SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Reducing the length of buck season and requiring hunters to shoot a doe before taking a buck are among the suggestions being considered as Missouri prepares to launch a pilot deer management program.

Conservationists estimate there are 1 million deer in the state.

The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking for ways to help balance the ratio between the sexes among the state's deer herd.

No option is perfect or will satisfy all hunters, but the department has to do something, resource science director Eric Kurejeski told more than 150 people during a meeting Tuesday night in Springfield, Mo. It was the last of 25 meetings scheduled by the department -- one took place Monday in Jackson -- to collect opinions about setting up a pilot deer-management program that could be expanded statewide.

Department personnel will use the written and verbal comments received from about 25,000 people to propose regulations to the Conservation Commission at its April meeting, Kurejeski said.

"Certainly, in years to come, changes may go beyond these potential areas," he said of setting up a pilot program in seven of the state's 59 deer management units.

The proposed pilot areas includes parts of Adair, Schuyler, Sullivan, Putman, Mercer, Grundy, Livingston, Linn, Chariton, Randolph, Macon, Saline, Howard, Boone, Gasconade, Franklin, Osage, Crawford, Phelps, Laclede, Pulaski, Miller, Cole and Maries counties.

Along with improving hunting, the department also wants to provide enough deer for non-hunters to enjoy, yet keep crop and property damage from deer or deer-vehicle collisions in check, Kurejeski said.

William Duncan of Battlefield said he is willing to listen to ideas about how to manage the state's deer herd by changing regulations, but he's unsure about some of the proposed ideas, particularly the proposal that a doe must be harvested and checked before an antlered deer can be taken.

"If I'm sitting in a tree stand and see a big buck," Duncan said, "it's going to be hard to let it pass by."