Good.

Why good?

X2

I miss read I have more does then bucks on my land.

I wouldn't mind having a bucks only season up in Sawyer where I hunt but I am against taking away the decision from the dnr biologists.

Again, they've been failing for years. Why should we listen to them?

I don't think they've been failing, I saw more deer after the last round of buck only years than before them, I disagree with public land deer and private land deer, with the small plots of public and private intermingled lands the herd is the herd.

"They" being the biologists haven't done much management other than providing harvest and other deer metrics data to the County Deer Advisory Comittees. The tools are already there for thr CDACs to limit or eliminate antlerless harvest in their respective counties. I've been against this broad stroke legislative wildlife management since day 1 and am glad to see it got vetoed.

Mando, I'd ypu don't want does shot in the county you hunt, I hope you attend all the CDAC meetings and make your opinion heard. We need less government in wildlife management, not more.

I agree with you tlguy about less government rule for sure.

One of my big things that I disliked about it was it would drive a good amount of the hunters from north of hwy 64 south of 64 into the already over crowded Southern Wisconsin public hunting areas.

Doesn't mean much what you saw. Every place is different. There are lots of deer in some areas, and not so much in others. Our management practices here are not very good. Period.

I would not mind a ban on does for a year but it should come from the biologists, not the politicians. I question his motives but this is probably the first time I’ve agreed with Evers since he has been in office. 4years is ridiculous.Too many things can happen in that timeline .

The whole thing is politics. The biologists, the NRB. All of it.

I feel for you guys that live in states where politics dictates wildlife management

my thought is that enough lawmakers have been hearing about the "relative" lack of deer in the northern 1/2. Being lawmakers and not biologist they figure the easy solution is stop shooting does so that there will be more deer.
Instead of looking into why and if there is really a lack of deer they do what is easy.
If there is a lack of deer there is usually more than one reason. Severe winters, depredation, lack of premium habitat, and other stressors either by themselves or maybe more than just one.
Biologist should be tasked to do a honest study and see what they come up with. Maybe its something that can be fixed.

There is absolutely no doubt are deer in northern Wisconsin are declining. I’ve been a taxidermist here for 40 years and until 16 years ago I mounted an average of 65 white tail bucks a year from Douglas county. We had fantastic big buck hunting and great genetics then 26 years ago the wolves showed up and now it’s all but gone. Most of the deer I mount now come from other states and the ones I do get from here are young and small. One group of ten hunters this year got zero deer first time in 49 years when they use to fill up on average in 4-5 days. I havnt had a picture of a big buck on my land in 14 years when it use to be a multiple monsters a year. Rubs and scrapes once abundant are rare. People here are depressed and for good reason. 14 or 15 years ago for the first time since bow hunting started you havnt been able to shoot a doe with bow without special doe permit that’s hard to get. And all because of wolves. They are everywhere. The last wolf season forced on the DNR in February 2 or 3 years ago they doubled the quota in 2 days killing 218 wolves which was over 20% of the entire state’s estimated population. That will tell you how far under a actual population their estimates are. Wolves are sanitizers, they kill everything until nothing is left. Why do you think Idaho has up to a $2,000 bounty on wolves. They have been decimated by wolves. Same with Minnesota moose from 16,000 down to 3,000 some and they give every reason except wolves. Come live with wolves and find out Our game management is the worst in the country. I could give you plenty of proof. Minnesota north of me is already a deer desert with huge areas now 3 years without a single deer track. And i could go on and on. Many avid and very skilled hunters no longer even buy licenses here any longer but go to other states. It’s just sad. I told those legislators their doe ban would do no good there were very few doe tags given out anyway. If wolves arnt addressed were done and each year it’s getting worse.

Agree 100% ^^

One more time. If you want to slow the decline or increase a deer a herd don’t harvest does. It buys you time to study the problem or miracles of miracles you get to address the wolf problem.

Dirt, let's put this into terms you might understand being in Alaska. No salmon fishing in 1/3 of Alaska because a few rivers have low salmon numbers in certain stretches. Be it from predation by grizzlies, changing river habitat, or a drought.

That's what this legislation would've done. Instead, local deer advisory councils can still limit harvest to regulate the deer herd in their area, same as they have been able to for the last 9 years. I think we all agree limiting the antlerless harvest could help grow the herd, but a 4 year blanket ban was foolish.

Thanks for the clarification.

