SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- While it might seem a little early for hunting season, hunters in urban centers in Indiana have a head start thanks to reduction zones.
“These are areas in and around some of our more major urban centers where we essentially have regulations in place that allow people to harvest additional deer for a longer period of time, and we do this to ultimately try to reduce conflict between people and deer in these urban areas.”
Joe Caudell, state deer biologist for the Indiana DNR, says there are two types of reduction zones, and there are examples of both in our counties.
The cities of South Bend, La Porte, Elkhart, Michigan City and Warsaw are all in a traditional reduction zone, which covers urban areas. Portions of US 31 in Fulton County and US 20 in Lagrange County are in the corridor reduction zones, which cover heavily trafficked roadways.
Not only do these zones have an extended hunting time frame, but they also have a higher deer bagging threshold.
“In these urban areas, it's harder for hunters, maybe, to find a place to hunt, so the number of hunters in these areas is usually more limited. It gives them more opportunities to take more deer. So, a hunter can take up to 10 deer in a deer reduction zone. And to provide an incentive for actually getting out and hunting, we let hunters actually take a second antler deer.”
Especially in reduction zones, hunters are required to follow safe hunting procedures from the DNR and comply with any local ordinances about firearms.
Caudell tells me an abundant deer population in these areas is why the season starts so early
“We definitely have areas within Indiana, where the deer population has exceeded what we call the cultural carrying capacity.”
There are two metrics that researchers look at when determining reduction zones, the cultural carrying capacity and the biological carrying capacity.
The biological carrying capacity is how many deer an area can physically support, and the cultural carrying capacity is how many deer the people that inhabit that area want in that area.
If you have a higher biological capacity than cultural capacity, you are more likely to have damage to vegetation or even vehicles. Caudell tells me that hunters can help keep these numbers in balance.
“So, it might not be this maximum number of deer, People also don’t want no deer. They don't want an area that's just completely devoid of deer because deer are interesting. They're, they're, they're fun to watch, and so you don't want an area that absolutely has none. So, we're always trying to balance, you know, kind of what people want with, you know, how many deer you can actually have in an area. And then our hunters actually help us try to achieve those goals.”
To find out more about reduction zones, the Indiana DNR has a website and interactive map that can show you if a property you’re on is in a reduction zone.