman said the worries were short-term.

“In spots there was drought early, but I don’t think it’s enough to be concerned about,” he explained. “It’s not going to have been long-term enough to have any lasting impact.

“We’re getting rain now, so we’re in good shape.”

There is one big change for deer hunters frequenting the WMA system: Most have moved to a new antler criteria defining legal bucks as those carrying racks at least 10 inches wide or main beams measuring at least 13 inches long to coincide with statewide regulations.

The move was made after data showed the old 12/15 criteria wasn’t accomplishing stated management goals.

“Our goal was to protect those 1-year-old bucks, but with the (former) 12/15 we were protecting right at 100 percent of 1-year-old deer, and we were protecting a good number of the 2-year-olds,” MDWFP’s Josh Moree said of the impact of the old regulations. “With the new criteria, we’re still protecting 80 to 80 percent of those 1-year-old deer and only 20 to 30 percent of the 2-year-olds.”

As the season fast approaches, Mississippi Sportsman asked state biologists about how the WMA system is shaping up. To find out what they had to say, you can download a digital edition of the September issue of Mississippi Sportsman right to your computer or smartphone.

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