As summer has officially become fall and the temperatures have dwindled a bit, it is a good time to review hunting regulations since that time of the year is now on the horizon.

At Lake Panorama, members and their guests are the only people allowed to hunt on the property, and Association General Manager John Rutledge says hunting is necessary to keep deer numbers at reasonable levels.

“As you can imagine it’s (the lake) a very natural area but it’s also a safe area for deer so we have to use hunting to keep the population under control or else it would be overwhelming.  We took about 140 antlerless deer out of the Association last year and we hope to do a number similar to that this year if not a few more.”

Rutledge says that the deer herd is controlled mostly to prevent significant damage to landscaping around the lake.

“Instead of the natural crops–the corn and the beans–that they eat from farmers out in the rest of Iowa, they find things here that we don’t like them to eat either like the landscaping and people’s flower beds.  We just try to manage it so that there is always going to be deer at Lake Panorama, and we want that, but we want it to be at a level that is healthy for the deer and for the community.”

The LPA Board has limited deer hunting to bow hunting and black powder weapons.  No shotgun hunting is allowed at the lake.

For hunting regulations and information about guest hunter fees, contact the LPA Office at 641-755-2301.