In June 2023 I blogged: Many areas in the West and Deep South have received plenty of moisture this spring, so I think any outbreaks of Hemorrhagic Disease (HD)  — either epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) virus or bluetongue virus-- in whitetails will be spotty and insignificant. But I see potential trouble spots in the Midwest… where conditions range from abnormally dry to exceptional drought in many areas. Moderate drought conditions also exist eastward across the upper Midwest to Pennsylvania and south into the Virginia Piedmont…so I’m on the lookout for EHD in these regions too. There were no reports of any HD outbreaks anywhere in America throughout the summer and early fall, but in mid-September HD reared its ugly head [...]

In this open letter to hunters as the 2023 season kicks off, Chad Stewart, deer management specialist with the Michigan DNR, writes: …”the typical Michigan hunting philosophy to date is to hold off on taking antlerless deer until later in the season.” While there are exceptions to this way of thinking, that is the predominant philosophy of whitetail hunters in most states: Spend the early archery season and the rut trying to get your buck, then maybe shoot a doe or 2 for the freezer after Thanksgiving until the season ends. But in regions where there are too many antlerless deer, where the buck/doe ratio is out of balance, such as in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan right now, that [...]