Nick Fortin is a deer and moose project leader at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. He demonstrated how he tracks deer through the woods of Ferdinand on December 08, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department estimates that hunters in Vermont harvested more than 17,200 deer during fall 2024 — but the final tally won’t be released until March. That translates to roughly 3.4 million servings of venison, according to a Monday press release from the department. The buck harvest tally is expected to decline slightly in 2024, with hunters taking an estimated 9,200 bucks compared with 9,848 in 2023, and an average of around 9,500 in the previous three years. Officials attributed the drop to a slower November hunting season, which was down 10% from the previous year, according to the release.Although the department relies on hunting data to assess the deer population, Nick Fortin, the department’s head deer biologist, said he wouldn’t conclude that the population is declining. “The change from one year to the next really doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Fortin said. “It’s the longer-term trends that will be important.”Fortin said climate-related changes are playing a role in shaping deer populations and influencing hunting results. However, he emphasized that the decline in the buck harvest was likely driven by a combination of factors, with milder winter temperature only being one of them.READ MORE Wild divide: A debate over wildlife management in Vermont runs deep by Emma Cotton May 7, 2024, 10:14 amMay 8, 2024, 3:21 pm One other factor is that this year, the department prioritized harvesting more antlerless deer, issuing more permits than previous years. The total of harvested antlerless deer, a group primarily composed of females, is expected to reach around 8,000 — an increase from the previous three-year average of 7,188. The reason for that change: “We’re just trying to control deer numbers in response to those milder winters,” Fortin said, adding that mild winters are good for deer as they have better food availability.Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters hunted fewer bucks in 2024 than 2023, preliminary estimate finds.