Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 2010 Wisconsin gun deer season proposal - sucks

back when I started hunting in minnesota in the early-mid seventies,it was rather rare to even see a deer.
Contrast that to the 2003-2008 (roughly) seasons here ,where the limit in some places was 3 deer,and in others 5 deer,and some other no limit. Now it has returned to much lower deer numbers,I havent seen over 1-2 deer a season for the last few.
Seems to me the DNR said there were too many deer ,and gave out alot of tags to lower numbers.That is what happened.

But what hunters do they listen to? Do they listen to the guys in the Northeast, where I hunt, where there are few deer and lots of public land? Do they listen to the large land owners in the south and west that are leasing land and making money off the resource? Who should be the group that is deemed the winner and the rest are told to suck hind tit?

What you are all asking for is for the DNR to micro manage the deer herd. Do you want to see a bloated over managed bureaucracy become even worse? Keep demanding this type of solution to the bigger problems.

There's certainly something to what you say, but it's not quite as simplistic as that.

The entire state was in herd reduction mode, but even in the north......different regions responded differently.

The northeast for instance has a higher hunter density than the northwest, and showed different stabilization and recovery than the northwest did by historical data. Even after the years of ZoneT and the year of heavy EAB in 2004, the northeast didn't recover like the northwest. And many of the northeast units did not even have EAB.

The DNR is certainly not blameless in this area. Several units in the northeast have been under goal for over 10 years. This under-goal situation could/should have been reacted to more aggressively. But the DNR was gun shy from the same situation that happened to them in the mid 90's. An over-reaction to low harvests produced the population explosion that generated the record 600K harvest in 2000....and its attendant over-goal populations. Enter a couple of years of bad weather and an increasing wolf population......and you get the severe drops of 2008 and 2009.

Plus.....you still deal with a herd distribution problem. A problem that gets exacerbated by multiple seasons that puts constant invasive pressure in the woods over longer periods of time.

There is constant rhetoric from the disenfranchised hunting groups to "leave us alone.....we'll manage the deer herd". Well, if history is any indicator that's not true. Hunter's have a singular goal to "manage" to enough deer for them to shoot. They are largely uninterested in any other factors that true wildlife management must adhere to.

There is no doubt hunters were spoiled by 500K and higher annual harvests. The truth is, from several quarters, the state environment can't afford to keep deer populations that generate those type of numbers. No state in our area can. All of them are in maintenance mode at much lower levels.....or are in herd reduction modes to get there.

My conscience has no problmes. You working for the DNR and all.....probably have some serious issues weighing on yours though huh?

I talked to Ed....he and that whole crew didn't see squat last season.

After studying deer management for 10 years you apparently have got it all figured out, therefore I would like to nominate you for an honorary PHD in deer management. I did not realize I was corresponding with such an unknown expert.
All the while I thought you were pizzing on my leg and telling me it was raining.

I don't work for the DNR......and never have.

I'm just a retired citizen and hunter who spent some time researching deer management issues in this state and others. An effort I firmly believe very few other Wisconsin hunters have spent any time doing.

GrandView-

You certainly have some valid points and appear to be very well versed on your studies. And I can certainly agree that there are likely only a select few that actually take the time for analysis - or have the time to do so.

We can however beg to differ on the topic of what roundoak referred to as "boots on the ground" synopsis. No one is listening at the state level. The WI DNR keeps telling us that their statistical data is proven yet they've also proven and admitted that their data has, on occasion, has left much to be desired in other wildlife counts.

While I don't think we'd be doing ourselves any favors to let the general hunting public manage things, they should at least have a voice. And that voice is currently falling upon deaf ears. Certainly there are the narcissistic that care about their small chunks of ground but there are others that care about the big picture as well.

The apparent coup against the WI DNR has been brought about by years of arrogance and an inability to effectively listen to what "the boots on the ground" have been telling them. The current state of the DNR has left the leaders without followers and there is no longer a benefit of doubt. When this happens in any other type of management, it's time for a change in leadership.

The latest PR nightmare involving the HSUS only serves as a reminder that this group doesn't understand the big picture. While they may have had their hearts in the right place, with the volatility of the public vs. DNR, assuredly SOMEONE within those walls must have asked "ummmm, is this such a great idea at this time"? Yeah, HSUS, the same group that organizes protests on public land against deer hunters is going to partner with the WI DNR.

The WI DNR is currently a bad dream that is in desperate need of interpretation.

Well, the DNR certainly took a major hit to what little credibility they had left by teaming up with HSUS.