WEBSTER CITY - If you haven't seen any deer on the roads yet, consider yourself lucky.
As fields are stripped of grain and hunting and rut season begin, the deer are moving.
"Right now they're running all over the place," said John Laird with the Hamilton County Conservation Board. "With rut and harvest you just don't know where they'll be, and they'll jump right out in front of a car. I see quite a few deer on the side of the road during the late fall and early winter just between Webster City and Stanhope that have been hita."
Saturday evening Laird offered an informational workshop on white tail deer at the conservation headquarters in Briggs Woods Park.
"Each year, deer related accidents cause nearly $1.1 billion in damages," Laird said. "Last year there were 1.5 million car accidents involving deer."
The number of car/deer collisions is one reason Laird hopes more people will begin hunting. Plus, it's a way to bond with children and the outdoors.
"It's important to get young people involved in hunting because the kids of today are the adults of tomorrow," Laird said. "Kids nowadays spend so much time on the Internet, texting, gaming, and not spending enough time outdoors."
While kids may be absorbing educational material through these electronic mediums, Laird worries they're not connecting with Mother Nature.
One book Laird cited - "Last Child in the Woods" - argues children are suffering from nature-deficit disorder.
Laird said by not physically spending time outside exploring, children lose their connection and appreciation for nature.
One way to get kids outside is to take them to Olson Park to see the albino deer, Laird said.
Albino deer are one of five types of deer in North America. The others are white tail, mule, black tail and Florida key deer.
"Caring for the earth is something that's passed on from generation to generation," Laird said.
Hunting is a way to care for the environment, he said. In fact, deer hunting is a family tradition Laird has passed on to his sons.
"As a hunter you want to drop the animal as quickly as possible," Laird said. "Aim for the kill zone - the heart, lungs, liver - so you don't maim it."
The Lairds take a sled when they hunt, so they can drag their kill back more easily. Sharp knives are also a must.
"I use a pocket knife to field dress the deer," Laird said, "and a filet knife when I'm butchering it in the garage."
That's right. The Lairds process all their own meat in their garage.
"I hang the carcass in the garage for a few days before butchering it," Laird said.
He cuts out the loin, and the rest of the meat is ground by hand with a $10 grinder.
"My two sons and I grind a lot of meat," Laird said. "We like to mix the deer meat with beef. It makes great hambugers."
Hunters can also can the meat in a pressure cooker.
"One of the guys who works here cans his own deer meat and he loves it," Laird said. "You can also make jerky with kits, seasonings and dehydrators."
In 2008, Laird said 142,194 deer were harvested, 53 percent were bucks and 47 percent were does.
The discrepancy between the sexes may not seem like much, but to Laird and other hunters it's an important distinction.
"Hunters typically target bucks," Laird said, "and it's a mind set we're trying to change with Quality Deer Management."
The management program was started because far more bucks than does are killed in an average season, which means more offspring.
"Typically, a doe will have one to two - normally two - fawns," Laird said. "We want hunters to focus on does rather than young bucks."
Not only can the management program diminish the number of offspring, it also allows young bucks to grow and mature into better quality trophy bucks, Laird said.
Another emerging issue Laird addressed was lead bullets.
Apparently, the lead residue from bullets that shatter when they hit bone are poisoning Bald Eagles which eat the remains hunters leave after field dressing a deer.
"The problem is the lead chunks in the meat," Laird said. "An amount of lead as big as a baby aspirin can kill an eagle."
So the state of Iowa is trying to replace lead slugs with copper.
"I'm not sure why the didn't start doing this earlier," Laird said. "We don't have lead in our paint or gasoline anymore, why should we have lead in our slugs?"
While copper slugs are more expensive than lead - by a dollar a bullet - Laird believes the investment is worth it.
"It's something we need to be aware of," he said. "Things change as we realize how our actions affect other animals."
Contact Lindsey Mutchler at (515) 573-2141 or lindsey@messengernews.net.
