Hunters Prepare For Second Firearm Deer Season in Illinois December 4-7
December 2, 2008
Hunters in Illinois Harvest 71,894 Deer During First Weekend of Firearm Deer Season
SPRINGFIELD , IL – Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 71,894 deer during the opening weekend of the 2008 Illinois Firearm Deer season, Nov. 21-23, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Acting Director Sam Flood announced today. The second portion of the firearm season will be Dec. 4-7.
The preliminary total for the first three days of the 2008 firearm season compares with the first weekend harvest of 85,490 deer during the 2007 deer season. The top county harvest total was in Pike with 2,194 deer, followed by Adams (1,900), Fulton (1,878), Randolph (1,770), and Jefferson (1,650). The preliminary first-season figures reported for each county include those deer taken on special hunt areas within that county as well as on private land.
“Deer hunters in Illinois once again provided a good deer harvest for the first weekend of the firearm season,” said Flood. “We offer some of the best deer hunting opportunity in the world here in Illinois , and the firearm deer season continues to be our most popular hunting season.”
Illinois has issued approximately 350,000 firearm deer hunting permits for the 2008 season. Most hunters register their deer harvest online through the IDNR web site or by phoning 1-866-ILCHECK (1-866-452-4325) by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest. Hunters in Boone, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, LaSalle, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties take their deer to county check stations where IDNR conducts sampling for chronic wasting disease.
“The weather was unseasonably cold to start the season on Friday, but it appears many hunters were in the field enjoying some success on that day and throughout the first weekend of the firearm deer season,” said IDNR Forest Wildlife Program Manager Paul Shelton. “Most corn had been harvested, although 10 to 12 percent remained in the fields in the northern part of the state.
“The good news for managers and for deer hunters with permits remaining for the second season is that most of the decline in harvest was a drop in buck harvest,” Shelton added. “This means that our doe harvest was fairly comparable to last year and that there are plenty of both bucks and does still out there for second season hunters.”
Approximately 59 percent of the deer taken this past weekend were bucks, compared with 62 percent bucks taken during the first weekend of the firearm season in 2007.
The Illinois firearm deer season concludes Dec. 4-7. The muzzleloader-only deer season is Dec. 12-14. The Late-Winter Antlerless-only firearm deer season and the Special CWD deer season are Jan. 16-18, 2009. The state’s 2008-09 archery deer season continues through Jan. 15 (except closed in firearm counties during the second firearm season Dec. 4-7).
The table below provides preliminary county harvest totals for the first segment of the firearm season and comparable figures for the first season in 2007.
| County |
2007 |
2008 |
| Adams |
2140 |
1900 |
| Alexander |
339 |
335 |
| Bond |
877 |
632 |
| Boone |
133 |
90 |
| Brown |
1135 |
996 |
| Bureau |
1205 |
1030 |
| Calhoun |
1036 |
889 |
| Carroll |
921 |
740 |
| Cass |
665 |
510 |
| Champaign |
272 |
195 |
| Christian |
574 |
466 |
| Clark |
1122 |
896 |
| Clay |
1177 |
998 |
| Clinton |
808 |
635 |
| Coles |
621 |
550 |
| Crawford |
950 |
831 |
| Cumberland |
693 |
654 |
| DeKalb |
213 |
136 |
| DeWitt |
320 |
303 |
| Douglas |
212 |
156 |
| Edgar |
608 |
555 |
| Edwards |
434 |
354 |
| Effingham |
923 |
795 |
| Fayette |
1684 |
1480 |
| Ford |
123 |
115 |
| Franklin |
979 |
827 |
| Fulton |
2003 |
1878 |
| Gallatin |
451 |
402 |
| Greene |
1209 |
989 |
| Grundy |
354 |
269 |
| Hamilton |
1036 |
901 |
| Hancock |
1698 |
1553 |
| Hardin |
907 |
780 |
| Henderson |
586 |
432 |
| Henry |
