ORIGINAL: Handles
Points about not buying licenses:
1. While a few hunters may not buy a license next year, we will still have over 800,000 sold. Egos and the love of hunting is too strong for a huge number of guys to not buy licenses. Hunters it seems can't agree on anything, from baiting, to what caliber of rifle to use, so how will they all agree to this?
2. Any lack of funds will result in the newest, youngest,field workers and warden being laid off, it won't affect the administration.
3. Theyear after nextlicense prices will go up to make up for lost funds.
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Handles... that might be true, that many hunters will buy license. But I think there are a lot more then you might think, ticked off hunters this year. And I mean MAD. They are tired of the totalitarian attitude of the DNR and how they treat the hunters.
When I talked to locals, and 90% of them are not going to hunt next year, and more of them are going to restrict our land. If even 50% of them I talked to go through with their claims, guess what, it will be felt and felt hard. Even if 20% of total hunter numbers don't fall for the lie, that's a
bundle of DNR dollars, programs, and jobs.
And when the next batch get skunkedthe next year because of the low deer numbers, they mightdecide they don't want to waste money and time. All of this will snowball again. Any effect from lack of sales will hurt the DNR's budget. While they might lay off all the young workers, that still reduces their numbers. Also as the older people retire they will not be replaced because of budgets. The ones working will not get raises, that will make the administrators happy. Also I personally feel some of the big shots need to be evaluated for their competency. WE USED THE WRONG FORMULA.. come on. What a crock of BS. Some of them need to be sent down the road for this.
Not only the DNR budget will be influenced, but watch the budget of all the restaurants, gas stations, motels, and taverns where these hunters spend money. With the pitiful herd kill in northern Wisconsin, I can tell you this ... a lot of locals will not fall for the tall stories of the monster deer herds, the DNR claims there is. And many who travel to this area will not be coming back. It will be interesting to see the license sales for next year.
And the last thing the DNR wants to do in hard economic times is to raise the price of the license. That will be that much more incentive to encourage hunters who are border line, may will may will not hunt to decide, its not worth sitting in the snow watching the squirrels.
Another thing you will see is increased incidents in violations. So they better keep their ears open. Of course if due to budget cuts there are less wardens on the job, that's a little harder to do. Remember when they outlawed baiting in the north. I had more tresspassers on my property that year then I could ever remember. And of course when I called the DNR, they were too busy to do anything. Typical I guess. Well it will get worse.
The worst effect of this herd slaughter is the impact it will have on future generations of deer hunters. Take a kid hunting. What a great idea. Have them sit or walk aroundfor days with expectations of seeing, and maybe shootinga buck, then their expectations drop to seeing even a doe, finally this young potential deer hunter is thrilled to see a squirrel. Well guess what, next year, he don't want to go. I'll stay at home and play hunting games on my computer.
Another thing we need to do is start to pressure Gov Doyle and our state representative. We need them to make it clear about how upset we are that the DNR has instigated this killing of the herd. And I say the DNR instigated it because while we might have pulled the triggers, they were the ones that demanded we earn a buck, or shoot does, or early does season, or extra doe tags. I really hope this blows up in their arrogant faces.