RE: WI Legislature Chooses Snowmobilers Over Deer Hunters
Wisconsin Wildlife Federation news release: February 10, 2006
It’s Time to Get Politics Out of Deer Management
Prescott---Today, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the state’s largest conservation organization, applauded the Natural Resources Board’s rejection of the politically motivated request by the Assembly and Senate Natural Resources Committee to the Board asking them to move the proposed four day December herd reduction hunt north of Highway 8 from the second week following the traditional November nine-day gun deer season to the week immediately following the nine-day gun deer season.
The proposed December season adopted by the Natural Resources Board was part of a completely new deer season framework developed by DNR Wildlife Management professionals with all of the major deer hunting related conservation groups in the state including the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, the Wisconsin Bow Hunters’ Association, the Wisconsin Deer Hunters’ Association, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the Wisconsin Deer Hunters’ Coalition, Whitetails Unlimited, Wisconsin Farm Bureau, Wisconsin County Forests Association, the Wisconsin Chapter of the Wildlife Society and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. The new season framework was biologically sound and was designed to be a safe hunting season.
The Assembly and Senate Natural Resources Committee rejected the compromise for the area north of Highway 8 at the request of the Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs. Representative Scott Gunderson is Chairperson of the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. The AWSC inaccurately alleged that the new gun deer season in the second week of December would interfere with snowmobiling and the preparation of snowmobile trails. However substantial information was presented to both the Natural Resources Board and the Natural Resources Committees establishing that both of these claims were totally false. Evidence shows that in the last ten years there rarely has been sufficient snow anywhere north of Highway 8 during the second week of December to even open the snowmobile trails. Secondly, the snowmobile trails are laid out on the ground in that area prior to the nine-day November deer season.
Additionally, there have been herd reduction seasons outside the traditional November nine-day gun deer season for over ten years and there has not been any actual interference with those hunts and other outdoor recreational pursuits. In fact this year there was a rare significant snow cover in the southern part of the state with snowmobile trails open during the November nine day gun deer season with no reported incidents. In addition, there are numerous safe fall hunting seasons starting after right after Labor Day and running until the end of the year in the midst of many other outdoor recreational pursuits.
DNR professional wildlife management staff recommended against the Legislative Committees’ proposed four day hunt the first week after the deer season because it would not harvest sufficient deer, would interfere with the brief deer muzzle loading season and would result with different hunts with conflicting regulations taking place at the same time.
“Deer management should be accomplished by wildlife management professionals with extensive public input including the major affected user groups,” stated Ralph Fritsch, (Kaukauna), Chair of the Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Committee. “The DNR did an excellent job of that in this situation and the Natural Resources Board was correct to stick to its guns supporting professional natural resources management in Wisconsin.”
“The establishment of deer seasons needs to be guided by sound biological harvest goals and by safety concerns for all outdoor recreational users,” said George Meyer, Wildlife Federation Executive Director. “There should be no place for arbitrary, politically-driven interference by legislative committees in managing Wisconsin’s critically important deer herd. All of Wisconsin’s hunters should be greatly concerned by these legislative actions,” continued Meyer.
The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation is made up of one hundred and thirty-nine hunting, fishing and trapping organizations in Wisconsin and is the state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. The Federation is dedicated to conservation education and the advancement of sound conservation policies.