Advocates for splitting hunting licenses for Wyoming’s mule deer and white-tailed deer argue that would help conserve prized mulies, but a retired biologist said it would have the opposite effect.
In the Black Hills region of northeast Wyoming, splitting the licenses would result in hunters shooting more mule deer, especially non-resident hunters, Joe Sandrini told Cowboy State Daily.
“If all of the sudden non-residents are going to have to pick a mule deer or a white-tailed deer license, they will say, ‘I want a mule deer license,’” said Sandrini, who retired from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in October 2024.
During his Game and Fish career, he was a game warden for 10 years and a wildlife biologist for 23 years in the Black Hills region – where both deer species are abundant.
The Wyoming Legislature during its upcoming session will consider Senate File 3. It calls for splitting hunting seasons and licenses for mule deer and white-tailed deer, which are commonly called whitetails.
A similar bill failed during the Legislature’s 2024 session.
The Case For Splitting Seasons
The idea of splitting management of mule deer and whitetails isn’t new, Sandrini said.
“It goes back to the late 1980s. The (Game and Fish) department has reviewed, at least three times, what to do, if anything,” he said.
Legislator Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, previously told Cowboy State Daily that there are both whitetails and mule deer on his family’s ranch.
Like others who share his opinion, Driskill says that whitetails displace mule deer, by out-competing them for habitat.
Driskill sponsored the 2024 bill to split whitetail and mule deer management but said he’s not sponsoring SF3.
He considers whitetails to essentially be an invasive species, which shouldn’t be allowed to overpopulate at the expense of mule deer.
Splitting the hunting seasons could set more liberal limits on whitetails, allowing hunters to shoot more of them, Driskill and other advocates of the change argue.
A recent outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, commonly called blue tongue, hammered whitetail in the region, but didn’t badly affect mule deer, Driskill said.
And as far as he’s concerned, that’s fortunate, because he’s noticed more mule deer reclaiming habitat on his family’s ranch.
But he’s worried that once the whitetails recover from the outbreak, they’ll start driving mule deer out again.
Do Whitetails Really Hurt Mulies?
Sandrini questions the idea that whitetails threaten mule deer, at least in the Black Hills.
The populations of both species cycle up and down, because of disease, changes in habitat and other factors, he said.
Mule deer and whitetails appear in the same general areas, but they still favor different habitats. That keeps them from competing too directly, Sandrini said.
“Mule deer are more of an open-country species,” he said.
Whitetails prefer “edge habitat” between forests and fields – and open meadows or hardwood stands within the forests, he said.
There was a time when whitetails were struggling in the Black Hills, because the forests were dominated by huge ponderosa pine trees, Sandrini said. That provided good cover, but not a great variety of forage for whitetails.
A rash of wildfires in the early 2000s “blew holes in the forest,” clearing the way for the meadows, brush and hardwoods that whitetails love, he said.
Over the past 20 years or so, whitetails have made a strong comeback but “our mule deer are still holding their own,” Sandrini said.
November Brings Crowds Of Hunters
The Black Hills region is popular with both Wyoming resident and out-of-state hunters.
That’s because it offers a good mix of public and private land. So, hunters can strike out on their own on the public national forest or hire an outfitter to take them to sweet spots on private land, Sandrini said.
“Many of the non-resident hunters are willing to pay the fees” for guided hunts on private property,” he said.
The area also offers abundant general tag hunting, during seasons that run later than they do in other parts of Wyoming.
General hunting tags may be purchased over-the-counter at any time.
By contrast, draw tags for limited quota hunt areas must be applied for months in advance. And there’s no guarantee that hunters will draw they tags they apply for.
The availability of deer tags, and the later season, bring many hunters to the Black Hills in November, Sandrini said. Either Wyomingites who struck out in other parts of the state, or out-of-staters seeking opportunity.
Black Hills Are Deer Hunters’ Heaven
Whitetail can be found all over the country, while mule deer have limited habitat, mostly in the Rocky Mountain and High Plains West.
So, out-of-staters are drawn by the allure of mule deer, which they might not have back home, Sandrini said.
However, the ease of getting a general deer tag – good for either deer species in some parts of the Black Hills – also has a strong appeal for non-resident hunters, he added.
“We know from our research over the years that many of the non-residents come hoping to shoot a mule deer, but they’ll also happily take a whitetail,” Sandrini said.
“When November hits, we get people from all over. It’s the last place with general license hunt areas, where the seasons are still open,” Sandrini said.
“About one of every five deer killed in the state of Wyoming comes out of one of six hunt areas in the Black Hills,” he said.
Survey Says Most Don’t Want Split Seasons
Sandrini also questions how popular the idea of splitting mule deer and whitetail licenses and seasons is among hunters and landowners.
During “in-depth study” of the topic in 2023, he and others surveyed 1,500 hunters, roughly split evenly between residents and non-residents, he said.
According to the survey, split seasons were opposed by about 75% of non-resident hunters, he said.
Roughly two-thirds of Wyoming Black Hills resident hunters opposed it, as did about 58% of Wyomingites from other parts of the state, he added.
Landowners surveyed included 139 with property north of Interstate 90 and 54 to the south, Sandrini said.
About a third of the landowners and outfitters who responded to the survey said they wanted split seasons for the two deer species, he said.
“About two-thirds of the landowners who responded said that both species of deer are important to them,” Sandrini said.
As a landowner himself, Sandrini said that allowing both species to be hunted on one general tag gives him more control over deer management on his property.
He can decide which hunters may shoot mule a deer on his land, and which must stick only to whitetails.
Seasons Already Essentially Split
Sandrini said that whitetail and mule deer are already essentially managed differently – there are some areas in Wyoming where a deer tag is good for only one species or the other. And in some places, whitetail seasons are longer than those for mule deer.
In the Black Hills, mule deer does are completely off limits. And hunters can’t shoot whitetail does on public land, he said.
But they’re allowed to shoot whitetail does on private property. And many hunters take advantage of that, just to get some tasty venison in the freezer, Sandrini said.
In sum, deer hunting in the Black Hills isn’t broken, so there’s no need to try fixing it with the SF3 bill, he said.
“The current system gives wildlife managers and landowners the most flexibility. It gives hunters the most opportunity and flexibility, and it save us from another layer of complex regulations,” Sandrini said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
