A million hunters in the state, there's absolutely no way to please them all. I'm sick of people complaining about not seeing deer and blaming the DNR or wolves or bears or any of a myriad of other excuses people come up with.
I haven't seen a deer in the last two years while gun hunting on my family's property in Northern Wisconsin. I also have no excuse for not getting out and scouting more and trying to locate more deer.
The DNR didn't "destroy" the deer herd in Wisconsin, hunters did. The DNR allowed for plenty of antlerless permits to be bought and used, and we took the bait. My hunting party isn't excluded from this group either. For many years we shot quite a few does off of our property, and now we're facing the consequences. Two deer shot out of 9 guys hunting this year, and of the 7 that didn't get a shot off, only 1 saw a deer. Yeah, we've had bears and wolves in the area, and of course they ate some fawns and does and bucks, but that's been happening for tens of thousands of years.
C'mon, people. It's time to take responsibility for the role we as hunters played in the thinning of the deer herd in Wisconsin. I for one look forward to hunting in the future. I plan to scout more and hunt harder. The herd will rebound, there's no doubt about that. Once the habitat--that was previously decimated by deer herds at or above carrying capacity--regrows, there will be too many deer again. Then it will be time to go through this all over again.
I congratulate Warnke on his new position. I've had a few e-mail correspondences with him and he's a very down-to-earth guy that was placed in a difficult position with Wisconsin's deer herd. He has way more experience than Walker's new "deer czar," let's see how this new guy withstands the pressure. Keith is the kind of guy that was in the kind of position to wake up opening morning two years ago, look out his window at all the fog, and just know that he was going to be constantly hearing about how nobody saw deer and it was all his fault. I wish him all the luck in his new position.
How long until we're calling for the new "deer czar's" resignation?