Tomorrow at the UW Madison campus there is a presentation about hunting and conservation in Wisconsin. Here's a copy/paste from the school events calendar:

Exploring the Role of Hunting in the U.S. and Wisconsin Conservation Movements
Brownbag Lecture

* Date Nov. 17, 2010
* Time noon.
* Location-360 Science Hall-550 N Park Street Madison, WI
* Description: This presentation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Chief Warden, Randy Stark, looks back in history and focuses on the role the hunting community has played in contributing to the overall conservation movement in the United States since the late 1800s and the development of the North American Model of Conservation.
Should be an interesting turn out and discussion. Hope to see some of you there!

Asian carp for Thanksgiving anyone?

KingRizzo Quote: "They love what they do and know more about it than you." They think they know more about it, and that is exactly the train of thought that bothers outdoorsmen. Unfortunately, they do not always know more, and they need to get rid of the "holier than thou" attitude. Show me the DNR employee that says he knows my property, and the wildlife on it, better than me, and I will show you a liar or a trespasser.

Not that I need to explain anything to queen rizzo, but I have talked to wardens, administrators, political figures, and anyone who cares about the deer herd. Let’s list some of the DNR's strategies and illogical policies:
1. Create an "eradication" area and then change the name of it so it doesn’t seem to be eradication.
2. Allow venison donations to food pantries from the CWD areas, but then ban it a year later.
3. Allow hunters to use rifles in CWD areas even though they previously said it was too dangerous to use rifles in such heavily populated areas.
4. Implementing rules and regulations in attempt to drastically reduce the herd when they don’t even know how to cure or stop the spread of the disease.
5. Severely overestimating the deer population.
6. Claiming the deer population continues to rise even after record deer harvest years.
7. Claiming most fawns breed their first year to try to stop hunters from earning a buck by shooting a fawn, and not the mature breeding does.

Oh the list can go on and on. Is everyone in the DNR liars? The answer is NO. Have they done a poor job over the past several years? The answer is YES!

jcommon - The people I know who are absolutely most passionate and knowledgeable about the responsible conservation of our natural resources are DNR employees. That's why they go into the field - it's not like working for the DNR gets you rich. They love what they do and know more about it than you. On the other hand, the people who are most vocally opposed to the policies of the DNR tend to be much more selfish about conservation, and as soon as they are told something like the deer heard needs to be reduced so that CWD doesn't decimate the entire state's heard, they view the DNR as "enemies" and "know-it-alls" because it means fewer trophies on the wall next year.

wolfkiller - How do those votes mean money?
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The conservation congress is a forum not just for hunters but anybody with interest in the state's natural resources. Someone who never hunts once has just as much power as someone who poaches wolves like you: one vote.
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But anyway, isn't that exactly you crave? Take your complaints to one of your county delegates and make your crazy voice heard.

KingRizzo, I do not think the DNR needs to study cwd as much as they do, but they probably should, seeing as they don't seem to know much about it. Also, you have to remember, the DNR do this as their job, Hunters and outdoorsmen go into the woods for enjoyment and passion. You tell me who cares more about the environment. I believe the DNR are starting to become the enemy and know-it-all to outdoorsmen rather then the friends they should be.

wolfkiller - Our roads and bridges are paid for by taxes on our gas purchases - does that mean motorists should decide which roads get fixed and which bridges should be maintained and how? No. We hire civil engineers for those decisions because they are professionals. Similarly, the DNR should not listen to "sportsmen" like you (what kind of sportsman advocates the poaching of wolves?), because you are not the most knowledgeable or objective voice in the argument. They are professionals and I respect their decisions as such. If you disagree with them, I would urge you to take partarican1's advice and get in touch with them and have a conversation about it.
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DNR_LIES - "Prove me wrong!" is not a valid defense of your "DNR LIES" position. I find it interesting that you vilify the "administration" - those who, I guess, you have never had face-to-face time with. The wardens, however, who you have been in touch with, are just fine.

wolfkiller-hunters are not the only ones who pay fees to the DNR; park users pay in to the system, too.
But no one persons opinion amounts to a hill of beans if the DNR can't hear us talk. We have a voice in these matters in person at the open meetings or in a written letter to the director, but not here in this forum.

The point is we are all mad about deer herds in Wisconsin and the current hunting laws/seasons aren't working as best they could. So have any of the posters written a letter or made a phone call or attended a meeting about this? Probably not....

