dr deer inc

The concerns that I have with our deer herd are age structure and buck to doe ratio. I spend countless hours in the woods and set several trail cameras. I am finding it increasingly difficult to find a mature buck. I am classifying a mature buck as 3.5 yrs old or better. In fact, 2.5 yr old bucks are becoming hard to come by. I also bow hunt in Kansas. There is absolutely no comparison between the two states. I am getting to the point where I would rather not hunt in Wisconsin. This thought has been echoed to me by others. I believe the declining number of hunters show that this is already taking effect. I know that you are acquainted with Greg Miller. I have had the opportunity to discuss this with him as he attends the Whitetail Classic in Green Bay on an almost yearly basis. His feelings on the state of our deer herd are strong to say the least. When I saw that the governor had appointed you to your new position I was very happy. I am familiar with your work and greatly respect your opinions. I am looking forward to what I am hoping will be a very progressive approach to managing our herd. I know there will be much resistance but that will be temporary. Thank you in advance.

dnr's estimation of the deer herd.
Wolves
Doe permits issued

I have many mixed emotions on deer hunting in Wisconsin. My wife and I own 95ac and the browse damage to young trees is evident. So in that regard the herd where I live is larger than necessary. Yet I plant 5ac of plots each year which does draw in wintering deer so maybe I am creating a bigger issue. Over all I am satisfied with the number of deer I see during the archery, firearm and muzzle loader seasons. What I am un-happy with is the over harvest of immature bucks. I practice QDM and should probably harvest more doe than I do. Between field observations and trail cameras, the lack of mature bucks is disappointing. Harvests of immature bucks by neighboring owners is frustrating but I respect them to do what is legal. If I could change anything, I would support rules to reduce the harvest of immature bucks. Antler restrictions would be the most obvious but there is a drawback to letting a mature 4 or 6pt walk and re-seed those genes.

#1 not enough deer. when I started hunting you would see deer you could set your watch by it now you sit for days and might not see a deer.

#2 killing of too many doe. the hunters that have been around know if you take too many doe the population will suffer especially guys who hunted in the70's and 80's when there where allot of deer. party tags where great you only took a few deer.

#3 dnr thinks they know what's best for deer herd . well let me say this to the dnr it's all about money if deer and deer hunting was that important then why did the dnr start killing off deer so heavily in the 80's and turned it into a blood bath year after year and still doing it today . you can't get young people into sport because they go out and don't see deer and say to you when they come back from hunt I will never do that again no deer. need to up the population . I believe in you doc don't let us down you need to be strict with deer hunters and politicians to get us back to deer levels we once had and i still think we can see again.

Last year I hunted a total of 60 days over a 30 mile area of public land I saw 6 deer. 13 wolves and 4 bear. I think our prey to predator ratio is out of whack. This year I'm not seeing any fawns on camera just bucks and adults does I don't know if it was because of the late spring predation. I did harvest an 8 point on opening day of bow hunting and was out of the country for most of the rest of the season so I don't have any frist hand knowledge of what is going on this year but will be out for our nine day gun season next week. Hope you can come up with some good ideas as it is hard to keep my sons interested when they can go a whole season and not see a deer.

We practice QDM principles. #1 Would like to see a fork or six pointer as a minimum to harvest. To many small bucks being harvested.

#2 Education with DQM principles. General public don't know or understand the practice of growing a quality deer herd.

Please call or E-mail I would be very interested in talking.

Thanks,

#1. I think this might be a subject that no one in the DNR or government would want to talk about but I think the #1 issue to look into is where do the dollars acquired from all the deer hunting revenue go? Are they used for the betterment of the sport 100%? Or are they also used for other projects? Even if they stay within the outdoor programs that's fine but if they leave the Outdoor programs and go for other line items I feel this would be a huge injustice to the outdoorsman!
#2. Is there truly lobbyists from outside the DNR influencing the number of deer per acre? If the insurance companies have any say into how many deer per acre WI should have this too would be like way too much politics concerning our deer management. Sort of like our current political situation at the state and federal level! lol. but true.
#3. I feel all large tracts of public land (more than 400 acres or so) should be there own management unit. To manage public and private land together in the same unit. The public land gets wiped out and the private land gets managed by it's owners at a healthy herd level.

Thank you Dr. Kroll for taking on this huge challenge. I'm a recently disabled Vet and now spend more time than ever in the WI outdoors. We have a beautiful opportunity for great hunting throughout the state if the attitudes of the hunters can be changed. I loved your little speech on tv last night where you stated to sustain this great privilage hunters would have to become less selfish. or something to that effect. If you need any assistance over in the east side of the state I would be honored to help. being retired I do have free time and would love to assist in this program that concerns the love of my life. (besides the wife) I'm mostly a bow hunter but do the deer camp thing for gun hunting mostly to help my brother in law thin the doe herd on his 500 acres.

Good luck and thanks for taking on this challenge.

