ST. PAUL -- State wildlife experts say many deer hunters will have fewer targets this season because Minnesota's overall deer population has declined.
The Department of Natural Resources said much of northeastern Minnesota has a one- or two-deer limit for hunters this year. Winter killed about 20 percent of the herd there.
The population is even lower in southwest Minnesota, where only youth hunters can apply for antlerless deer permits in many areas.
The DNR says the deer population remains a problem in the Twin Cities and some counties in southeast Minnesota. It has about 40 deer per square mile, compared with about 0.5 deer per square mile in the southwest and Boundary Waters.
North Dakota
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North Dakota will offer 144,400 licenses this year, a decline of 5,000 from last year.
Deer hunters in the northern and eastern parts of the state will have a tougher time bagging a deer because of a cold and snowy 2008-09 winter, when mortality was higher than in recent years. The population decline also stems from years of high doe harvests.
Hunting will be somewhat stable in the northwestern, north central and southeastern portions of the state.