742 |
561 |
| Iroquois |
548 |
548 |
| Jackson |
1824 |
1612 |
| Jasper |
1049 |
915 |
| Jefferson |
1997 |
1650 |
| Jersey |
790 |
670 |
| JoDaviess |
2055 |
1518 |
| Johnson |
1435 |
1385 |
| Kane |
48 |
43 |
| Kankakee |
191 |
157 |
| Kendall |
67 |
53 |
| Knox |
1244 |
1048 |
| Lake |
25 |
19 |
| LaSalle |
1127 |
957 |
| Lawrence |
497 |
420 |
| Lee |
577 |
446 |
| Livingston |
498 |
392 |
| Logan |
401 |
298 |
| Macon |
252 |
217 |
| Macoupin |
1677 |
1228 |
| Madison |
995 |
648 |
| Marion |
1677 |
1404 |
| Marshall |
696 |
607 |
| Mason |
489 |
484 |
| Massac |
471 |
369 |
| McDonough |
902 |
759 |
| McHenry |
360 |
216 |
| McLean |
541 |
490 |
| Menard |
392 |
288 |
| Mercer |
828 |
632 |
| Monroe |
910 |
863 |
| Montgomery |
1149 |
861 |
| Morgan |
899 |
674 |
| Moultrie |
251 |
224 |
| Ogle |
1035 |
730 |
| Peoria |
1317 |
1133 |
| Perry |
1161 |
964 |
| Piatt |
184 |
134 |
| Pike |
2610 |
2194 |
| Pope |
1473 |
1301 |
| Pulaski |
547 |
533 |
| Putnam |
454 |
361 |
| Randolph |
1890 |
1770 |
| Richland |
745 |
635 |
| Rock Island |
806 |
610 |
| Saline |
734 |
726 |
| Sangamon |
743 |
598 |
| Schuyler |
1346 |
1166 |
| Scott |
508 |
374 |
| Shelby |
1193 |
1025 |
| St. Clair |
868 |
724 |
| Stark |
258 |
216 |
| Stephenson |
837 |
643 |
| Tazewell |
625 |
527 |
| Union |
1551 |
1323 |
| Vermilion |
719 |
648 |
| Wabash |
252 |
218 |
| Warren |
554 |
481 |
| Washington |
1083 |
864 |
| Wayne |
1446 |
1316 |
| White |
808 |
699 |
| Whiteside |
806 |
542 |
| Will |
287 |
267 |
| Williamson |
1391 |
1176 |
| Winnebago |
410 |
315 |
| Woodford |
837 |
753 |
| Total |
85490 |
71894 |
Related posts
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Builds Mass Marking Program for Great Lakes Trout and Salmon
October 31, 2008
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Midwest Region this October received the first of a series of automated fish tagging trailers - an initial step in the development of a mass marking program that will eventually mark or tag all salmon and trout stocked into U.S. waters of the Great Lakes. Once implemented, this initiative will become the largest coordinated tagging and recovery program ever envisioned for Great Lakes management agencies.
A similar coordinated program is planned by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Canadian waters of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes program is modeled after a 20-year mass marking program for salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
The centerpiece of this new approach to mass marking is the computer-operated, automated tagging and marking trailer known as the AutoFish System. The system provides an alternative to manual clipping and tagging of fish ready for release to the wild. The AutoFish System is a self-contained mobile unit in a 44-foot aluminum fifth wheel trailer. The system has the capability to rapidly sort by length, clip the adipose fin, and insert coded-wire tags to more than 60,000 salmon and trout per eight-hour day without anesthetic or human handling. The fish are never completely dewatered during the process, thereby reducing stress. Fin clipping rates and tag placement accuracy is superior to that of manual operations and less costly than manual clipping and tagging systems.
The Service is leading this program at the request of state and tribal fishery agencies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York through the Council of Lake Committees of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The Service’s Green Bay National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO) will provide overall coordination of Basin-wide tagging and marking for 21 state hatcheries, four Service hatcheries and one tribal hatchery that stock salmon and trout. Green Bay NFWCO will also assist partner agencies with project planning, data collection, statistical analysis and laboratory services to extract and read the coded-wire tags from harvested fish.
