The end of the second shotgun deer hunting season is this weekend.

While many counties have seen a reduction in the number of the extra doe tags, Greene County wasn’t given any extra tags this year.

Conservation Director Dan Towers says they usually receive 150 extra tags from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  He explains why the DNR chose not to give Greene County any extra tags this year.

“Once you get this far north in Iowa, we start running out of good habitat and our deer numbers have just never been like they have further south.  So those numbers are a lot lower than what you see counties south of us.”

For example, Towers adds that Guthrie County saw a decrease in its tag numbers to 1,900 from 3,300 a year ago.

He talks about the reason why the DNR implemented extra deer tags and why they are backing off that plan.

“Pressure from the Farm Bureau and car insurance companies resulted in this emphasis to reduce the herd and it’s worked.  Now the concern is, maybe they reduced it too far, let’s back off on those extra does tags.  So Greene County has zero this year where they’ve had some in the past.”

However, Towers believes that the change hasn’t affected a majority of hunters in Greene County, but he’s heard that the hunters would like to see the herd rebound as well.