Wisconsin DNR wants to kill all the freakin deer!

why do theses days have to be over? there is no reason to kill off the herd. manage your lands and keep the deer healthy. no need to kill the deer off.

 

I understand the logistics behind what the WDNR is trying to do, however it has proven to be non-effective. During the early years of CWD the DNR tried sharpshooters, and erradicating the herd. It is still around ten years later. This also has put strain on the deer population. In the last 20 years that I have been hunting, I have never seen populations so low. In the last 5-7 years we have see an major decline in the deer population where I hunt. I have not taken a yearling since I first hunted in 1991, but due the to decline in the deer population, I was foced to take a yearling this year. A lot of you might react with a comment like "You didn't have to take a yearling". But if you think about it for a second... An adult doe taken out of circulation will elimate two offspring for the following year, where as taking a yearling will have no negative effects for the upcoming spring for procreation purposes. If the DNR would take a different approach and offer either or for archery, or gun, the program would be more effective, and hunters would feel less pressured to kill every thing that moved. Additionally a one year expiration on EAB tags is a joke. This is why the WDNR has been under so much scrutiny. I truly believe that if we as outdoorsmen dont take a stand there will be nothing for future hunters to look forward to.

 

There is obviously a point where you can't keep the deer herd healthy if there are too many. Depending on the type of terrain, and acre of land can only support X number of deer, hence the need to have hunting season. The flourishing population of wolves along with the DNR's mismanagement have contributed to the decline in the deer herd. As I mentioned in an earlier post, people that have only been hunting since the 90's have a skewed perspective..ie. they're spoiled - see stats below:

Gun success% Archery Success% Total Deer Kill # of hunters
1972 - 15% 7% 82,000 616000
1980 - 22% 13.5% 161,000 774000
1990 - 50% 22.6% 399,000 915,000
2009 - 39% 16% 328,000 875,000

There are still plenty of deer in Wisconsin, you just have to stop expecting them to populate the forest like squirrels. It's called hunting for a reason, otherwise we'd just call it killing.

 

You cannot really say that we are spoiled hunting in the
90's. Anyone who hunted the 70's, or 80's had the distinct advantage of hunting private lands. It was not uncommon to go to the doorstep of a farmers house, and get permission to hunt on his/her land. Now with all the liberals buying up the land, if they so much as see you pull up in blaze orange the welcome isn't so warm. What would you say is a "Healthy" deer herd? Because in the 875acres that I hunt 1-1.5 deer per square mile, and half the county hunting that population is NOT healthy.

 

Brian,

I agree with you that unfortunately deer hunting is becoming a rich man's sport because of the ownership of so much land that is closed to hunters. I understand that different parts of the State have different deer populations. My point is that if you look at the success rates, it was 15% for gun in 1972 and 22% in 1980. When I started hunting in 1974, our group of 4 went the first 3 years I hunted without a deer, and never shot more than 1 between us until the mid 80's. Compare that with a 39% success rate last year, that everyone complained about as a crappy year. The statistics don't lie, it's just getting harder to find, see, and shoot a deer in this State...but it used to be much, much more difficult.

Good luck to you this year.

 

I sorry to rant an rave, I also got way off topic!

1. The WDNR has effectively mismanged the herd in wisconsin to dangerous levels

3. The deer population counts are a systemic gross overcalculation
a. They did not take into account winter fatalities, and future lack of abundance
b. Predator kills
c. Unregulated EAB, and antlerless kills

4. The WDNR baseline comparisons were fictious numbers

So my whole point is that the WDNR needs reform, they are paid by us, so therefore they should be elected officials picked by us, not appointed within

 

My .02

I hunt in VA & WV....both the counties I hunt in have CWD. WV for 5-6yrs now, and VA found 1 case last year - the first one, near WV. The DNR's have outlined plans for both areas: not a complete wipeout of deer plan, but we do have too many deer so they upped the limits, extended the seasons, etc.

My personal opinion, CWD has probably always been around - just like some of the other diseases that affect deer. Its only since the population explosion, coupled with the commercialization of whitetail hunting that it became more noticable, and/or anyone has really cared about it. I feel like its God's way of thinning the herd, another method of natural selection. IMO, there is NO WAY you could shoot enough deer to eliminate the disease, even if you tried. I say just let it run its course, it will thin the herd natrually and all will probably be fine in the end. There has been no direct link to humans eating an infected deer, and health issues either. And of course, if you shot a deer that had full blown CWD (that was obvious) its highly unlikely anyone would eat that deer anyhow. I say press on but don't wipe out the tradition of hunting by trying to OVER control it. It ain't gonna happen anyhow, imo.

 

Thank you for your opinion, I cannot agree more with everything that you just stated. If the WDNR would just look beyond our borders they would see that states in the south deal with a much more "deadly epidemic" EHD. It is actually much more communicable that CWD. This is a disease that is spread by biting flies and mosquitos. The deparment of natural resources in said state did not have an erradication plan, but a plan that implemented mainly monitoring and documenting.... Guess what?! The herd built an immunity to the disease, and numbers were not taken to dangerous levels.