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How to get a good and accurate estimate on the state's deer population and overall data on the herd? Specifically, how to get accurate data on a county by county level?
DCNR does not have the manpower or resources to do any kind of widespread data collection across each county, so the data collection needs to be focused locally by hunters, foresters, property managers, landowners and other interested individuals (etc).

This may sound a little crazy, but it is an idea I've had in my mind for a while:

Similar to "weather watchers" or "Neighborhood watch" programs, a network of local eyes that are trained for a certain task are typically a very good and reliable overall method of data collection. The same could be done for the deer population. Create a network of motivated and interested parties who will either go afield to get counts in their areas or who will get counts while they are already out in the field for other purposes. When you sign up to be a deer herd reporter/watcher you have an assigned area(s) (acreage, location, habitat, any other variables). Diversity in land TYPE is important too as it will impact the sampling data. Get the data in the deer off season. This could be done by actually counting and/or through a planned game camera quantity survey. Parameters for how to count and where/when would need to be established.

Let's use Shelby County for example: DCNR manpower plus local hunters on club or gov't land, landowners, foresters, etc...sign up to participate in a population head count. Include neighborhoods too because neighborhoods border land fairly often. Try to get good coverage across the county. They report their data. Data is analyzed and extrapolated. Use that data to get a best estimate for deer per acre/square mile in sectors of the county. Farmers, ranchers, landowners, foresters, other workers, hunters, fishermen, etc...spread out over the country where they already live/work/hunt.

It would look like this in Shelby Co.:
A. Mr. Jones has a 400 acre farm outside of Columbiana that is a mix of crops, pasture and some woods. He is out there all the time and has a good idea on how many deer his land holds per the TYPE of tract he has. Well he does some counting and maybe even uses game cameras to get a more detailed count. He turns in his data.
B. Mr. Smith is member of a hunting club out near Sterrett/Vincent with 2,000 acres of pines, cut-overs and SMZs. He is often on the club doing work, turkey hunting, etc... He combines game cameras and visual counts to get a good guess as to the deer population on the club. He turns in his data.
C. Mr. Snickerdoodle has 12 acres in mini-farm community near Montevallo. He sees deer all the time out back and when riding the neighbor hood trails on his side by side. He keeps track and turns in his data.
D. Mr. Bobby and three of his good buddies always hunt the Cahaba WMA/Refuge. They go out for several trips and scout and set up cameras on WMA. The Game Wardens and DCNR staff also do the same of this public land. The volunteers help out the DCNR staff for manpower. They get to drive their ATVs and trucks to have access. They all gather data and turn it in.
E. Get others to participate to get a good cross section network or wooded large tracts, agricultural tracts, small tracts/pockets, etc...across the entire county.

Repeat for all counties.

How does the state get people to do this data collection? Well some will do it because they are interested in helping out. Use marketing to get the volunteers. DCNR calls and writes to specific property owners to ask for their help. If volunteers are short then look at offering incentives such as a free game camera or free/discounted hunting and fishing licenses for that year for participating and sending in the data. It would have to be an honor system--which means some people would just lie and never go count. To combat that, throw out any outliers with non-typical #s. Just ideas here.

If something like this were implemented and we had good participation, then the state could get enough data to make a better educated estimate on deer population per county and even drill down into areas of the county. Repeat every year? Do annually for 3 years then every other, then every three? Repeat every 3-5 years? Adjust seasons or limits based on good data. Lots of options. I'm not sure what the statistical margin of error would be, but the goal would be to be as accurate as reasonable to turn the data into an anticipated or expected # of live deer.

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Now as far as Game Check goes? There are far too many people who are lazy and/or resistant to change. They are going to do it the way they always have done it because they are stubborn--or don't care about the overall deer herd--or they are only interested in their property--or they are outlaws shooting tons of deer illegally and trying to stay off radar--or they are just flat lazy to take 1-2 minutes to report.. Far too many. Until the hearts and minds of the MAJORITY of hunters change, there will not be accurate reporting of deer killed through the Game Check system.

Tags, fines, penalties, heavy enforcement. Those things can work but I'm not a fan of all the gov't intrusion that so often accompanies that. I like simple. I like hassle free. Game Check is simple and hassle free method of reporting kills in reality. It is a daily updated number, not a end of the year survey. I don't have an issues with a tag either...but there still needs to be accurate reporting of the kills.

But again, far too many people don't obey the law and are out for instant gratification. No system is perfect. So let's stay with simple.