A point I believe people completely miss is: the DNR isn't supposed to maintain a deer population large enough to accomodate hunters.
I agree with KingRizzo's comment about the DNR-they have a tough job to do. For those who vilify the DNR- you think things with the DNR are bad now, wait until Walker gets his meat-hooks into them.....

KingRizzo sounds like he may be DNR. He attacks others asking for proof but offers no proof of his own to support his opinion. I agree the wardens are not to blame, its the administration

jcommon - So you suggest, then, that CWD exists but is not an issue and should not be managed?
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wolfkiller - No offense, but you come off as being a little off your rocker. You seem to view our state's natural resources more as something to be consumed first and maintained or restored second.
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grandys618 - I respect the experiences and resulting views and opinions of woodsmen. They certainly have their value, but they are mostly anecdotal and rarely scientific. Every woodsman I have communicated with, yourself included, feels that they know better than the DNR. Most also feel that they know better than any other woodsman. I tend to put more value in the judgements made by the folks who not only have the years of experience in the field, but also have a relatively high level of education on the subject. Not only that, but they have the resources to study the subject on a state-wide level -- something few, if any, woodsmen have the opportunity to do.
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The DNR has a tough job - they have to effectively maintain the state's natural resources while convincing people like "wolfkiller" here that their decisions, while perhaps not best for his wall of trophies, are based on what is best for our environment.

No,
I am suggesting that we had CWD for years. But, as soon as a the DNR saw $, that is when it became an issue.

jcommon - So you suggest that there is no CWD? The DNR is just using it as an excuse to work?
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grandys618 - What's your point? The map posted along with the article shows that the deer population in Northern Wisconsin is either close to the DNR's goal or actually under the DNR's goal.

When the DNR first discovered CWD in wisconsin, there was a 50 million dollar grant from the federal gov't to study it. All of a sudden, Wisconsin deer had CWD. Plus, with CWD, I am sure they had to hire more personnel to study it.

jcommon: For what are they greedy? The blood of the deer? How is this situation profitable for the DNR?

The DNR Demonized themselves in this situation. The DNR field agents do their job, and they do it well, but the higher up people continuously lie to hunters for their own profit and make erroneous claims that most of these hunters actually can see right through.
Some examples of this:
EX 1: The DNR were bringing in sharpshooters to cull the herd...that would be fine, but they were shooting them at NIGHT. If a hunter did that, he would get a fine.
EX 2: The DNR had a dumpster set up for deer carcasses back in 2000 or 2001 for cwd. That was fine, except they put the dumpster right next to a river. If you care about natural resources you don't put a poison (CWD) next to a river.
These 2 situations caused me to stop hunting. Particularly the dumpster situation. I used to love the DNR and thought they were great until they turned greedy and seemed to forget their true purpose.

Since the natural deer predators are not nearly at large enough populations to cull herds naturally, we have to use hunting seasons to cull herd numbers. Now the herd numbers are coming down and people are freaking out left and right. We have to shoot doe to bring down the populations..
What I don't understand is how the DNR got demonized with this situation. I was under the impression that the DNR was to manage the resources by reducing deer popultions with the goal of slowing the negative impacts the deer have on our farmland and forests- but by this I mean deer populations should only be around 4-5 head/acre max, and in some places that number is as high as 20 head/acre.

I wouldn't complain too much about having to shoot a doe this year. Where I go in northern WI I cannot shoot a doe. Buck only season there because people are not seeing deer. As someone who hunts almost exclusively for meat it will be a tough year having to wait for a buck, and an even tougher year eating one. Last year I counted myself lucky and got three (two does and one nice nine-pointer) but those were the only deer taken between five of us. Good luck everyone and I hope you are all safe (and warm).

If the DNR weren't here to manage the heard, the hunters would have completely eradicated all the deer decades ago.
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But go ahead and keep up your "DNR LIES" internet campaign - everyone is very impressed with your anecdotal evidence of a small heard.

My son hunts up north and has been for the last 15 years. The last two years he hasn't even seen one. He hunts with several other hunters and it used to be they would have their tags filled. Now they are lucky to have 5 deer among the 14 that hunt.

