Hunter Participation in Wisconsin

           by Mike Bicanic

            I am a Resource Management Law Enforcement Major, but I feel I should give a disclaimer that I am a transplant from Illinois and, yes, I am a Chicago Bears fan. Before you judge please know that I love Wisconsin, but I have also experienced the difficulties of traveling through the wonderful state to practice my favorite activities of hunting, fishing, camping, snowmobiling, four wheeling, and other recreational pastimes. The greatest difficulty I have had with these recreations pertains to deer hunting in Wisconsin. Now I didn’t go hunting for the first time until my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point in 2008, so I am still fairly new at this, but I have been at it long enough to experience some of the difficulties experienced by new hunters, traveling hunters, and how it affects hunting participation in my views.

            When you have no family that hunts and have been raised in an urban/city environment, there are apparent difficulties in learning to hunt and finding a place to do so. This was my problem from the beginning and I am just now learning how to go about finding locations and places to stay during the 10 day gun deer season. For the past four years I have traveled with a group of friends from Kenosha, Wisconsin to go hunting, and I have spoken with many hunters about where to go and where to stay. The problem I come across is a phrase I hear from an increasing number of hunters that I call the “used to” situation. The “used to” phrase is heard around the state on many public hunting lands and can be heard used in the following ways:

·         I had this great hunting spot in (northern Wisconsin town) that I used to go to, but the lodge/ cabin I stayed at closed.

·         We used to hunt on a friend’s land before he sold it.

·         My family used to go hunting every year, but the hotel won’t allow us to hang/store our deer outside anymore.

This problem is only becoming a larger one in Wisconsin as more lodges and cabins are sold as condominiums, private or family owned land is becoming harder to gain access to, and hotels are not allowing hunters places to store gear or their kills. This has created problems for hunter participation from urban areas, out of state hunters, and hunters on public land. Land that was previously available for hunting or the lodge that a family or group has used for many years is no longer available so the user must find a different location and camp. These hunters fall back to public land and restrict the regular users. This overuse of public land during the deer season creates discontent with hunters when no harvest is made and thus lowers participation or a willingness to try to find new areas to camp or hunt. To reverse this effect I believe that a plan should be developed to help lodges, cabins, and private land open to hunting stay open. Even if the Wisconsin DNR promoted the places to stay around public land and private land open to public use, it would be a large step to make it easier for hunters to participate.