Dreary skies ushered in the first day of deer season for hunters eager to bag that elusive white-tailed deer.

And it was a slow start to what many woodsmen and nature enthusiasts consider the Super Bowl of the hunting season. A morning fog made it extremely difficult for many hunters to spot deer yesterday.

"I'd expect with weather conditions this morning, [deer kills] will lag behind last year," said Jason Albright, Moshannon State Forest assistant district forester.

Until Dec. 10, the area's vast woods and deep forests will be the focus of the firearm portion of the antlered and antlerless deer season.

Regional Wildlife Biologist Tony Ross said the deer should be more spread out this year because there are more areas plentiful with food.

"We have acorns all over the place this year, so the deer will be spread out everywhere," Ross said. "They won't have to flock to one spot for the food."

Ross recommended that hunters practice the "driving" method. In doing so, a group of hunters split up so that one group stays in a stationary spot and the other hunters travel around trying to "drive" the deer away from their food sources and out into the open.

The overall deer population is lower than it has been in the past. The Pennsylvania Game Commission manages the population of the deer herd by issuing licenses for how many deer an individual can kill, Ross said. When wanting to lower the deer population, the commission issues more licenses and vice versa.

"It is a renewable resource, which is why we can kill some deer and some others will survive," he said.

According to the game commission, the estimates of the commonwealth's deer harvest -- which measures the amount of deer killed and counted during the hunting season -- declined about 12 percent during the past year. The totals were down to 409,320 in 2004-05 from 464,890 in 2003-04.

The 2004-05 antlered deer harvest was 124,410 compared with 142,270 in 2003-04 and the 2004-05 antlerless deer harvest was 284,910 compared with 322,620 in 2003-04.

In Centre County, 2,200 antlered and 4,700 antlerless deer were harvested in 2004-05.

A general license permits a hunter to shoot one antlered deer, which is not limited to but is often a buck. A doe license permits a hunter to shoot a female deer or any antlerless deer.

Ross said past years have been extremely successful at lowering the deer population, which is why they issued fewer licenses this year. For this reason, the kill count might be lower.

Albright, who helps manage part of the 40,000 acres of Moshannon State Forest about 15 miles from Penn State, said deer must be managed or they could ruin the forest habitat.

Deer commonly eat the seedlings of the oak tree, tulip poplar and sugar maple, which are some of the most valuable species to a Northeastern forest. Without them, the forests are unable to regenerate their natural tree species, Albright said.

"Deer eat anything below their height," Albright said. "And eventually the plant they're eating from runs out of energy and dies."

Local hunting clubs, the Penn State Forestry Department and the Sproul State Forest office are unavailable for comment until tomorrow.

The reason: They were out hunting.