COLUMBUS, Ohio — There are an estimated 750,000 whitetail deer in the state of Ohio this fall. That spells bad news for motorists and farmers, but good news for deer-gun hunters and Ohioans in need who will eventually benefit from the free venison.

First the bad news. There are 1.5 million car-deer collisions each year, resulting in 150 fatalities. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio report the most number of car-deer collisions. Second, the USDA estimates that deer damage to agriculture in Ohio alone reached $20.6 million last year.

Now the good news. Ohio deer-gun season is in progress and tons venison from this harvest will end up on the plates of Ohio’s families in need. Through the efforts of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH) and hunters across the state, an estimated 116,000 pounds of venison will end up in local food banks across the state.

“With the dedication and generosity of FHFH and farmers this deer donation program has grown every year,” said Jim Marshall, assistant chief of the Division of Wildlife. “The 116,000 pounds of venison equals about 467,000 meals for Ohioans in need.”

A total of 2,336 deer was donated during the 2009-10 deer hunting season, compared to 1,096 in 2008-09 and 418 in 2007-08. The Division of Wildlife has collaborated with FHFH for the last three years in an effort to assist with the processing costs associated with donating venison to a food bank. A subsidy grant was provided in allotments that are to be matched with funds generated or collected by local Ohio FHFH chapters. And there are 34 chapters throughout Ohio.

Barb Bauer, FHFH coordinator from Highland County, accepts deer meet from hunters in Clinton, Clermont, Brown, Fayette and Highland counties in Ohio. “This is our fifth year of collecting venison in this area and last year we collected 3,509 pounds of venison from the hunters,” Bauer said. “In order to offset the cost of processing the meat we receive donations from White Tail Unlimited, Ohio Farm Bureau from Highland, Clinton and Clermont counties, and a grant from DHL in Wilmington. The meat is processed at a meat company in Brown County. From there the meat is distributed to 14 different food pantries in the area.”

Venison that is donated to local food banks must be processed by federal, state or locally inspected and insured meat processor that is participating with FHFH. There are now 65 participating meat processors across the state.

While the deer-gun season bodes well with hunters, the hungry farmers in the state applaud it as well. “We get calls all the time from farmers looking for hunters to help lower the deer population in their area,” said Kathy Garza-Behr of ODNR Division of Wildlife. “For the motorist it’s important to keep the deer population under control and the farmer certainly wishes the same for their property. Any hunter wanting to hunt on a farmer’s property just needs to download a permission slip. It’s written law that a hunter needs this permission slip. They can call 1-800-WILDLIFE to download the slip.”

Garza-Behr calls the Ohio deer-gun season a win-win situation for all involved. “We started deer archery season in September but the gun season gets the press because that’s when we get the most deer hunters out at this time,” she said. “We feel we’re making an impact in the deer population that we need to and some of our results in those smaller harvest areas are proof we’re making that impact.”

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife anticipates 125,0000 deer will be killed during the nine-day deer-gun season, which started Nov. 28 and runs through Dec. 4, with an extra weekend of fun hunting on Dec. 17-18. Approximately 420,000 hunters are expected to participate in this year’s season, including many out-of-state hunters.

Ohio ranks 8th nationally in annual hunting-related sales and 10th in the number of jobs associated with the hunting-related industry.