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02-27-2006, 06:15 PM

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RE: WI Legislature Chooses Snowmobilers Over Deer Hunters

Snowmobilers object to late date of antlerless hunt By BOB RIEPENHOFF Posted: Feb. 25, 2006

Madison - Despite opposition from state deer hunting organizations, this fall's deer hunting rules will be the same as last year and will include a four-day antlerless-only Zone T hunt in October.

A standoff between the Natural Resources Board and state legislators will delay for at least a year implementation of a wide-ranging experimental rules package, which was supported by hunting groups and included a two-year trial moratorium on the October Zone T hunts.

"We've put off the decision to say 2005 rules or new rules as long as we can," Keith Warnke, big game specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, told board members at their meeting Wednesday.

The issue causing the deadlock is when to schedule a four-day antlerless-only deer hunt in northern Wisconsin. Two versions of the package approved by the board had the hunt beginning the second Thursday after Thanksgiving.

Snowmobiling groups object to the December hunt in the north, saying it would prevent them from opening trails in time for the snowmobile season and adversely affect tourism.

On Feb. 15, Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee, announced that the committee had voted to move the start date for the December hunt, north of Highway 8, ahead by one week, apparently to accommodate the snowmobilers, and sent the package back to the board.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday not to implement the rules package with the legislative change.

The DNR staff and many deer-related conservation groups in the state, which met by conference call early last week, all recommended against accepting the change.

United in opposition to the legislative change were groups including the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association, the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Coalition, the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association, the Wisconsin Muzzleloaders Association and Whitetails Unlimited.

The rules package approved by the board grew out of widespread hunter dissatisfaction with Zone T and other herd-control hunts and was forged at meetings last summer with the DNR and representatives from the hunting organizations and other groups.

Zone T hunts are antlerless-only hunts held in deer management units where traditional hunts do not bring the herd within 20% of DNR goals. Many bow hunters oppose the October hunts because they can interfere with the rut, the white-tailed deer breeding season when mature bucks are vulnerable.

Before the board's vote, Warnke said: "The package approved by the legislators does not contain the biologically sound herd-control tool we need during the two-year-trial."

Under the legislative change, Warnke said, the December hunt would overlap with part of the 10-day muzzleloader hunt, creating law enforcement problems because the December hunt would be antlerless-only and muzzleloader hunters can shoot a buck if they have a regular gun deer tag.

"This package was designed to go as a package," Warnke said, noting that moving the start of the December hunt ahead would reduce the antlerless kill.

Conservation Congress Chairman Steve Oestreicher agreed. "By moving the December hunt one week earlier, we will not harvest enough antlerless deer, as not enough of our gun deer hunters will return to the woods after only a three-day hiatus," he said.

George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said: "If, in fact, science-based management of the deer herd is rejected in this state, it should be by the Legislature and not acquiesced in by this board."

The board's vote means that the rules package now goes before the Legislature's Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, which has 30 days to act on it.

Now, even if the committee upholds the board's version, the earliest the package could be implemented would be for the 2007 season, Warnke said. If the committee upholds the legislative change, they would introduce a bill in the Legislature and that would likely further delay implementation. The committee also can request further modification by the board.

Meanwhile, some landowners are responding to the conflict by denying snowmobilers access to their property, Oestreicher said.

"The Congress is cautioning that there are and could be many more landowners closing their land to snowmobiling, which could result in permanent trail closures across the state," he said. "The landowners who hunt will ultimately have the final say on this matter."

WHAT'S NEXT The Natural Resources Board's vote means the deer hunting rules package goes before the Legislature's Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, which has 30 days to act on it.

? If the committee upholds the board's version, the earliest the package could be implemented would be 2007.

? If the committee upholds the legislative change moving the opening of the December antlerless-only hunt, north of Highway 8, to the Thursday after Thanksgiving, a bill would be introduced in the Legislature, likely further delaying implementation.

? The committee also can request further modification by the board.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=404252&date=2/25/2006

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