Imagine the public uproar if the DNR flat out mentioned that they would be trying to reduce the number of deer in the CWD zone to ZERO. Or have they already said that? There is no "cure" for CWD. The CWD persists in the soil indefinitely. Killing all of the deer in the CWD zones keeps them from contaminating additional areas. My question is.. after all of the deer in the CWD zones are dead, how do you keep UNinfected deer from ENTERING the CWD zones?

As for landowners. I bought land to hunt on because It was getting hard to find land to hunt. Now you want me to let someone else come in and follow the DNR rules and cleen out my woods...I don't think so. I will be paying off my land for years Why not ask for lease to hunt it. Don't get me wrong We do slectivly let people hunt but not to everyone who knocks on the door. They are not making any more land buy yours while you still can!!

"He said he went bow hunting seven times last year without seeing a deer. He said he might have complained about the herd, too, until he saw three bucks in one day and shot a 20-pointer".

So he took a buck with out first killing a doe??
Hummmm special rules for him??
I have hunted for the past 22 years. This year I refuse to fund the DNR's stupid plan. It is hard to let go of tridition. But hunting under the DNR rules just plain sucks!!

As for hunting land. Well, I would have to agree that land owners are getting a little stingy in that area. Either, they want to "lease" it out for the hunt or they too believe the herd is low so they won't let you hunt it. Another somewhat local landowner will let you hunt his land for $200 but if you take a doe, it's an additional $200. So, that just goes to show that landowners are also regulating the deer herd.

Listening to the hunters in my family for the last couple of years, I would say the herd is low. They aren't whining because they haven't been able to nail the trophy buck, they're whining cuz' they can't nail anything cuz' they can't see anything.
There are a LOT of people who go deer hunting for the meat it will provide for a while. It has nothing to do with getting the "trophy". Yes, that's an added bonus but I know that my freezer was empty of venison last year and it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Sorry I mean momof4

It is VERY unfortunate that we have guys like Jim Wiltinger making idiotic comments like this, "He said he went bow hunting seven times last year without seeing a deer. He said he might have complained about the herd, too, until he saw three bucks in one day and shot a 20-pointer"

To Mr. Wiltinger, WHO CARES! Not everyone is out to hunt trophies! The fact is the DNR does not know how to stop or cure CWD. The only thing they do know is that if you ERADICATE the deer, the disease can’t spread. Well here is a question for the DNR...How long will the disease last when the deer are not around? 5yrs, 10yrs, 20yrs? You don’t know! MR LOPEZ, you’ve commented on this site before, please answer this question!

STOP KILLING ALL THE DEER AND WORK TOWARDS FINDING ANSWERS! By the way, did the DNR tell people to put away their deer targets and lawn ornaments before the count so they weren’t "mistakenly counted."

Mofof4-get use to more and more food plots to keep deer on private property. I don’t blame property owners one bit. Blame the DNR and their mismanagement. If I had my own property I would do the same!

I have been seeing a lot of deer this year compared to none last year. I think it was all the standing corn that the deer were able to stay in that produced the low kill count last year. I have already harvested one (nubber) during the October hunt. Good luck to all the hunters this coming weekend.

I have been saying the herd is very splotchy and by that I mean you will see alot of deer in a very small area while you can also see hardly any deer in a very large area. I believe that has alot to do with food plots and private lands that noone or few people are allowed to hunt. I would love to see the herd spread out more evenly somehow or figure out a way to let more people hunt some of these private lands so more hunters will at least see more deer while hunting. I hate how this has become a rich mans sport now. I am not fortunate enough to own land so I have to resort to public land and knocking on doors to find a place for me and my 12 year old son to hunt. Almost every door we knock on says "sorry we have people that lease to hunt our property". What the hell ever happened to the good ole land owner that said yes? GREED! I have had a great deal of success bowhunting this year but believe me when i say that I have put ALOT of time and hard work into it not to mention money due to the length I travel to hunt. I am not apposed to shooting does but I think it is a little extreme you have to shoot one before you can shoot a buck. After all, isnt it mostly bucks with the disease anyway? I wouldn't mind a program where you could purchase one buck tag if you chose to instead of earning it. Lets say you put a 50.00$ price tag on buck tags. Think of the revenue that would generate for the DNR because most people I know would purchase one. Sorry to bable and vent so much but Im just another concerned hunter/citizen about the future of our deer population and the practices in which it is managed! Good luck this season to all fellow hunters and be safe!