Posted on 12/17/2009 4:48:09 PM PST by SJackson
Lawmakers, hunters vent about deer season
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Hunters have packed a state Capitol hearing room to complain about a weak November deer hunt.
Hunters killed 29 percent fewer deer last month than during the 2008 hunt. They claim the Department of Natural Resources' herd reduction regulations have devastated the deer population, leaving them empty-handed.
The state Assembly and Senate outdoors committees called a public hearing on the hunt. Sen. Neal Kedzie began the proceedings by accusing DNR Secretary Matt Frank of ignoring hunters' concerns. Hunters applauded.
Kedzie warned Frank the agency's policies could ruin hunting, forcing the agency to ask the Legislature to raise taxes to make up lost license fees.
Frank said the agency does listen. He said the DNR chose to end earn-a-buck requirements and tabled a proposal to extend next year's hunt to 16 days
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DNR should replace team that manages state's deer population
After a second consecutive terrible deer hunting season and the worst since 1982, the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, Matt Frank, should replace the department's big game wildlife management team. And if he does not, then the Natural Resources Board should.
I've talked with a lot of hunters and businesspeople and everyone has said that this was the worst deer hunting season they have ever had. The DNR has mismanaged the deer herd and a new team needs to be brought in that can do the job.
Last season the DNR's excuse for the lousy season was that they underestimated the impact of the harsh 2007-08 winter and that hunters were only in the woods for three or four hours at a time and might have only hunted a few days out of the nine-day season.
Horse hockey.
This year, according to DNR conservation warden Michael Young, warm weather, corn and wet conditions were responsible for the abysmal harvest. He was quoted in the Green Bay Press-Gazette as saying, "We've got the warm weather. We've got a whole lot of corn up. We've got a lot of water ... and a lot of hunters don't want to go into a lot of areas because they're going to get wet. ... And those areas are accessible to deer. So they'll find a nice wet area to hide in and unless somebody steps on them, they're not going to move."
In its state bulletin, the Wisconsin State Climatology Office notes that it was very dry in late summer and September with slightly above-normal rains in late September and October.
The swamps were pretty dry where our crew was hunting in Lincoln County. We don't let a little water stop us from going after deer. Our hunting group makes drives, and there simply weren't many deer.
The DNR has become a master of excuses, and hunters are sick of them. We need a management team that knows what they're doing and one that listens to hunters. The DNR's earn-a-buck policy, early hunts and wolves are the reason the deer population in central and northern Wisconsin is decimated. Hunters have had the DNR's overzealous deer management plans crammed down our throats the past few years and what we got was what we knew was going to happen: hunting seasons without many deer in the woods.
The only good thing to come out of this deer season was the mentored hunting program that the Legislature passed, allowing 10- and 11-year-olds to hunt with an adult as long as there is only one weapon between the two hunters and they are always within arm's reach of one another.
Not all corn is harvested here in Indiana. The deer are hiding in that corn.
Throw the bums out, it's not like we're talking deficits or stimulus or government health care here, we're talking about something important.
That aside, though the DNR has been, well silly, ignoring the comments of hunters, they don't control the population levels. They can't make more deer on their own, the deer do that. The couple cold winters due to global cooling, maybe Al Gore can fix that. The wolves, can't shoot them. So there's not much to do.
What they will do is tighten up regulations next year, and everyone will complain they can't get a doe tag.
Yes, an issue, but as I noted in my last post, not much the government can do about that. If the does have been “hiding” in the corn, more deer next year.
In most parts of the Southeast the deer population seems to be increasing no matter what the hunting pressure. I guess it would be possible to reduce the deer herd but they are thriving despite a lot of hunting.
A number of states are killing off their deer herd. PA did it five or six years ago.
I dont know why the DNR is so surprised by this, with all the “earn a buck” and “anterless season”. What else could they expect?
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