STEVENS POINT - Like an NFL coach throwing out the red flag, the Executive Council of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress passed a motion Nov. 6 to ask for further review of the proposed 16-day gun deer season for 2010. The expanded format was intended to serve as an alternative to the Earn-a-Buck provisions prevalent through 2008.
"We need to take another year off from Earn-a-Buck," said Rob Bohman, chair of the Congress' Deer 2000 Review Ad-hoc Study Committee. "It doesn't make sense to have an aggressive season structure when we don't know what happened last year," he asserted. The Executive Council instead recommended the 2009 gun deer season framework remain in place for 2010.
The exception would be in the Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone where EAB requirements have been in place since the disease was first discovered in 2002. While not discussed at the meeting, some conservation groups have expressed a desire to see the end of EAB requirements within the CWD MZ as well.
The study committee's earlier proposal called for a nine-day gun dear season in regular units, a 16-day hunt in Herd Control Units north of Highway 64 and a 16-day hunt in HCUs south of Highway 64. Both of the 16-day hunts would have opened the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The proposal would have included a "hunter incentive" in all HCUs allowing the harvest of one antlered deer with no EAB requirement while authorizing a second buck only after harvesting an antlerless deer.
The study committee abandoned that approach at its Nov. 6 meeting held just prior to the Executive Council meeting on the same day. The discussion noted the high public support for allowing the deer herds to grow and fixing possible discrepancies in the Sex-Age-Kill method of determining population estimates. The final proposal coming out the Deer 2000 committee was passed on 5-4 vote.
"It wasn't that Earn-a-Buck was on trial," said committee member Mike Riggle of Taylor County. "A common thread at the hearing (in our area) was why do we need a 16-day season when there are no deer out there."
Riggle prefers looking at EAB as part of a broader picture. "I think you have to look at everything together - including baiting and feeding, the use of herd control measures and the disparity between DNR estimates and what hunters are experiencing."
"Rather than push this, let's get another year under our belt," Riggle concluded.
DNR Wildlife Management Bureau Director Tom Hauge disagreed. "Wisconsin's deer herd doesn't take a year off or wait for us as we discuss and contemplate what our future deer season should be," he told the Executive Council.
"It's not a question of gathering more data or deciding on strategies for EAB alternatives. We need to do both," he said.
"The question we've all been discussing this summer and fall is what season format will we use in place of EAB to reduce deer herds when we need to. This isn't a data question," he insisted.
Regarding the SAK audit, Hauge said the agency understands the strong desire to improve our deer population monitoring procedures. "The department is committed to implementing the recommendations of the audit," he said. Hauge added, however, that several of the recommendations will require multi-year, extensive research projects that will be expensive.
Nearly 10,000 hunters weighed in on the issue of the deer season structure at the 11 public hearings held throughout the state or by communicating their thoughts directly to the Department of Natural Resources.
In submitting its proposal to maintain the current structure, the congress is urging that the DNR review deer range calculations and begin research suggested in the Sex-Age-Kill audit report to improve the public's confidence in deer estimates.
In other action, the Executive Council endorsed the use of Pittman-Roberts funds for deer research projects. Keith Warnke, DNR Big Game Ecologist, briefed the Executive Committee on the potential for increased funds coming to the state from excise taxes on firearms and ammunition. Warnke suggested there might be several million dollars available to fund deer research as well as address other priority projects within the agency.
The Natural Resources Board will take up the 2010 gun deer season structure at its Dec. 8 meeting at the GEF 2 building, 101 S. Webster St., Madison beginning at 1 p.m. in Room G09.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer and serves on the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Executive Council. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
"We need to take another year off from Earn-a-Buck," said Rob Bohman, chair of the Congress' Deer 2000 Review Ad-hoc Study Committee. "It doesn't make sense to have an aggressive season structure when we don't know what happened last year," he asserted. The Executive Council instead recommended the 2009 gun deer season framework remain in place for 2010.
The exception would be in the Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone where EAB requirements have been in place since the disease was first discovered in 2002. While not discussed at the meeting, some conservation groups have expressed a desire to see the end of EAB requirements within the CWD MZ as well.
The study committee's earlier proposal called for a nine-day gun dear season in regular units, a 16-day hunt in Herd Control Units north of Highway 64 and a 16-day hunt in HCUs south of Highway 64. Both of the 16-day hunts would have opened the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The proposal would have included a "hunter incentive" in all HCUs allowing the harvest of one antlered deer with no EAB requirement while authorizing a second buck only after harvesting an antlerless deer.
The study committee abandoned that approach at its Nov. 6 meeting held just prior to the Executive Council meeting on the same day. The discussion noted the high public support for allowing the deer herds to grow and fixing possible discrepancies in the Sex-Age-Kill method of determining population estimates. The final proposal coming out the Deer 2000 committee was passed on 5-4 vote.
"It wasn't that Earn-a-Buck was on trial," said committee member Mike Riggle of Taylor County. "A common thread at the hearing (in our area) was why do we need a 16-day season when there are no deer out there."
Riggle prefers looking at EAB as part of a broader picture. "I think you have to look at everything together - including baiting and feeding, the use of herd control measures and the disparity between DNR estimates and what hunters are experiencing."
"Rather than push this, let's get another year under our belt," Riggle concluded.
DNR Wildlife Management Bureau Director Tom Hauge disagreed. "Wisconsin's deer herd doesn't take a year off or wait for us as we discuss and contemplate what our future deer season should be," he told the Executive Council.
"It's not a question of gathering more data or deciding on strategies for EAB alternatives. We need to do both," he said.
"The question we've all been discussing this summer and fall is what season format will we use in place of EAB to reduce deer herds when we need to. This isn't a data question," he insisted.
Regarding the SAK audit, Hauge said the agency understands the strong desire to improve our deer population monitoring procedures. "The department is committed to implementing the recommendations of the audit," he said. Hauge added, however, that several of the recommendations will require multi-year, extensive research projects that will be expensive.
Nearly 10,000 hunters weighed in on the issue of the deer season structure at the 11 public hearings held throughout the state or by communicating their thoughts directly to the Department of Natural Resources.
In submitting its proposal to maintain the current structure, the congress is urging that the DNR review deer range calculations and begin research suggested in the Sex-Age-Kill audit report to improve the public's confidence in deer estimates.
In other action, the Executive Council endorsed the use of Pittman-Roberts funds for deer research projects. Keith Warnke, DNR Big Game Ecologist, briefed the Executive Committee on the potential for increased funds coming to the state from excise taxes on firearms and ammunition. Warnke suggested there might be several million dollars available to fund deer research as well as address other priority projects within the agency.
The Natural Resources Board will take up the 2010 gun deer season structure at its Dec. 8 meeting at the GEF 2 building, 101 S. Webster St., Madison beginning at 1 p.m. in Room G09.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer and serves on the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Executive Council. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
