Ohio’s EHD Outbreak Worsens as Officials Consider Tag Cuts and Hunters Ask for Even Tighter Restrictions

As Ohio wildlife managers confront an unprecedented disease outbreak impacting the state’s whitetail herds, officials are considering a reduction in tags in a few of the most hard-hit counties. An emergency rule proposed Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would reduce the current bag limit from three deer to two in Athens, Meigs, and Washington Counties.

The ODNR’s Wildlife Division says the rule change is being proposed “due to the unprecedented severity of the Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease outbreak,” and to address concerns from Ohioans who’ve seen the impacts of the disease firsthand. Some are even asking the state to go further in limiting hunting opportunities. 

“It’s a pretty hard kick in the gut for hunters over in that country,” says Shon Butler, who operates Longspur Tracking and lives in West Virginia, which is also being affected by the same EHD outbreak. 

Butler and some of his other trackers have been on the ground in Ohio over the last six weeks, where they’ve been using dogs and drones to locate sick or dead deer and give wildlife managers a more accurate picture of the devastation. He says that in the time since he spoke with Outdoor Life on Sept. 10, the situation has gotten even worse.

Read Next: ‘Death Is in the Air.’ This Drone Pilot and Deer Tracker Is Uncovering Mass Whitetail Die Offs

“Things have changed dramatically in a couple of ways since then,” Butler says. “We’re now seeing a second wave of EHD … so some of the areas that had maybe a 65 percent mortality rate are going up to 80 or 90 percent. And we’re now really concerned with the possibility of a third wave.

“It has also moved east,” he continues. “It’s now 100 miles further into West Virginia than [it was] last week.”

What Hunters Are Saying About the Rule Change

The proposed rule change would go into effect midway through Ohio’s deer season on Dec. 1. Hunters have until Oct. 16 to comment on the proposal, and a public hearing is planned for Oct. 22. 

ODNR wildlife biologist Clint McCoy tells Outdoor Life that this would be the first time, to his knowledge, that the agency has cut tags or otherwise changed the regs like this “midstream.” But he says this is also the worst EHD outbreak he’s seen in Ohio during his 11 years with the agency.

McCoy gave a presentation on the current status of the outbreak at a public meeting in Athens Wednesday, where more than 100 hunters and landowners were in attendance. He told the crowd that as of Monday, around 7,500 sick or dead deer had been reported to the ODNR by members of the public, with the majority of those reports coming from the three aforementioned counties. As one attendee pointed out, according to the Athens County Independent, it’s likely that the true number of affected deer is even higher due to underreporting.

Because of these huge losses, McCoy says that everyone who attended Wednesday’s meeting supported the tag reductions. Some asked the state to go a step further by giving hunters in the three counties just one antlered tag and eliminating doe harvest altogether. 

One Washington County resident has even published a petition asking the ODNR to fully suspend the 2025 hunting season there.  

“I think the general consensus among those in the room was that more significant action was needed,” McCoy says. “And I think many of those in attendance the other night — those are the folks who have already made the decision that they’re not harvesting any antlerless deer this year. And they kind of feel like we should make a rule that doesn’t let anybody else [harvest does], either.” 

Read Next: 9 Deer Diseases Every Hunter Should Know

Butler did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, but some of his Ohio-based trackers were there, and he says they echoed what McCoy said of the general consensus in the room. Many attendees voiced their support for limiting hunters in the worst-hit counties to just one antlered tag. He says he and his trackers are concerned both for their own livelihoods and for the long-term health of whitetail herds in the region.

“I have one tracker, Walt Allen, he’s in Washington County, and this gentleman has been tracking for 18 years,” Butler says. “He’s looking right now in his area, where he usually picks up around 80 or 90 tracks a year, at the possibility of having none this season.”