Joe Bergsrud
3/8/2011
Reasons for Deer Population Decline
Hunting is a huge part of many peoples lives, and for some it is not just a hobby it is a reason for living. With the popularity of the sport being so high, I don’t understand how there can be so many problems without answers surrounding it. Deer hunting in Wisconsin is not at all what it used to be. When I learned how to hunt a person could see 20 deer in any given day. Now when I go hunting, I am lucky to see 3 deer all season. I am not old enough to claim back in the day, but my mentors are, and they will agree that the numbers are down. Why? There are many opinions on why there are less deer being harvested and many people put the blame to a given reason. I believe that there are multiple reasons for the decline in herd numbers, hunter satisfaction, and amount harvested.
Some people lay the blame on the wolves. I don’t disagree with this at all, I do believe that they have an impact. I do also believe that they should be taken off the endangered species list and the wolf population should be brought back down to the sustainable population. CWD is also having an impact on the herd. The DNR is doing everything they can to try to control the spread, and there is really nothing that the average hunter can do to prevent it. Baiting is also a target of some peoples blame. I as hunter do bait my stand during season, but we also have food plots on our land also. The people who come up from a different state and sit in the woods and throw out 50 lbs of corn at a time are the people who are misusing it. In my personal opinion, I am not against baiting, because it has been something that I grew up doing and would like to continue to do. However, if baiting is eliminated I will not be upset. Hunting regulations have been a topic I have heard discussed. There are debates over the seasons, how the population is estimated, regulations, and other things. I believe that the seasons set the way they are is not an issue. It has been the same ever since I can remember and I don’t see a need to change it now. The population estimates are a topic of my concern. The DNR has been using the same technique for many years to estimate the population. Nobody ever really questioned it until lately, because they would still see deer. Now hunters are not seeing deer and the population estimates are not dropping as much as they should. The DNR almost seems reluctant to listen to the people who spend all of their time in the woods tracking and studying the habits of the deer on their land. When someone who has owned the land and hunted it for years says that he doesn’t see deer on it anymore, I would believe him, he isn’t going to lie to you. These are some of the main reasons why the deer herd is being impacted, but I have another one that isn’t as widely talked about, and I think has more of an impact than a lot of people think.
Poaching is very widespread across the state. I am not sure about the number of deer estimated being poached every year, but I can tell you for a fact that there are a lot more than people think. I from personal experience know that poaching is a serious issue that is seriously hurting the population. I know people that will take any deer they see at any time of the year. They do not care about buying a license or registering it, they don’t care if it is mature or not, they only care that they killed it and put meat in their freezer. I believe that especially with the economy being bad, many people out of work, and prices rising, that a lot of people have thrown out their morals and values and went back to their basic instinct which was to put food in their mouths. Poaching a deer is one way to do it. I believe that this is a huge issue that is affecting the populations in WI, or at least I know in the northern part of Wisconsin. All of the reasons listed have an impact on the herd, but most issues are being dealt with. Poaching is hard to stop because a lot of people are good at it. The problem of poaching will never go away, but I believe that it needs to be looked at a little more closely as an impact on the herd.
4 comments:
This is a really interesting theory about the decline in deer populations, and one that isn't often talked about. I am not a hunter myself, but I would totally believe that there is a large amount of poaching occurring in Wisconsin. Let's face it, this is a state that loves its hunting, no matter what time of year. I have also heard that many hunters or fisherman in this state have a rebellious attitude toward the DNR. Perhaps this is another reason so much poaching could be happening... people are trying to make things difficult for the WI DNR.
There is a lot of hostility between hunters and the DNR at this time, so it is possuble that some people are poaching to rebel. It is not solely based on that fact though. It has been a problem for many many years, but has not been widely publicized as a problem, so not many people consider it. The main problem with poaching, is the fact that most of the time if someone is caught, they are caught after the fact and the deer has already been killed and the damage is already done. I personally know of a case from my hometown that happened this last hunting season, where someone was caught with 13 un-tagged deer the day before season opened.
I am going to say that I agree with you on some things and not so much on others. I agree with you on the poaching and CWD aspects of your post, but I am going to have to disagree with some of the wolf part.
There are around 900 wolves in the state of Wisconsin. The goal was and still stands at 350. I agree that the wolf needs to be taken off the endangered species list, but i don’t think that they have a huge impact on the deer population... There is no doubt that they do influence the deer numbers, but I don’t think that they are the main issue. I think that the main issue are hunters themselves. A couple of years ago people just bought bonus tags one after another. This put a huge dent in the deer population. Along with this, CWD also killed a large number of deer.
There is no doubt that wolves have an impact on deer numbers, but I don’t think that they are the main issue. They were just introduced at a time when the deer numbers were low and, now with the wolves here, they are just keeping the deer population in check.
Hey, this is just a tidbit from a Minnesotan. So here in Wisconsin you can bait deer (corn...etc), what if the state made it illegal to bait deer, do you think that would make it a little harder for hunters to bag as many deer, the deer? I have seen hunters in Wisconsin shoot multiple deer off of the same bait pile. So maybe making baiting illegal would help. A few years ago I did a study on the wolf populations in the Lakes states, back then there were 550 wolves in Wisconsin, 3,000 wolves in Minnesota, and 700 wolves in Michigan. I agree they need to be taken off the endangered species list. Unfortunately for Minnesota, all the three states must take the wolf off at the same time so our population is way overboard. I myself don't mind wolves, I guess its because I grew up with them being out in the woods my whole life. Cars kill more deer than wolves do in Wisconsin so the impact of wolves is very little here. Every deer season in Minnesota I see wolves, maybe soon there will be a wolf season, apart from the "shoot, shovel and shut up season."
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