BEATRICE - Gage County is getting a “gauge” on the deer population at Homestead National Historical Park.

Since 2004, the park has held an annual deer survey where volunteers count deer throughout the park and collect data contributing to information on the population. Resource manager Jesse Bolli explains the study’s importance.

“The main reason is just so we can have good data,” Bolli said. “We get a lot of different questions throughout the year, one is simply ‘how is the deer population doing’ so it’s a good way to find out if the population is increasing or decreasing.. But it also shows us what impacts deer are having on the vegetation, and other things deer are impacting.

The survey began around 9:30 on Saturday morning with volunteers out for about two hours. Volunteers moved through the woods and prairie making noise, with park workers stationed around the facility taking count.

“We found that deer like to run around in circles on us so we try to count them as we see them,” Bolli said. “It gives us a good estimate of the density, and we can track change over time.”

Park data shows that the higher density of deer in the park tends to be in winter months, with the fewest being in the summer. Last year, on a similar date and time, the parks survey yielded 35 deer while this year’s count number decreased by nearly half.  Bolli said possible factors around the park played into that higher number in 2021.

“Last year, all the crop fields around the park were harvested or were actively being harvested the day of the count so that probably pushed deer on to the park,” Bolli said. “As for today, we had some rain this week, so there wasn’t as much activity going on in the fields this year compared to last year.”