The estimated cost to implement the mass marking program over a five year period will be around $12 million for equipment and $6 million per year for operational costs. Congress awarded the Service $1.2 million this year to begin the project.
For years the Service has fin-clipped (marked) and/or coded-wire-tagged all of the lake trout stocked into the Great Lakes for the restoration of this species. Recovery of the tagged and marked lake trout helps the Service, state and tribal fisheries agencies evaluate the performance and movement of these fish. Tagging also allows for evaluation of the survival and growth between strains, stocking locations, and sizes at stocking. With the new mass marking initiative, continued evaluation of hatchery fish is now being extended to other salmon and trout species raised by the states and tribes in U.S. waters.
Coded-wire tags are thin pieces of metal wire that are inserted into the snout of fish just prior to stocking and contain a numeric code that is specific to a certain group of fish. All coded-wire tagged fish also receive an adipose fin clip to identify them as having a tag. When fish are recovered from fisheries and assessment activities, they are scanned with a metal detector to locate the tag. The tag is then removed and read. When many recovered tags are analyzed over time, biologists can determine relative survival, movement, growth rates and age of the fish.
To download the implementation plan for the Great Lakes mass marking program, visit http://www.glfc.org/boardcomm/clc/Mass_marking_report_CLC2008.doc
For more information on the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, visit http://www.glfc.org/
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit http://www.fws.gov
Related posts
Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Class of 2009 Announced
October 28, 2008
William Guerrini, Don Hankla, Dwight Hoffard, and George Rabb to be honored next February 28
SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – Four Illinoisans with decades of dedication to enhancing outdoor recreation and natural resources protection in the state have been selected for induction into the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame.
William Guerrini, the late Don Hankla, Dwight Hoffard, and Dr. George Rabb have been selected for the hall of fame from among dozens of nominees submitted by citizens from throughout Illinois. The four conservation leaders will be inducted into the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame during ceremonies at the Illinois Conservation Foundation’s annual Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet to be held next February 28 at Pheasant Run Resort, 4051 E. Main Street, St. Charles.
“These men have set the standard for helping others enjoy outdoor Illinois and to appreciate all the natural wonders of our state,” said Illinois Department of Natural Resources Acting Director Sam Flood, who serves as the chairman of the board of directors of the Illinois Conservation Foundation. “The Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame honors the ‘best of the best’ each year, and the inductions of Bill Guerrini, Don Hankla, Dwight Hoffard, and George Rabb will help inspire all of us to be good stewards of our natural resources.”
“Induction into the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame recognizes commitment to making our state a better place to live for Illinois citizens, visitors, and for future generations,” said Greg Legan, executive director of the Illinois Conservation Foundation. “We are very pleased to add these four dedicated conservationists to the roster of distinguished Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame members.”
The Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Class of 2009
William H. Guerrini, Spring Valley
A lifelong advocate for outdoor recreation in Illinois, Bill Guerrini served as one of the state’s first volunteer Hunter Safety Education course instructors in the 1970s. A long time educator and coach, Bill is the founder of the Spring Valley Walleye Club and helped bring the successful Master’s Walleye Circuit professional fishing tournament to Illinois in 1987. The tournament has served as an outstanding promotion for the Illinois River walleye and sauger fishery for more than 20 years. Bill Guerrini also promotes youth fishing events and boating in north-central Illinois.
Don Hankla, Anna
The late Don Hankla was a long time sportsman, conservationist, and advocate for natural resources conservation in Illinois. The Anna native retired in 1987 after a distinguished career as a wildlife biologist and researcher with the North Carolina Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After retiring, Don Hankla dedicated his volunteer efforts to conservation stewardship in the Cache River watershed in southern Illinois. Don chaired the interagency Cache River watershed planning initiative and helped develop the local Cache River Ecosystem Partnership and the Friends of the Cache River Watershed, promoting watershed protection projects throughout the Cache River basin. Don Hankla passed away in April 2007.
