If you're a deer hunter, start getting excited. This is going to be a memorable season in the Great Plains.

No matter which state you prefer, the news is good heading into the 2009 season. Deer herds across the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas are in great shape. Habitat appears to be, too.

In this first part of the 2009 Great Plains Deer Outlook, you'll read about the places to be this deer season if your top priority is filling your tags and putting venison in the freezer. These are the places with relatively high deer numbers, and hunter success rates to match.

Next month, we'll look at the best places for trophy bucks near you.

NORTH DAKOTA
State biologist Bill Jensen started his look at the state's deer resource by talking about weather's significant impact on hunting last season.

"We had significant areas in some of our best hunting units that were virtually un-huntable last season," Jensen said. "It was so wet in some places that when the deer season opened, as much as 80 percent to 90 percent of the corn was still standing in some areas. Farmers just couldn't get into those fields to harvest because it was so sloppy."

Jensen pointed out that, in North Dakota, it's illegal to hunt over unharvested crops. Think about areas with 90 percent of the corn still in fields, and you begin to understand that deer had large amounts of forage and cover they don't normally have, and success rates were affected significantly in those units.

"The data we gathered during aerial surveys this winter suggest trends that show deer numbers increasing in the slope units southwest of the Missouri River, and also in several of the units northeast of the Missouri," Jensen said. "Deer numbers are relatively high heading into this season."

The chart accompanying this story reflects Jensen's comments. The five units with high hunter success rates from last season -- the issue of crops still in fields notwithstanding -- are southwest of the Missouri River. They combine to produce a significant contiguous chunk of real estate with the easiest-to-remember general boundaries: U.S. 85 Highway on the west and State Route 200 to the north, with South Dakota to the south and the Missouri River to the east.

These units are west of that part of North Dakota where Jensen said deer suffered from all the winter snow.

"For the most part, our deer fared well this winter," he said. "But we did see some losses in the upper central part of the state. The first bands of heavy snow we got moved across the state from southwest to northeast. The second band moved northwest to southeast. In that part of the state where those two crossed, we had real winter all winter, and our deer and other wildlife had some winter mortality."

Although this story is mostly about whitetails, Jensen did note that North Dakota's mule deer population fared well over the winter. "Numbers are about the same as last year," he said.

In addition to the units listed on the chart, hunters also should look at Unit 4F -- the very southwest corner of the state -- and 2C and 2D -- in the very northeast corner. Those three areas, along with 3F1 and 3F2, will be open for an early antlerless season this fall. Jensen said there are no other changes to regulations for 2009.