Kris Korn
Wednesday February 23, 2011
Where is deer hunting headed…?
Seeing most of us in the state, and especially at this college, are such avid deer hunters, it makes me wonder what other people feel about how the state runs the hunting system. One of the biggest things I notice is how we have yet to find the right way of holding different seasons with different restrictions, and people’s pointless opinions and the right way to do things. Most of us learned to hunt from our fathers, and they learned it from theirs, but today, we are facing some critical turning points. With such an outrage over the DNR’s “miscalculated” herd totals, we all feel a little different about how things are run. With the earn-a-buck system, it’s clear that the DNR wants to reduce the doe population, but according to those that I’ve spoken with, there aren’t any doe “like there used to be”, and Wisconsin has been regulating deer hunting long enough to have it figured out by now.
Wisconsin has revenue of almost $1 Billion every year from deer hunting (http://www.ehow.com/about_6648043_history-deer-hunting-wisconsin.html), yet they fail to listen to those who spend the most time out in the woods. The hunters of the state spend an astounding amount of time hunting, and for people to say they haven’t seen deer in a few years is alarming. It makes us wonder if there is more to the issue then the DNR is telling us.
I understand that the DNR has the scientific evidence on the spread of CWD, and I think we all agree that it is a serious issue with the possibility of getting out of control, but to have an organization that is funded on such a large scale make errors calculating the deer totals, how do we know that what they have told us so far is right? I don’t think that those who pass on participating in such a strong state tradition understand all the issues going on with deer hunting, and really could care less how they feel. But for those of us who would like to pass our hunting knowledge down to our own kids some day, we realize that unless hunters do something, hunting could be gone completely.
We face enough issues with losing deer to CWD, more complicated hunting seasons, and loss of hunting land that we don’t need any from those who feel that hunting is immoral, violent, and animalistic. If you don’t like hunting, too bad, get over it, and be thankful that such a long running tradition provided such substantial money for the pointless things you want to do.
4 comments:
I agree completely, the DNR needs to figure out a solid plan for the Wisconsin herd and do so next fall or our herd won’t exist. What I feel they are too stubborn to say is that CWD is not really an issue, but was more motivated by insurance companies and those who are not by informed of what it actually does. I’ve spent my last two summers working with captive cervids and have found that are state is the laughing stock of the natural resource community because of how they irresponsibly handled the CWD situation. What I have learned, is that we have much bigger issues at hand pertaining to disease such as EHD, Blue tongue, and Tuberculosis which most residents haven’t even heard. This can only lead to the CWD scare all over again, but with actual potential of affecting us as well. We as hunters need to make a change now!
It's sad that hunters seem to be the only ones that care about these issues and is alarming that other states recognize how poor the WI DNR is handling the situation. Again I find it ironic how the hunters are telling the DNR what is best before the DNR finds it out themselves.
The sad thing is that the DNR did exactly what they said they would do. The low deer numbers we have today are a result of a plan. It's a plan to reduce numbers to what they believe to be sustainable numbers. I think that the system will never work due to the fact that people will never agree to what the number should be. The DNR said that the high deer numbers hindered the regeneration of the forest. In places that may be true, but with private land protecting deer on one side of the road and public land on the other numbers will never be equalized. Our land ownership will never allow it. I would like to see the deer numbers come up personally.
Good post, generated good responses. In summer, I teach teachers from all over the US, and one thing I do is Economics of Hunting. They are usually amazed at how much economy is supported by hunting and hunters.
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