Wisconsin Has Too Many Deer
This is the word that the Wisconsin DNR has been spilling onto the airwaves and the print media the last couple of weeks. They are trying to get hunters to harvest more deer during the Wisconsin 9 day gun season that starts on the 17th of Nov. They are using various tactics to get their message out, including threatening hunters that if they do not shoot more does this season, the current non Earn-a-Buck areas will be Earn-a-Buck next year, if not enough does are harvested this year in the non Earn-a-Buck areas.
For those of you who do not know what the Earn-a-Buck program is, it is a program that the Wisconsin DNR has implemented to force hunters to shoot more does (or Fawns). In Earn-a-Buck areas, you must harvest a doe before you can shoot a Buck. The Earn-a-Buck program is not popular with hunters in the State of Wisconsin, and this is an understatement.
I am sure there are many reasons there are too many Deer in Wisconsin, that’s of course if you believe the DNR when they say there are too many deer in Wisconsin. Many hunters do not. One thing I do know for sure is that it is the DNR’s charge to manage the Wisconsin Deer herd. It’s their job. If indeed there are too many Deer and if the DNR say they are managing the deer herd in Wisconsin. Then whose fault is it?
Never the less, most of the hunters in Wisconsin are willing to take the DNR’s word for it, and they will do their best to harvest more antlerless deer. Although I do not think that threatening hunters is the way to do it, it just doesn’t work, never has. Especially Wisconsin Deer Hunters, they are an independent group, it may have the opposite effect.