Dwight Hoffard, Johnston City
For more than 20 years, Dwight Hoffard has been the driving force behind the success of the Southern Illinois National Hunting and Fishing Days festival on the campus of John A. Logan College in Carterville, chairing the event for the past 15 years. Dwight is also a tireless volunteer in promoting outdoor recreation safety, serving as an IDNR Master Hunting Safety Education Instructor, Master Boating Safety Instructor, wingshooting instructor, and National Sporting Clays Association Youth Shooting Instructor. Dwight Hoffard is also a founder of the Youth Outdoor Education Foundation, the Southern Illinois Boat and Fishing Show, Friends of Crab Orchard, and the Midwest Bass Classic fishing tournament.
Dr. George B. Rabb, Brookfield
George Rabb, president emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society, is a dedicated conservationist known internationally for implementing programs focused on conservation research and education. During a 47-year career at the Brookfield Zoo, George Rabb transformed the zoo to promote a concern for the natural world and conservation ethic among the facility’s millions of visitors. Dr. Rabb has also dedicated volunteer leadership to promoting natural resources conservation as a member and chairman of the Board of the Illinois State Museum. Among his many professional associations, Dr. Rabb served as chairman of the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union, helping develop conservation action plans intended to stem the decline in amphibians.
In addition to the induction ceremony for the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame, the banquet next February 28 will also include presentations of the Illinois Conservation Foundation’s annual Conservation Youth Achievement Scholarships. Ten students will each receive $1,000 scholarships for their achievements in natural resources stewardship. Nomination forms for the scholarship program are available on the ICF web site at www.ilcf.org. The deadline to submit nominations for the scholarships is December 1.
Proceeds from the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet assist in funding the youth scholarships and the popular ICF grant program, supporting natural resource protection, environmental enhancement, and education projects statewide.
For more information on the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet on February 28, 2009 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, contact Greg Legan, Illinois Conservation Foundation, One Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702-1271, phone 217/785-2003, or check the ICF web site at www.ilcf.org.
The ICF is an IRS 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit corporation established in 1995 to support the programs of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Related posts
Illinois Fall Trout Season Begins October 18 - IDNR To Stock Trout at 37 Locations
October 9, 2008
SPRINGFIELD, IL – The 2008 Illinois fall trout fishing season opens on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 37 ponds and lakes throughout the state, Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Acting Director Sam Flood announced today.
“Our catchable trout program is a popular activity and the fall is a great time of year to go fishing in Illinois,” Flood said. “Whether you are an experienced angler or you’re just interested in getting the kids out of the house to have some fun, we encourage you to go fishing.”
More than 70,000 trout are stocked by the IDNR at the locations listed below just prior to the opening of the fall trout season. Anglers are reminded that no trout may be taken from any of the stocked sites from Oct. 1 until the fall trout season opens on Oct. 18 at 5 a.m.
To take trout legally beginning Oct. 18, anglers must have a fishing license and an inland trout stamp, unless they are under the age of 16, blind or disabled, or are an Illinois resident on leave from active duty in the Armed Forces. The daily catch limit for each angler is five trout.
Anglers are reminded to check the opening time of their favorite trout fishing location if they plan to go fishing on opening day. While regulations allow trout season to open at 5 a.m. on Oct. 18, not all locations will be open that early.
For more information on fall trout season and other Illinois fishing opportunities, contact the IDNR Division of Fisheries at 217/782-6424, or check the web site at www.ifishillinois.org.
Illinois fishing licenses and inland trout stamps are available at DNR Direct license and permit locations, including many bait shops, sporting goods stores and other retail outlets. Fishing licenses and trout stamps can also be purchased by using a credit card at DNR Direct online via the IDNR website here or by calling DNR Direct toll-free at 1-888-6PERMIT (1-888-673-764