by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Add one more reason why the drought in Sumner County of the past two years stinks — poor hunting.  

Chris Stout, Sumner County game warden for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, said this was the worst deer firearm season he has witnessed since taking the job here six years ago.  The pheasant and quail hunting haven’t been any better.

“A lot of it is due to a lack of vegetation and that is because of the drought,” Stout said.

Two bad years of spring row crops, an early wheat harvest, and a lack of standing water have taken its toll on the animal population in Sumner County, Stout said. During the opening day of pheasant season on Nov. 10, Stout checked six hunters and saw two dead pheasants throughout the day.

“That’s terrible,” Stout said. “I’ve never seen it so slow.”

According to the KDWPT website, the drought in 2011 and 2012 took its toll on the pheasant population, reducing the breeding population by nearly 50 percent or more across the south-central area. The lack of precipitation resulted in less cover and insects needed for good pheasant reproduction. It also didn’t help that in Sumner County the wheat harvest was nearly complete by June, thus destroying many nests and young broods, who need a later harvest to survive.

Stout thinks it could take a couple of years for the pheasant population to return back to the status of a few years ago – and that is if we return to normal precipitation.

As far as the deer are concerned, drought was not the only thing creating problems for hunters.

“We had hot temperatures and a full moon,” Stout said. “Thus the deer were more nocturnal this year. In cold, deer tend to burn up more calories so they are more out and about seeking vegetation.”

There was one type of hunter having a good year – the poachers.

“It’s just pathetic how many unethical people are out there,” Stout said, who has issued 12 poaching violations in the past month. “I’m getting a lot of complaints over people shooting deer from their trucks from the road.”

He said poachers usually cut off the deer head for the antlers to sell and leave the carcass to rot.