Program under fire
Deer management concerns are rising
By TIM EISELE
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 15, 2005
Stevens Point - The Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ Executive Council has made changing the Department of Natural Resources’ deer management program a major target.

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At its meeting here earlier this month, the council, which provides advice to the DNR and Natural Resources Board, voted to do whatever is necessary to change deer season regulations, including eliminating October Zone T hunting and Earn-a-Buck requirements, and increasing bear quotas.

“The entire program is pathetic, and it is time for some changes before [deer hunting] is ruined,” said Congress Chairman Steve Oestreicher. “We will take other routes to change the seasons if we have to. We do the best job we can to represent outdoorsmen on these issues, and we heard loud and clear the past two years that bear hunters and deer hunters are not happy.”

Council passes resolutions
The council unanimously passed two resolutions expressing the Congress’ unhappiness with Zone T antlerless-only hunts and Earn-a-Buck, where hunters are required to shoot an antlerless deer before they can shoot a buck, and authorizing the Executive Committee to use whatever means possible to terminate those seasons.

One resolution directs Oestreicher to request that the Natural Resources Board change the way Zone T and Earn-a-Buck seasons are implemented. Currently the seasons automatically go into effect, on order from the DNR secretary, once specific criteria are met. The Congress wants the seasons to require approval by the Natural Resources Board, as had been the case during the 1990s. Council members believe this change would provide more objective oversight and public participation in DNR decisions.

Oestreicher said he had received phone calls from 65 deer hunters since the end of the season and none had anything good to say about it. He expressed disappointment with a drop in the buck kill in 48 counties, saying there are fewer deer than the DNR estimates.

The Executive Council questioned why the DNR put emphasis on shooting antlerless deer when early research indicates chronic wasting disease is often associated with older bucks.

Tom Hauge, DNR director of Wildlife Management, agreed infection rates in bucks were running twice what they are in does, but early in the program biologists believed they made more headway reducing the disease by killing does.

At some point they may have to reconsider.

“Whenever we decide to push the ‘go’ button on killing bucks, they’ll be gone in an instant - one year can clean up the surplus bucks,” Hauge said. “But it’s always harder to control the antlerless deer side, which is why Earn-a-Buck has been stressed.”

More public opinion sought
The Council added a question to the spring hearings questionnaire, asking if the public supports a 9-day general deer season starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving, with no October gun hunting but a statewide antlerless 4-day December gun hunt.

“I don’t think any of us want to return to the deer wars of earlier years, but we encounter negative responses from the public on a daily basis and I don’t know where else to turn,” Joe Caputo, council member from Dane County, said.

Hauge said he was anxious to see how the public will vote on the advisory question, but that discussions need to include the entire herd control question.

“We have the responsibility to manage the deer herd at population goals,” Hauge said.