By Eric Fowler
Reductions in deer and pronghorn permits approved by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for 2025 will help those big game species recover from population declines caused by several years of drought, hard winters and disease, and cuts in elk permits will improve trophy quality of bulls.
Total deer harvest across all seasons in 2024-25 was the lowest since 1993, and the hunter success rate of 34.6 percent was the second-lowest on record, two numbers that are telling when it comes to the deer population.
About 8,000 fewer antlerless deer tags will be issued statewide in 2025, the fourth straight year those numbers have been cut. Antlerless tags issued had increased 45 percent to 110,000 from 2017 to 2020, when populations were high. Given four years of decreasing populations, that number has been cut to just 40,000.
The reasons for the population decline include drought, which has affected fawn production and survival, and recurring outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, especially in whitetails in northeastern Nebraska, where EHD has been an issue for four straight summers.
Additionally, the area open for river antlerless permits has been reduced or eliminated in all or parts of seven deer management units. The area open to hunting within 3 miles of many of the state’s rivers this year covers 6,500 square miles, down from 15,500 in 2020. None of the Elkhorn River is open to that permit this year, nor are the North and South Platte and White rivers and large portions of the Republican, Loup and Missouri rivers that have been part of this season.
To further limit doe harvest, all November firearm permits in the Elkhorn, Frenchman Whitetail and Calamus East management units will be buck-only. A unit hasn’t been 100 percent buck-only since 1992, and the Elkhorn unit hasn’t been in that slot since 1968.
All permits were buck-only when deer hunting resumed in Nebraska in 1945. As the herd grew and the entire state opened to hunting in 1961, management shifted to issuing a certain percentage of buck-only and either-sex permits for each unit. Since 2009, all regular November firearm permits have been either sex.
“That’s a huge change from the way we’ve been doing things,” said Luke Meduna, big game program manager for Game and Parks. “The cuts that we made starting four years ago in normal years would’ve been fine to moderate what’s going on, but we’re finally to the point where there’s very little left to cut, particularly in the Elkhorn unit. Those populations just aren’t responding to the changes we’ve already made.”
Additionally, the only firearm permits that will include bonus antlerless tags this fall will be for the Plains and Sandhills units, where biologists are primarily managing for mule deer. Roughly two-thirds of the units had bonus tags in 2020.
To help buck numbers rebound, there will be 800 fewer firearm permits combined in the Elkhorn, Frenchman Whitetail, Missouri and Platte Whitetail units.
Still, while pockets of Nebraska have few deer, there are still places with many.
Like deer, pronghorn have also suffered from several years of EHD, drought and a hard winter in 2022, all coming on the heels of an effort to trim the herd. This year, 13 fewer either-sex and 30 fewer doe/fawn permits will be issued.
For elk, there were 19 fewer general and landowner bull tags authorized for Units 1, 2 and 3 in the Pine Ridge, bringing the total back to where it was before harvest was increased in 2020 in response to landowner concerns about crop damage. Another change will be the split of Unit 13 in southwestern Nebraska to better manage the two distinct elk populations in the area and the hunters who pursue them.
The application period for landowner elk and pronghorn permits is May 19-30. Applications for general permits in deer draw units, pronghorn and elk will be taken June 2-13. Permits in remaining deer units go on sale July 9.