Photo by Mike Searles

The northern portion of Alabama was the last section of the state to be restocked with white-tailed deer. In fact, the effort in the region got under way only in the 1950s. That late start combined with some other factors and eventually created a good-news/ bad-news scenario there: While the deer herd never really exploded in numbers, neither did it overpopulate its habitat.

For more than 25 years, Keith Guyse has served as assistant chief of the Wildlife Section for the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. He's had his finger on the pulse of the state's deer herd in the northern half of the state since he first took this position.

"Most of the deer stockings in Alabama started in the southern half of the state," he explained, "because of its proximity to the Fred T. Stimpson Wildlife Sanctuary and the other areas where the state captured and relocated deer." As a result, hunters upstate don't see nearly as many deer turning up in places like the Black Belt in the central portion of the Cotton State; on the other hand, the bucks that are present are well fed and healthy, and often grow impressive racks. This is the case on both private and public hunting lands in this part of the state.

Let's take a look at the significance of all this for the wildlife management, public hunting and community hunting areas in North Alabama.

WEST JEFFERSON PHA
One of Bama's newest public hunting areas, West Jefferson Public Hunting Area lies to the southwest of Birmingham near the community of Oak Grove. The tract covers 42,678 acres in Jefferson County on strip-mined and reclaimed land that previously belonged to U.S. Steel. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources leased this land to manage the hunting on it in the late 1990s. The property already had deer, but as soon as the state acquired it, biologists brought in 100 whitetails from South Alabama to help increase the size of the herd on the property.

"The deer for restocking West Jefferson came from the Upper State Game Sanctuary and the Fred T. Stimpson Wildlife Sanctuary," Guyse explained. "Since this is managed as a community hunting area, there are no wildlife openings, greenfields, improved roads or wildlife managers on it."

In fact, wildlife management areas are set apart from either public hunting areas or community hunting areas by exactly that lack of management. The PHA and CHA designations apply to tracts that the state simply leases to make them available to hunting; the level of improvement or wildlife management is minimal.

The rough and often steep terrain of West Jefferson harbors a solid population of deer. "This community hunting area gets quite a bit of pressure because of its close proximity to Birmingham," Guyse pointed out. To hunt West Jefferson, you must have a hunting license, a wildlife management area license and a permit, just as you do at all other tracts managed for hunting by the ADWFF.

"There are some good deer at West Jefferson for the hunters who are tough enough to go after them," said Guyse.