Wisconsin Conservation Congress Amends Position on 2010 Deer Season Proposal 11-18-09
gengberg November 18th, 2009
Press Release
November 18, 2009 Contacts: Ed Harvey (608) 279-6736
Rob Bohmann (262) 498-4605
Wisconsin Conservation Congress Amends Position on 2010 Deer Season Proposal
Advice from the Congress is to move slowly on adopting alternatives to Earn-a-Buck.
Waldo, WI - On Friday November 6, the Executive Council of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress reviewed the preliminary feedback from the 11 public hearings held by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on a proposed deer season offered as an alternative to Earn-a-Buck (EAB). Data from the on-line survey and random mail-in survey were not available at the time of the meeting.
Prior to the hearings the Congress had proposed a sixteen day season only in deer management units (DMUs) that were significantly above established population goals. The gun season would have opened on the traditional opener, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The Congress proposal also included a holiday gun deer hunt beginning December 26, south of highway 64, a 2-day October youth hunt, but no October antlerless gun deer hunt.
“We hoped that the public would see our proposal, which was more conservative than the Department proposal, as a viable alternative,” stated Congress Vice-Chair Rob Bohmann.
However, based on responses from participants at the public hearings, attendees appeared to reject all 16-day proposals regardless of where or when the hunt took place. Therefore, the Congress Ad-Hoc Committee assigned with the task of evaluating alternatives to EAB concluded that none of the present proposals, including their own, were ready for enactment.
“Based on the feedback from the hearings as well as deer hunters within the counties we represent, the committee members felt that enacting a 16-day season, that was developed by a Natural Resources Board special committee was too big of a step,” stated Bohmann. “That is why we reversed our previous position and recommended that the current suspension of EAB remain in place through the 2010 season, while more data is gathered on the status of Wisconsin’s deer herd.”
“The Ad-Hoc Committee I assigned to work on issues which include EAB alternatives, issues related to how deer population numbers are estimated, and how the public is involved in setting quotas and over winter goals feels that the issues are bigger than how, when and if to use Earn-A-Buck,” said Ed Harvey, Congress Chairman. “They hope that the additional year will allow the DNR and hunting groups an opportunity to prepare a more complete, and less hurried proposal. Also, one more year of harvest data free from extreme herd reduction prescriptions like EAB, which complicate population predictions, will be invaluable.”
The Natural Resources Board will act on the alternative EAB proposal for 2010 at their December meeting in Madison.
As established by Wisconsin State Statutes, the Wisconsin Conservation Congress is officially recognized as the only natural resources advisory body in the state where citizens elect delegates to represent their interests on natural resources issues on a local and statewide level to the Natural Resources Board and the Department of Natural Resources. Their mission is to represent the citizens of Wisconsin by working with the Natural Resources Board and the Department of Natural Resources to effectively manage Wisconsin’s greatest asset, our abundant natural resources, for present and future generations to enjoy.
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