Mississippi Lawmakers Renew Push For Mandatory Deer Harvest Reporting

Mississippi might quickly be part of the remainder of the nation in requiring hunters to report each deer they harvest. Lawmakers and wildlife officers say the change is required to higher observe the state’s deer inhabitants, monitor continual losing illness, and strengthen long-term administration choices.

The proposal, often called House Bill 816, would create a compulsory deer harvest reporting system much like the state’s present Sport Examine program for turkeys. The invoice is predicted to be reintroduced within the 2026 legislative session.

Rep. Invoice Kinkade, R-Byhalia, sponsored the measure and mentioned Mississippi is falling behind by counting on voluntary reporting and restricted surveys.

“I need to depend the deer that we kill, simply as we depend all the pieces else in our society,” Kinkade mentioned. “Our whitetail herd generates a lot financial steadiness that we have to defend that useful resource. We have to perceive what we’re doing. Having extra information will assist us decide coverage.”

The same invoice sponsored by Kinkade handed the Home final session however died within the Senate. He mentioned Mississippi is falling behind by counting on voluntary reporting and restricted surveys.

“I need to depend the deer that we kill, simply as we depend all the pieces else in our society,” Kinkade mentioned. “Our whitetail herd generates a lot financial steadiness that we have to defend that useful resource. We have to perceive what we’re doing. Having extra information will assist us decide coverage.”

Wildlife officers estimate Mississippi hunters harvest roughly 275,000 deer annually, however the Game Check system recorded only some thousand voluntary studies final season. Wildlife Chief of Employees Russ Walsh mentioned necessary reporting would give the state the county-level tendencies wanted to make knowledgeable choices about bag limits, season lengths, and habitat administration.

“The harvest information, when you get years of that, provides you that pattern of what’s going on, whether or not it’s in a area or whether or not it’s in a county,” Walsh mentioned.

Walsh pointed to the turkey reporting system as proof that the method works. Officers have used years of turkey information to investigate inhabitants shifts and decide when to advertise habitat adjustments akin to managed burns or timber thinning.

One other main profit could be monitoring continual losing illness, a deadly neurological sickness already detected in elements of Mississippi. The illness spreads by prions shed in saliva, urine, feces, and carcasses, and might stay within the setting for years.

“In Mississippi, we need to keep as a lot forward of it as we presumably can,” Walsh mentioned. “Having that information by time can actually assist us observe what influence continual losing illness could also be having.”

The brand new invoice would require hunters to report harvests electronically, simply as they already do with turkeys. Hunters would face Class II citations for noncompliance, with fines between 100 and 500 {dollars}. Kinkade mentioned submitting a report takes lower than 30 seconds and {that a} quick grace interval would give hunters time to regulate.

The Home handed the newest model of the invoice 79 to 29. Rep. Vince Mangold of Lincoln County voted for the measure, whereas Rep. Beckie Currie voted towards it. If accepted by the Senate and signed by Gov. Tate Reeves, the requirement would take impact July 1, 2025.

As of January 30, Sport Examine had solely 4,070 deer harvests reported for the 2023 to 2024 season. The Mississippi Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks estimates the true statewide harvest for that season was about 279,000 deer.

Keith Lusher

Keith Lusher is an award-winning outside journalist who resides in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthshoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly outside column for the Slidell Impartial Newspaper. He additionally writes for the St.Tammany Parish Tourism Fee’s VisitTheNorthshore.com. He’s the previous host of The Northshore Fishing Report Radio Present and is on the board of the Louisiana Outside Writers Affiliation. Keith contributes to quite a few publications each on-line and in print and prides himself on selling South Louisiana’s distinctive fishery. To contact Keith e-mail: keithlusherjr@gmail.com