REGIONAL— Deer hunters in northern St. Louis and Lake counties did better than last year, thanks to exceptionally mild November weather and higher numbers of young bucks.

Across the Department of Natural Resources’ Tower work area, hunters registered 5,471 bucks, a 19.4 percent jump over 2014. Those are preliminary numbers for the season, which ended Nov. 22.

The higher harvest is the first indication of a recovering deer population, which suffered significant mortality after back-to-back tough winters in 2013 and 2014. The losses prompted the DNR to limit the deer harvest to bucks-only in 2014 and again this year in most of northeastern Minnesota.

Tower area wildlife manager Tom Rusch said milder conditions last winter helped boost survival of young of the year from 2014, and that meant more spike and fork-horned bucks were available for hunters this fall.

Permit areas 178, 176, and 108 accounted for most of the harvest with 3,572 bucks registered in the three zones. Permit 108 saw the biggest increase, with 907 bucks registered, up 36.2 percent from last year. While results varied by region, all nine permit areas in the Tower work area saw more deer registrations.

The trend was repeated across the forested region of the state, where deer registrations were up 11.9 percent over 2014.

Hunters had excellent conditions, with temperatures in the 40s and even the 50s during the first two weekends of the season. Rusch said the mild weather almost certainly translated into more time in the field for hunters. Weather cooled substantially in the final weekend, but with some snow on the ground, the visibility for hunters improved substantially.

Statewide, the DNR has projected the 2015 total deer harvest to be between 140,000 to 155,000 deer. The 2014 total harvest after last year’s conservative season was just over 139,000.