PLOVER - I traveled to Plover last week to attend the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Conser-vation Congress' Endangered Resources and Law Enforcement Committee. Each study committee (23 in all) meets at least once each year to review and vote on citizen resolutions submitted at the spring hearings held in April in all 72 Wisconsin counties.
It's a tough choice as to which meetings to attend. Their respective agendas are chock-full of interesting issues, all relevant to the outdoorsman's realm.
But I felt obligated to attend the Plover gathering this year because it will take up the resolution to ban the shooting of antlered deer with ag tags. At least four counties falling within the Chronic Wasting Disease zones passed the measure by wide margins in April, including Lafayette, Iowa, Grant and Waukesha counties.
Since the discovery of CWD in southern Wisconsin in 2002, hunters have been allowed to shoot antlered deer using ag tags authorized through the Deer Damage Abatement Program. Prior to that, hunters could only harvest antlerless deer.
At first glance, the decision represented one more way to bring down the population of whitetails, and thus help control the spread of the disease. As an unintended consequence, however, some hunters have abused the program by pursuing trophy deer as early as August, while passing up antlerless deer for days or weeks at a time.
Since only limited numbers of hunters are allowed on each parcel, fewer deer are harvested on those parcels, thus undermining the intent of the program. As these activities progress into the archery season, hunters using firearms and wearing blaze orange as required by the program, put bow hunters wearing camouflage clothing in tree stands in a dangerous situation.
After much discussion, the committee unanimously approved the resolution and it will go to the executive committee in January. If passed by that committee, it will be included as an advisory question at the spring 2009 hearings.
Raymond Smith, chair of the Endangered Resources and Law Enforcement Committee, agreed with the decision. He stressed the importance of harvesting more does to keep the deer population in check.
"This trophy hunting is getting out of hand," he said. "There's too much emphasis on trophies."
The committee heard other complaints about the Damage Abatement Program. A resolution submitted from Winnebago County asked that ag tags not be issued from January through April.
The maker of the resolution maintained that crop damage is not an issue during that period and that deer shot during these months may not be part of the crop damage problem for the property in question. Winnebago County passed the resolution by a vote of 58-6 but the committee rejected the measure.
Others have voiced similar concerns. In an interview earlier this week, Dr. Lee Elger, a Muskego veterinarian, suggested that ag tags should not be issued until after July 1 when fawns could survive on their own.
He also argues that farmers are not the only landowners having economic factors to consider, specifically investments in land, habitat improvements and the payment of taxes. Recreational land, he states, carries a heavier tax burden than cropland and non-farming landowners have a stake in the outcome.
Elger also disagrees with the relatively recent decision to allow the use of ag tags without opening up the land to the public. Under the new rules, landowners may restrict access if they do not take damage abatement payments. This allows individuals to set up what essentially is their own game preserve without having to register with the state or follow any related requirements.
Other points of interest mentioned by DNR staff:
• Brown-headed cowbirds are being killed when found in proximity to stands of jack pine where the endangered Kirtland's warbler may be found. Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and the young cowbirds push smaller birds such as the warbler from the nest.
• The DNR intends to take aggressive action against depredating wolves. Problem wolves will be shot rather than relocated.
DNR staff are working on a wolf management plan that would include potential hunting opportunities in the future.
• It is possible to get a permit to kill geese and smash their eggs in nuisance situations.
• It is permissible to use dogs to recover downed game such as turkeys and deer. However, the hunter may not carry a gun while in the process of recovering the game.
- Lee Fahrney can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
It's a tough choice as to which meetings to attend. Their respective agendas are chock-full of interesting issues, all relevant to the outdoorsman's realm.
But I felt obligated to attend the Plover gathering this year because it will take up the resolution to ban the shooting of antlered deer with ag tags. At least four counties falling within the Chronic Wasting Disease zones passed the measure by wide margins in April, including Lafayette, Iowa, Grant and Waukesha counties.
Since the discovery of CWD in southern Wisconsin in 2002, hunters have been allowed to shoot antlered deer using ag tags authorized through the Deer Damage Abatement Program. Prior to that, hunters could only harvest antlerless deer.
At first glance, the decision represented one more way to bring down the population of whitetails, and thus help control the spread of the disease. As an unintended consequence, however, some hunters have abused the program by pursuing trophy deer as early as August, while passing up antlerless deer for days or weeks at a time.
Since only limited numbers of hunters are allowed on each parcel, fewer deer are harvested on those parcels, thus undermining the intent of the program. As these activities progress into the archery season, hunters using firearms and wearing blaze orange as required by the program, put bow hunters wearing camouflage clothing in tree stands in a dangerous situation.
After much discussion, the committee unanimously approved the resolution and it will go to the executive committee in January. If passed by that committee, it will be included as an advisory question at the spring 2009 hearings.
Raymond Smith, chair of the Endangered Resources and Law Enforcement Committee, agreed with the decision. He stressed the importance of harvesting more does to keep the deer population in check.
"This trophy hunting is getting out of hand," he said. "There's too much emphasis on trophies."
The committee heard other complaints about the Damage Abatement Program. A resolution submitted from Winnebago County asked that ag tags not be issued from January through April.
The maker of the resolution maintained that crop damage is not an issue during that period and that deer shot during these months may not be part of the crop damage problem for the property in question. Winnebago County passed the resolution by a vote of 58-6 but the committee rejected the measure.
Others have voiced similar concerns. In an interview earlier this week, Dr. Lee Elger, a Muskego veterinarian, suggested that ag tags should not be issued until after July 1 when fawns could survive on their own.
He also argues that farmers are not the only landowners having economic factors to consider, specifically investments in land, habitat improvements and the payment of taxes. Recreational land, he states, carries a heavier tax burden than cropland and non-farming landowners have a stake in the outcome.
Elger also disagrees with the relatively recent decision to allow the use of ag tags without opening up the land to the public. Under the new rules, landowners may restrict access if they do not take damage abatement payments. This allows individuals to set up what essentially is their own game preserve without having to register with the state or follow any related requirements.
Other points of interest mentioned by DNR staff:
• Brown-headed cowbirds are being killed when found in proximity to stands of jack pine where the endangered Kirtland's warbler may be found. Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and the young cowbirds push smaller birds such as the warbler from the nest.
• The DNR intends to take aggressive action against depredating wolves. Problem wolves will be shot rather than relocated.
DNR staff are working on a wolf management plan that would include potential hunting opportunities in the future.
• It is possible to get a permit to kill geese and smash their eggs in nuisance situations.
• It is permissible to use dogs to recover downed game such as turkeys and deer. However, the hunter may not carry a gun while in the process of recovering the game.
- Lee Fahrney can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