1) Over-regulation. Hunting should be recreation, not litigation. We need to simplify the way we do things. I have hunted in WI since I have been legally able and know the rules but a new person entering the sport could be overwhelmed by the complications of our system to the point of intimidation, resulting in them deciding not to try.
2) CWD. I believe we have wasted allot of money on this issue by over-reacting to a naturally occuring problem. I think we need to reexamine our goals and strategy pertaining to CWD.
3) Predation. What affect are wolves and bears having on our herd. The DNR has flat-out lied to us about wolf numbers and all things wolf since they were re-introduced. Bears numbers were miscalculated by 70%, yes, 70% and we dont seem to be concerned about keeping their numbers in check. I'd like to see our DNR work with us, not behind our backs.

I wish you luck on your new assignment. I truly feel we finally will have representation and will be led by a steward who realizes the importance of his new task.

If you should find yourself in the Tigerton area during the gun season, you are cordially invited to visit our camp.

the deer in this state have been oblitterated the d.n.r. has been in cahoots with the insurance companies to help reduce there claims.winnebago county has been shoot all you possibly can for over ten years now . heck the whole state .

the deer counts are incorrect .we are shooting to many deer .im at fault to ,but its hard ,because you want to shoot something ,but you dont .but with so many tags you just do, but at least i eat em all .

This is why the counts are wrong.
more people driving cars than ever a deer has less chance to make it across a road ,that shows more deer ,when its less.
because a hunter tags a buck bowhunting early ,does not stop many from going again and when that montster comes out during the rut you know a friend or wife is tagging them .get them out of the woods so it cant happen .
lastly many deer are hit now more than ever by bowhunters and not found .thanks tim frank

Dr, Kroll,
You could make my life way more enjoyable and feel better about paying my multiple land taxes with these top 3 issues I have.

#1- There is absolutely no reason to have legalized spot lighting in this state... when you can go to Wal-Mart and buy a camera for $50 and see every deer in the woods that you are legal to be in... Spot lights are attached to two things poachers and nosey neighbors.

#2- There is nothing wrong with baiting... you do it in Texas... CWD is nothing more than a crowbar for the DNR to say no to baiting... CWD is Mother Nature's way of thinning the herd... I don't bait much myself... a little up in the big woods... and none in ag areas... If you wanna bait- bait... if you don't- don't

#3- Deer drives should be banned with more than 2 people... In my opinion they are dangerous... and that's where most yearly deaths happen during the season... The result on deer drives often means crippled deer I have been running 10 cameras for over 10 years... I can prove the point, many, many times :(

I just have to give you a 4th, Sorry

#4- Most people in this state have a saying "Brown it's down... big or small shoot them all" wrong! I say your tag is good for one deer buck or doe... pull the trigger and go home... but if it's a buck... there needs to be a size on it like a 4pt rule... (On one side)...This makes people look at what they are killing before they decide to pull the trigger� If you want another deer (Doe only) go pay full price on another deer tag at Fleet Farm.

I feel that most people are leaving hunting because they have no where to hunt. The public land is way over crowded and most people feel they have no chance at shooting a decent buck. We need to put excitement back into deer hunting. People pay thousands of dollars to go on guided hunts because they have no other way of being able to shoot a big buck. Can you imagine the excitement that would come back into the sport if people had the feeling that they had that chance. I feel we need to reduce the number of people in the woods at one time and maybe go to seasons similar to Turkey hunting. We need to have quantity and quality of the deer herd. Could a 4 points on one side minimum increase the quality? What if you had blocks or sections of woods that would you would have to apply for, similar to what happens at state park hunts to help reduce the number of people able to hunt those sections and have those sections rotate around the state each year? People who apply for those areas would get preference points and if they are not chosen there licence would cost $15.00 while those chosen would pay $30.00. Kids are not going to be introduced to the sport if the parents don't hunt. And alot of the adults are quiting because of what I mentioned above. The number of people hunting is only going to go down until the only people hunting are those who can afford to own there own land and those who can afford to pay others thousands of dollars to take them. It is soon going to become a sport only for the wealthy and thats sure not how the sport started. When I was in school in the 80's the school was almost empty the week of deer season. My kids now go to the same school and the week of deer season looks like any other week. Very few kids participating. It's sad that excitement is gone. Please help the sport.

I would like an estimate of deer and a recommendation of harvest in my area i can trust so i can make a good decision on whether to harvest more deer especially does in my area to help control the herd. i would like to be able to harvest more deer but i am afraid to run the population too low. If deer populations get too high in certain areas- hunters and land owners would be able to harvest an additional buck or doe by purchasing extra permits. PLEASE NO EAB - EVER AGAIN!
THANK YOU MR. WALKER !

I think the traditional 9 day season is the best program and would not like to see that changed. I agree with an earlier gun season hunt for the younger and handicap. I would also like to see a first time hunter (regardless of age included in an earlier gun season)

Please continue with CWD testing and control measures to help control the spread.