Montana and Wyoming each have goal of 100 wolves and Idaho 150. Even Colorado has plan to begin management at 200. Wisconsin a much smaller state with higher population a nothing even close to wilderness has 1,000 goal and new plan stated if delisted no season till they reach 1,200. How can they be endangered in these three states when our estimated population not counting wolves under 2 years old is over double the western states. This is just insane. On the doe shooting I’ve listened to multiple people all depressed about few deer and no bucks who apply for doe tags and shoot every doe their gang has tags for. I quit shooting does years ago and will tell these hypocrites to quit their whining as they are part of the problem It should be noted that in the western states with 14 years of management they havnt been able to get the wolves down we’re they want them and there are no quota areas in Wyoming and Idaho plus up to $2,000 bounty in Idaho. If delisted here and season starts the quota will be so small it will do nothing to reduce numbers. There are easily three times the number listed here when you add the under 2 year olds. There are uncollard pack’s everywhere. The DNR has no clue how many wolves their are. Same with bobcats. It took me 7 years for late season tag and cats are everywhere. In Minnesota every resident can go for 5 cats a year and their cat population exploded right along with ours. Much more could be said about Wisconsin mismanagement of cats. We have a crisis of poor management in Wisconsin.

Ok, I'm conflicted on this:

I'm jack by the way.

Jack, congratulations on reaching out about something you have an interest in. Being conflicted about something is natural and probanly contributes to critical thinking. If dont mind sharing it, I 'd be interested in reading your letter.

If your deer hunting area is one like up north we’re many areas have seen a steady decline in deer numbers no one should shoot does I called Chance Greens office and told them unless they get the wolf issue resolved nothing they do will matter. Decreasing deer numbers and increasing wolf numbers which is the case is leading to the end of a lifestyle up here. Heck! It already has. People will look back and say I can’t believe what we’ve allowed it’s just the plain sad.

As I address in my letter, I hunt in northern chippewa county, which is just barley in the northern forest zone. I have seen plenty of deer there.

I referred to our managers statement before when he told me that if hunters knew how many trophy bucks wolves kill during the rut they would kill every wolf they see. I’ve been a taxidermist full time for 40 years and where I use to mount an average of 65 bucks a year from my county now it’s almost none. Most of the deer I mount now come from other states Many of our best trophy buck hunters go else where now as they can’t find mature bucks anymore. No one shoots does on hundreds of private acres here and havnt for years and deer numbers are staying low. I often hear people say they have plenty of deer. We’ll talk is cheap, and all you have to do is look at how seldom you see road kill deer now to realize something has drastically changed. Oh and then someone will say well I just saw a road killed deer yesterday as if seeing one dead dear proves there are plenty of deer. Our deer hunting has been destroyed by wolves period. It’s easily provable. Most younger hunters have no idea the white tail paradise we use to have. I will never see it again and if something isn’t done about wolves it will get far worse.

I will add that I talked to people several years ago who although big bucks were few in there area they had good deer numbers. I told them just wait because as wolves wipe out certain areas of deer they move to greener pastures and it’s just a matter of time and your area will get hit and hit hard. Well now I’ve heard back from 2 of these people who told me how right I had been as now deer were scarce for them. It’s like our game manager told me 20 years ago , if your your hunting area is we’re wolves den you’re pretty much screwed. For the first time in 49 years a ten man hunting camp got zero deer this year. In the past even after super tuff winters their deer pole was impressive. No offense Jack but at 15 years old there is a lot you don’t know I hope you continue to have good hunting but up here our hunting has been ruined and that ruin is spreading.

I understand that. The only reason that I don't like the bill was the fact that the chippewa county forest was included. I am not familiar with the rest of the state, so I don't express an opinion on how there deer tags should be handled. I do know that the chippewa county forest ( northern chippewa county), where I and one or two hundred other hunters( rough estimate) hunt, has lots of deer and deer sign. In a month of hunting the the chippewa county forest, I saw roughly 2 dozen deer. One of these was a huge 12pt. All the rest of bow season (including the 3 weeks that I biked out after school to hunt every day), I hunted in southern Chippewa county (central farmland) and saw under 10 deer.

The proposed doe ban was flawed covering way to big of an area Chippewa county is central Wisconsin but on the northern half. It is deer paradise compared to northern Wisconsin. To anyone who thinks we don’t have a problem explain why 14 years ago for the first time taking a doe with a bow was banned without special permit which is very hard to get here. That ban is still in effect. Come up north 2 weeks after a snow and drive 100 miles on backroads and count deer tracks and get the point. You say leave the science to our professional managers. Our managers are a new generation of liberal educated people that don’t know much of anything about good management They are wolf lovers blinded to reality. They use a way conservative estimate for wolf population and don’t count wolves till their second year. In the last season forced on the DNR the February hunt the quota was doubled killing 219 wolves in 2 day’s. That’s over 20% of the entire state’s estimated population killed by a small number of permit holders in 2 day’s. Ya right! Those numbers show any thinking person how far off the wolf estimate is. They are everywhere you go There are many packs with no collar’s one with 14 in one pack all in one picture and no collars. And these things are on the endangered species list!! Really, and you call these people experts. People up here are really getting mad as reality is finally setting in , our deer hunting is disappearing and it’s not ever coming back without drastic action. It’s just plain sad.

I'd like to see some proof of that. There's very few hunters compared to 20-25 years ago. Many camps are long gone. Guys haven't been hunting northern Wisconsin to shoot does...those guys left a long time ago.