Many years have passed since Pennsylvania hunters have had an overall deer outlook similar to what's in store for the 2008 hunting seasons.

Still, for those who truly enjoy the hunt, this coming deer season has plenty to offer.

According to a large portion of vocal hunters, it is all just plain bad.

Brad Nelson, an Allegheny National Forest wildlife biologist, offered a more optimistic outlook. The Allegheny National Forest, traditionally a top destination for deer hunters, now has an average deer density of fewer than 12 per square mile.

Though this is the only area of such large size in Pennsylvania where deer densities are closely monitored, this number is probably similar to those of our state forests of the "Big Woods."

"I think that the quality of the deer hunting is still good," Nelson said with total conviction. "You're not going to see as many deer, but you're going to see bigger deer, bigger racks, and more diverse vegetation.

"If you're willing to spend some time scouting areas and trying to learn the forest, you can figure out where the deer are going to be and have a successful hunt.

"There's still a lot of beautiful country out here to see and to hunt," Nelson noted. "I think the quality of the hunt has not diminished. If all you want to do is see lots of deer -- and that's all you judge the quality of your hunt on -- then maybe you would feel that the quality of Pennsylvania's deer hunting has decreased. But I'm having just as much fun and seeing bigger deer than I ever have in the past."

Nelson is a deer manager who does the job he's assigned to do. But he's also a deer hunter as much as anyone, perhaps more so than most.

FEW CHANGES AHEAD
In general, the statewide deer outlook should be similar to last year's, when Pennsylvania's hunters harvested 323,070 deer -- an 11 percent reduction from the year before.

The breakdown was 109,200 antlered deer (a drop of 19 percent) and 213,870 antlerless deer (a less alarming decline of 5 percent).

"In terms of doe permit allocations and everything, I would say we'll be looking at a harvest around the same level as what we had last year," said Dr. Chris Rosenberry, head of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Deer Management Section.

IT ALL DEPENDS
Some parts of the state experienced drastic drops in deer harvests last year. There was a 22 percent decline in the overall deer harvest in Wildlife Management Unit 2F, which includes the Allegheny National Forest and surrounding area. The largest share of that decline came in a 33 percent drop in the opening-day buck harvest.

"Our program looks at deer health and forest habitat health, as well as the thoughts of the Citizen Advisory Committee and other public input," which includes what they would like, along with what they can tolerate in terms of nuisance deer or car-deer collisions in a given area.