Congress not keen on DNR’s deer plan

By Tim Eisele
Correspondent

Stevens Point, Wis. — A mountain of discontent over Wisconsin’s deer seasons and bear quotas began to erupt at the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Executive Council meeting Jan. 7, and part of that maelstrom included drafting the congress’ own deer season framework that eliminates Zone T and earn-a-buck.

The day for Congress members took three different directions — a 10 a.m. meeting between some executive council members and Sen. Russ Decker (D-Wausau), a 1 p.m. executive council meeting, and a 7 p.m. meeting with DNR officials that included DNR Secretary Scott Hassett and DNR Bureau of Wildlife director Tom Hauge. By the time Hassett and Hauge entered the room that evening, the executive council had approved a resolution for the April 11 hearings — a proposed deer season framework that eliminates the October Zone T season and earn-a-buck.

Council members also agreed to take their concerns to the Wednesday, Jan. 26 Natural Resources Board meeting. Conservation Congress chairman Steve Oestreicher was to ask the board to renew its control over the DNR on annual deer and bear quota settings.
During its Jan. 7 afternoon session, council members minced no words in expressing their discontent with the 2004 deer season and DNR deer hunting regulations. The council clearly indicated that it would look for other avenues, other than through the DNR, to seek solutions, perhaps hinting at the earlier meeting between Decker and Oestreicher. Oestreicher said Decker traveled to Stevens Point to talk about the deer season and youth initiatives for 2005.

In the audience and listening to the discussion were NRB chairman Gerry O’Brien, of Stevens Point, and Herb Behnke, NRB member from Shawano and chairman of the board’s Land Management, Recreation, Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.

Council members unanimously passed two resolutions that afternoon, one to reshape the state’s deer season, and the other to request the NRB to get back into the DNR’s deer and bear harvest quota-setting process.

The “quota” resolution asks that the board reinstate the requirement that the NRB approve Zone T and earn-a-buck deer units and harvest quotas before the DNR can implement them. The resolution also asks the board to approve bear season structure, harvest quotas, and permit levels before the DNR implement them.

“This will allow for more effective and objective oversight and public participation in department decisions pertaining to deer and bear hunting harvest that the public, hunters, and the Congress may disagree with,” the resolution concludes.

Until four years ago, DNR decisions that identified units for Zone T or earn-a-buck would come to the Natural Resources Board for approval, but for the past three years, the DNR put criteria for such programs in the state administrative code so that seasons such as Zone T and earn-a-buck automatically went effect when certain criteria were met. The DNR secretary then issues an order.

Richard Kirchmeyer, council member from Prentice, said in 2004 hunters saw more than ample numbers of bear, and citizens and the congress bear committee gave their recommendations to the DNR.

“But, when the quotas came out, the door got closed on us,” he said, adding that the system the DNR uses to determine bear numbers is antiquated and the department should put more emphasis on what hunters want.

Oestreicher said that at meetings with the DNR, not a single person (including people who hunt over bait and those who hunt with hounds) thought it was necessary to lower bear quotas, noting that they’d never seen so many sows and cubs as this past summer.

“Yet the quota went down,” Oestreicher said. “This is the second year in a row where our bear committee was blown off and we will stand for it no more. We are fed up with it and will take appropriate measures so that our voices are heard.”

David Ladd, of Dodgeville, a member of the Conservation Congress for 37 years, said he didn’t know anyone who appreciated the 2004 deer hunting season. People are getting upset and the average hunter will quit hunting, he said.

Ladd, who co-chaired the Conservation Congress Deer 2000 Committee, renewed the committee’s recommendation that someone from outside the DNR has to conduct an audit of the Sex-Age-Kill formula the DNR uses to estimate the deer population. Ladd said people don’t believe the DNR estimates of the deer population.

“Dead deer don’t lie,” Oestreicher said. “I’ve had 65 phone calls following the deer season from across the state and not one single person had anything good to say about the season. One group of nine people have hunted together for 35 years and they called to say that if Zone T or earn-a-buck is held again in their unit they will quit hunting. There is something wrong here; it’s no longer fun for people to go into the woods.”

Oestreicher said hunters are forced to follow rules they’ve never had before and don’t like; they had bucks in front of them but couldn’t shoot because of regulations in that zone. As a result, he said the buck kill went down in 48 counties, according to preliminary registrations.

“To me the season was a bust,” Oestreicher said. “We should have killed a minimum of 100,000 more deer with all of those T zones and earn-a-buck, but it did not happen because the animals were not there.”
Oestreicher said the antlerless kill went down in 32 counties, yet he knows the DNR will respond by saying it was a good season.

Congress members pointed out that even DNR research people have commented that at some point in putting all the numbers together it is “a crapshoot, and sometimes we have to guess.”

“This program is flawed seriously and we won’t stand for it,” Oestreicher said.

Raleigh Fox, council member from Iron River, said he’d met with local DNR biologists and found support for a proposal on the deer season, but when it went to the DNR Deer Management Committee it was voted down.
Joe Caputo, from McFarland and chairman of the congress Big Game Committee, emphasized that now is the time to make changes, and something must be done to get the DNR to stop and look at what the agency is doing.

The council agreed to use whatever means possible to stop any attempts for Zone T and earn-a-buck seasons in 2005.

The executive council voted unanimously to add its “deer season framework” question to the April 11 spring fish and game agenda. Council members said deer hunting is more than just killing deer.

The question explanation notes that the DNR wants to reduce deer populations, partially due to chronic wasting disease. Council members noted that bucks are more likely to spread CWD than antlerless deer, but said the buck harvest is restricted with Zone T and earn-a-buck.

The question will ask if the public agrees with the executive council in that the DNR would receive more hunter support with a deer hunting season that got rid of Zone T and earn-a-buck.

The Conservation Congress can add its own advisory questions to the spring fish and game hearing agenda without approval from the DNR or Natural Resources Board. However, the DNR does not have to act on those questions, if they are supported by the public at the spring hearings.