NRB seeks vote on extending deer season
By Ted Pennekamp
One of the more noteworthy questions on the Natural Resources Board (NRB) portion of the April 13 Spring Fish and Wildlife Hearings concerns the possibility of extending the traditional nine-day gun-deer season by 10 days.
Question 10 states, “Do you favor improving firearm deer hunting opportunities by extending the season to run for 19 consecutive days beginning on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving?”
A brief rationale for the proposal states, “Wisconsin has one of the country’s shortest regular firearm deer seasons with just nine days of gun hunting for bucks. Providing additional firearm hunting opportunity that also includes bucks would increase excitement and participation in our premier hunt and may be important for the future. A longer season would provide days of high-quality hunting with moderate hunting pressure, buffer impacts of bad weather on opening weekend, and generally expand hunting opportunities to more people.
“State law has established that the traditional firearm deer season begins the Saturday prior to the Thanksgiving holiday with limited exceptions for youth and disabled hunts. This proposal would extend the current firearm hunting season for both bucks and antlerless deer so that it would run until the day before the current December firearm antlerless-only hunt begins. Muzzleloaders, crossbows, and archery equipment will continue to be allowed with a gun deer license. There would no longer be a muzzleloader-only season but we anticipate the same type of high quality hunting opportunity to be available to more people during that time frame.”
Dan Glotz, the wildlife biologist for Crawford and Vernon counties, said the proposal is not necessarily intended to be a way to increase deer harvest. He said the question is seeking opinions about a possible “increase in excitement and participation in our premier hunt.”
“The Crawford County Deer Advisory Council (CDAC) manages the deer herd in Crawford County,” said Glotz. “For the period 2018-2020, they are trying to ‘maintain’ the herd at the 2017 post-hunt population estimate (approximately 15,800). Prior to the formation of CDACs, the DNR was trying to manage the herd in Crawford County at about 9,700 deer (post-hunt estimate).”
Glotz noted that NRB members have the opportunity to place questions on the spring hearing agenda and those are handled as part of the DNR portion of the public hearing conducted by the DNR hearing officer (conservation warden). Like the DNR and Conservation Congress questions, the NRB’s questions are advisory only and are not rule proposals, said Goltz. This process is not new and is a process which has been used for many years.
Glotz said the questions are based upon the NRB members’ interest in the topic and the NRB is seeking public input (a vote) on the questions.
“None of these questions/proposals could result in a change this year, said Glotz. “No rule making processes have been started at this time.”
Crawford County Conservation Warden Cody Adams said he hasn’t had much contact with the public as of late due to the state shutdown, but he has received very minimal questions, concerns or feedback about the deer season structure questions on the spring hearing.
“It has hardly been a topic when I have had conversations with the public,” said Adams.
There are several other questions in the NRB portion of the spring hearing that relate to the extended gun-deer season proposal, if that proposal ends up being supported by the public.
People are encouraged to vote on all of the questions at the spring hearing via online input, which will begin at 7 p.m. on April 13. Online input-voting will remain open for 72 hours. Spring Hearings are traditionally held in all 72 Wisconsin counties at the same time.
