"The hunting rights were leased to a bowhunting club," Sasser said. "We had to convince the Community College administration that we could raise as much money through hunting fees generated by public hunting as was generated by the bowhunting lease. We've actually doubled that goal."

The hunting program for white-tailed deer was established through trial and error. Howell Woods' volunteers put most of the infrastructure for the hunts in place and also provide much of the staffing during the hunts. In return for such work as helping hunters take their examinations before each hunt, filling wildlife feeders and maintaining trails and tree stands, volunteers are rewarded with free hunting days. But there are several other ways hunters can buy into some of the top public deer hunting in the state.

"Our deer hunts have gone well," Sasser said. "Last year was the first year we had most of our deer hunts full. We figured it would take a couple of years to get the momentum going for our deer hunts. All of the money we make is put right back into the property and facilities and much of it goes directly back into improvements for the hunters."

Another benefit of the hunts, aside from helping maintain the facilities, is better management of the deer resource. The ages and sexes of deer taken by hunters are controlled, which continues to improve the number of deer taken, the number of trophy deer taken and the number of trophy animals that inhabit the property.

"Every year, our donors have seen an increase in the size and the quality of our bucks," Sasser said. "Our doe and buck harvests go up every year, and last year we had a drop in the number of button bucks killed. We restructured our hunter examination to put an emphasis on identifying button bucks. If hunters take a little extra time and effort, they can do better at identification of button bucks. We have no penalty for shooting button bucks. But there is a penalty for harvesting antlered deer that do not meet our minimum requirements."

Sasser's statistics show the deer management plan is working well. Howell Woods' hunters took 42 deer in 2005, 39 in 2006 and 77 in 2007. There were 29 does taken in 2004, 26 in 2005, 24 in 2006 and 53 in 2007. There were 13 male deer, including antlered and antlerless, taken in 2004, 13 in 2005, 15 in 2006 and 24 in 2007. There were 12 button bucks taken in 2004, 12 in 2005, 10 in 2006 and 15 in 2007. There was one antlered buck taken in 2004, three in 2005, five in 2006 and nine in 2007.

We had a few accidents, with hunters shooting antlered bucks not meeting our minimum requirements," Sasser said. "But as you can see by the harvest statistics, our harvest has gone up in all categories. To qualify as a harvestable buck, any antlered buck taken at Howell Woods must have antlers wider than the ears, an antler base at least the diameter of the eye and the main beams must be longer than the deer's face."