Dear Hunters,
Now with the 2009 deer season behind us, we are more concerned than ever,
over the future of our sport. As you
are all well aware, we have been working very hard to help redirect the DNR to
create a brighter future for deer hunting
in Wisconsin. Some of our objectives are:
1) The DNR gets outside help in determining deer population.
To gain credibility with hunters this must be done in a similar fashion to the
recently completed bear study. It
must be conducted by experts from outside the state and include involvement from
the hunting community. It must be
ongoing for a period of several years.
2) Get non harvest mortalities figured into the over winter populations.
(Car kills, predation etc.)
3)
Eliminate all additional Herd Control seasons and EAB. Return to a 9 day gun
season for a period of 5 years statewide. including CWD management zones to
allow the SAK formula the needed time to stabilize.Two
consecutive years of dramatically falling buck harvest indicate population
estimates are far below DNR estimates.
The last year the gun season recorded a buck harvest of less than 90,000
deer was in 1980. The statewide
post hunt population in 1980 was 565,255 deer.
This is 25% below current statewide population goals.
SAK calculations require 5 year averages of consistent buck harvest.
With inconsistent seasons and Earn-a-Buck accurate population estimates
are impossible. The dramatic
decline in antler-less harvest in ’09 indicates the deer aren’t there and
hunters are electing to forgo venison in the freezer and not shoot the few they
do see. This also led to the dismal
Oct. harvest of 11,000 deer total including the CWD zones where hunters still
had to qualify for A buck tag. This year’s Oct. gun harvest was little more than
archers harvested during the same 4-day period in ’06 and ’07.
CWD units are also managed to goals and the dramatic decline in those
units indicates the aerial survey model is also flawed and populations may
already be at or below current goals. It is also demonstrated in historical
harvest data that hunters can and will shoot adequate numbers of antler-less
deer in a 9-day season if the deer are there and adequate tags are issued.
4)
Determine deer goals for total square miles of area and not square miles of
habitat.Most
of the Deer Management units that are habitually over goal are units that have
significant areas that are not currently defined as deer habitat. A timely
example of non-habitat is corn fields.
Yet, standing corn was one of the reasons stated for the harvest being
down this year. (The deer were in the corn) Many farmland areas have goals of 20
to 25 deer per sq. mile of defined habitat.
If a unit is at 50% habitat it means that these units at goal should only
have 10 to 12.5 deer per sq. mile of land area.
Some units are only at 20% habitat or 4 to 5 deer per sq. mile of land
area. The biological carrying
capacity of farmland areas is 80 to 100 deer per sq. mile. These goals are set
at social carrying capacity yet most farmers and landowners will never shoot
their deer down to these low goals.
A unit with at a goal of 20 deer per sq. mi. of habitat and 50% deer range will
produce at goal about 5 deer per year for harvest or one deer for every 128
acres of total land area. If a land
owner is paying recreational rate property taxes they expect to be able to
harvest more than 1 deer per 128 acres.
A simple solution to this would be to establish goals per sq. mi. of
total land area like virtually every other state and the habitual over goal
problem will be remedied.
5)
Establish deer population goals at a level capable of sustaining an annual total
hunter harvest (all seasons, gun, bow, tribal, crop damage etc.) of 400,000 deer
plus the 15% wounding loss and the non-harvest mortality.It
has been stated by the DNR that at current goal hunters are expected to harvest
about 270,000 to 290,000 deer.
Since 1990 hunters have harvested over 400,000 deer annually with the exception
of 4 years including this year which may end up just shy of 300,000.
It is clear that this year’s level falls short of what hunters consider
good deer hunting. Hunters have demonstrated they are capable of harvesting in
excess of 600,000 when deer are plentiful.
To sustain a harvest of 400,000 deer and account for non-harvest
mortalities the over winter goal needs to be at least between 1,000,000 to
1,200,000 deer over winter or just under 25 deer per sq. mi. of total land area,
well within the biological carrying capacity of most of the state. For the last
10 years DNR’s population estimates have been within that range while car deer
collisions and crop damage complaints declined since their peak in the 90’s.
I do not believe we are asking too much or have anything on our agenda
that does not merit support from every hunter
in this state. If you have concerns please feel free to contact us thru
our website at
www.sciwibowhunters.org
Sincerely,