Remember when buying a deer license in Minnesota was a pretty simple affair?

Our choices were pretty much limited to an archery license, a firearms deer license, and in more recent years, a muzzleloader license.

Now fast forward to the fall of 2007.

Someone purchasing a deer hunting license could choose from the following: An archery deer license, a firearms deer license for a specific zone, an all-season deer license, a multi-zone bucks only deer license, or a muzzleloader deer license.

And within those categories, we had to make sense of such intricacies as management areas, lottery areas, and intensive harvest areas.

The upshot is that that funny little sheet of paper spit out by the Electronic Licensing System machine has grown longer and longer.

And while all of this has been intended to maximize hunting opportunities and at the same time manage Minnesota’s deer herd, the promulgation of the additional licenses and regulations also has become a source of confusion.

Chris How, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer based in Le Sueur County, says the confusion more than once has resulted in hunters inadvertently running afoul of regulations.

“Sometimes, it has been confusing to us, too,” said How. “But we have the luxury of calling our partners or clarifying regulations from other sources.”

He said that the average hunter probably gets his advice in the coffee shop or when they buy their license at an Electronic Licensing System site.

“And it’s probably not the best idea for a hunter to get legal advice from the same counter where you return something,” he said.

The growing confusion over deer hunting regulations prompted the DNR last fall to form a Deer Season Simplification Committee in an effort to once again simplify deer hunting regulations, said Ken Varland, the DNR’s regional wildlife manager based in New Ulm.

The committee comprised of 13 citizens with backgrounds and interest in deer hunting met several times in December 2007 and January 2008, to discuss ways of simplifying the myriad statutes and regulations that govern Minnesota’s 500,000 deer hunters.

Varland said the DSC committee discussed various aspects of the existing regulations and agreed on six major recommendations to simplify deer hunting seasons.

Topping the list are a consolidation in the number of deer licenses hunters can select from and consolidating the number of deer hunting zones.