MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin wildlife officials on Wednesday approved shrinking the number of northern counties where hunters can kill only bucks this fall, signaling they believe the herd in that region is rebounding.
Buck-only designations are designed to protect does, allowing them to give birth and grow the herd. The Department of Natural Resources’ board unanimously adopted a fall gun season framework that makes 10 northern Wisconsin counties buck-only. That’s down from 19 counties in 2014 and 12 last year.
The buck-only counties are: Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Florence, Forest, Iron, Jackson, Oneida, Sawyer and Vilas. Ashland, Forest and Sawyer will also be buck-only for youth hunters.
Harsh winters in 2012-13 and 2013-14 cut the northern herd’s numbers, frustrating hunters in that region. DNR officials say mild winters in 2014-15 and 2015-16 - DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp wrote in a memo to the board that the 2015-16 winter was one of the mildest on record since the DNR began tracking winter severity in 1960 - have helped the herd recover.
“The impacts of winter in northern Wisconsin are pretty well documented for deer,” DNR Big Game Section Chief Bob Nack told a reporter outside the meeting. “When Mother Nature gives you a break, you’ll see the herd rebound.”
The season framework also authorizes an antlerless-only, nine-day holiday gun hunt between Christmas and New Year’s in 13 counties in the central and southern farmland zones, which includes roughly the southern half of the state. Those hunts are designed to curtail herd growth in those regions.
The framework was based on recommendations from county deer advisory councils, groups of hunting stakeholders in all 72 Wisconsin counties that offer the DNR recommendations on whether to grow, shrink or maintain local deer herd levels. The DNR formed the councils in 2014 in response to recommendations in a report that Texas deer researcher James Kroll submitted to the agency.
Gov. Scott Walker hired Kroll to suggest ways the DNR could improve deer management and mend relationships with hunters angry over what they saw as draconian herd reduction regulations, most notably the earn-a-buck program, which required hunters to kill an antlerless deer before taking a buck. Republican lawmakers outlawed earn-a-buck in 2011.
Larry Bonde, chairman of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a group of sportsmen who advise the DNR on policy and serve as chairmen of the county councils, said the congress fully supports the 2016 season structure.
Board member Greg Kazmierski complained that the DNR didn’t give the councils enough deer population data to make informed decisions. He said the DNR needs to reach out to landowners and encourage them to survey how deer are affecting their vegetation to get an idea of the local herd size.
Nack said the DNR provided the councils with a wide range of detailed information, including deer impacts on agriculture and forest regeneration and car-kill numbers, in their first year. The agency didn’t supply that data this year because it doesn’t compile it annually. Nack said the agency will work to get the data to the councils every year.
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