Everyone I talked to this year said there were no deer. Numbers were way down. So why do we have to kill more deer?

What do car/deer collision reports say about the size of the herd?

https://dnr.wi.gov/wideermetrics/DeerStats.aspx?R=Collision

Here you go Muskrat. Only allows you to go back 2007, but you can look up by county if you want.

You never talked to me.

In my little area of the world there is lots of deer.

The general trend in the kill over the last 1/2 dozen decades is up. Up about 300% if I recall right.
All this while there is more property removed from hunting and fewer people hunting.
So lots more deer killed on in a smaller area.

I was recently at a conference on native plantings to attract wildlife to your property.
One problem that continually crops up is deer.
They will either eliminate or browse on certain native plants so heavily that the plants are no longer able to get to the point of producing seed.

White Oaks are a good example. Oaks suffer from too dense of forests and deer.
For White Oaks to survive the deer herd will need to be thinned drastically.

If I don't protect the Oaks on my property the deer will eat EVERYONE of them.

If we have no real trust in the deer numbers and the herd size then all this talk about season times, lengths, methods, age groups and special season etc. makes no real sense at all. If you don't know where you are going any road you take will get you there.

Bryce

I guess it depends on what you are looking to accomplish. If the firearm season is moved up and they put a quiet period in, I think it would transfer some of the archery harvest to gun harvest. Those last couple of weeks in archery are big weeks for buck kill and ensuring you avoid the late gun hunts (like this year) would significantly increase the gun harvest. I included a link to the powerpoint deck that shows the impact of having a later vs earlier season and the average difference is like 13% (slide 15). https://p.widencdn.net/4ydoii/00-2020-01-Tuesday-3A-PP-re-2019-NRB-Deer-Season-Report-FINAL

Deer will be more likely on their feet and you have more that survived archery season. Keeping the gun hunt closer to the rut will likely help generate a little more interest if that was what you are trying to accomplish.

All that said, I am not sure that just extending the gun season to 19 days without moving it up helps on either front. You make a lot of good points on how folks hunting styles have changed over time.

I'd like to know where these proposals came from, and why these were selected. Let's see the guys pulling the puppet strings.

Everyone I talked to this year said there were no deer. Numbers were way down. So why do we have to kill more deer?

some moron sitting behind a desk most likely

I guess you guys don't understand the mind set of the WI bow hunter. They don't want you In the woods during the rut.

Your probably right.

And as to the badger thing If you think the outrage was huge over the morning dove season wait till the badger thing comes up. This Issue will give the trapper a huge BLACK EYE. We shouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole.

MY buddy caught a badger this winter he turned It In I bought It for $25.00 from the DNR and know It's getting tanned. The person catching a badger can't buy It but they can posses It after the fact.