Wi hunters

Please outline your biggest concerns going forward.

Wolves. The population is getting out of control

Beat me to it. Second concern is West Nile affecting grouse.

Too many Doe tags

Wolf and smaller limits on certain species of fish.

Tony Evers.

Land fragmentation/urban sprawl taking more & more good hunting spots down.

Continuing to carve up the wild game species and seasons by method, time, age, gender physical status,veteran status,etc. We create more seasons to specialize for groups and we continue to lose hunters and by basically in many ways using seasons etc. to discriminate general hunting disguised as special opportunities. All these political issues detract from research, science and overall management of the species. We also seem to be consciously and continuously heading toward the only real value in hunting privilege is to be involved in some extreme aspect of hunting be that size etc. Pretty hard to interest the youth not members of current hunting families when the expectation is for extreme success and not enjoying nature. Many of whom become hikers, bikers, kayakers, canoers and not consumptive sport users. To me it is egos and bias of people that are far greater problems to hunting than any wild species.

Bryce

CWD

Having a place to hunt.

A big problem around here is invasive buckthorn taking over woodlands. It grows & spreads like wild fire.

What is your concern about cwd? Please expand.

It probably deters some from hunting and is a drain financially on state resources. It has resulted in an increased doe harvest, causing many hunters to see less deer (some enjoy the xtra doe tags, some don't). It has lead to the inconsistent placement of baiting bans creating a sort of patchwork of counties in which baiting is legal. Bioligists say it is a deer herd health concern. It creates potential uncertainty in the future of the herd. It could decrease my property value if a deer tests positive in my area. It pits deer hunters against deer farm owners.

I get it that it's been around out west for probably well over 50 years, but it has not been a welcome situation for Wi. All 1 has to do is consider the huge financial cost it has been for Wi's already tight state budget. It is extremely costly. No one likes diseases. The disease seems to be spreading. I feel for the people in the few counties that have it so bad where there's been years where certain counties have had ~20% of tested deer test positive. It has made managing the herd more difficult.

Wolves in the part of the state I deer hunt in. I saw more wolves than deer this year.

It's been here long before they brought it to the public's attention in the 90's. It's a political play and nothing more.

Loss of habitat.

A lot of the woodlands in my area have been converted to red pine it seems. They may grow good timber, and can provide good cover when the trees are young, but don't necessarily provide a lot of food once mature.

Even if that is true, it doesn't make any of AJE's concerns less valid.

Deer baiting. The honest guys struggle to compete with illegal bait piles. Baiting is illegal in most Wi counties, but you wouldn't know it.

This right here I can agree with.

Mac

Crossguns/bows legal for anyone in archery season!

Before anyone says it I’m a born and raised cheesehead for the vast majority of my 73 years. Only moved south because of the weather and health reasons in 2020.

Another baiting ban coming for Lincoln Co, another cwd positive found a week ago.

CWD factories aka deer farms are my biggest concern. Love it or hate it, we see more deer when we have bait piles. We hunt Langlade county where baiting is banned for 3 years because of a CWD positive deer at a farm. So many of the baiting bans are due to deer farms, and they're shipping sick deer all over the country so rich guys can pay $30k to hang a trophy on their wall.

Certainly plenty of hunters kill plenty of deer without bait piles, they're probably better hunters than me, but anyone on here who wants to bash bait hunters better be setting nothing but blind sets or you're a dang hypocrite. We hunt big woods with sparse natural food to concentrate deer. Our food plots get obliterated by the end of October. Our buck pots went unclaimed 3 straight years, all while baiting was banned and we didn't use it. This year a guy on the neighboring property put out a 50lb bag of corn a week before season and activity on our land dropped significantly, meanwhile he shot a buck opening day.

What really ticks me off is aome wardens don't have time or don't care to enforce it. Hunters account for a good deal of the DNR's funding. I'd like to see license prices double, and double or triple the number of wardens.

loss of habitat quantity and quality.
without this wolves, baiting, number of doe tags, reduced bag limits mean little.

Used to be alot more logging, especially clear cutting in the northern 1/2. You want more deer? thin and or clear cut more. Alot of the north is poor deer habitat.

Farmers are clearing out fence rows and small woodlots, they want to plow every square ft they can.

Invasive species like buckthorn degrade acres of woodland, swamps are covered in phragmites, gone are the cattails and diversity that fed muskrats and ducks from lots of swamp land.
Forests all over the state are suffering.

Unlike the rest I have an answer of sorts.
Base landowners property taxes on several factors that all benefit wildlife. Got 5 acres and house in the burbs? if your 5 acres is all lawn high taxes, plant 4 acres in native grasses, forbs, trees and shrubs and get a big savings on property taxes.
Own and farm 80 acres? if its nothing but bare crop land higher taxes. 80 acres and it has fence rows, a small woodlot and that small wet corner you plant every year but yeilds very poor crops is now a small wet area left to nature much lower taxes.
Own 20 acres in the country that mostly woods and a house in one corner, if you manage for invasive plants, diverse plant life and wildlife habitat get a lower tax rate. Just let it go with no management higher tax rate.

We as a society whine constantly about climate change and our Gov't spends billions on it. we could spend it on lowering taxes on landowners that respect mother nature instead. It would benefit all.
I doubt it will happen tho as there will have to be a way for out political class to get a cut or they won't do it.

loss of land is #1 that is being divided up into smaller parcels and the not in my back yard crew complains about all the deer but you say I could hunt that they say oh no not by my house you need to be like a half mile away or more.

but where are the deer ?

in my backyard eating everything ! then that is where I would need to be to do anything about it.

other things
CWD is a concern not one we are going to get rid of any time soon so how do we live with it now 20 years in.

are we going to admit raptors spread it , deer farms a concern also.

wolves don't effect me a lot but as people leave hunting wolf areas it does , the population is way too high there needs to be a number set and we need to kill a set number every year.

bear , seems we may need to change the structure some as the bear move farther and farther south.

baiting is an issue if it spreads the CWD , and stores with pallets of feed , protein blocks , mineral licks need a cease and desist letter for food specifically marketed for deer and should be made to post a DNR map of prohibited bait counties near each display send the letter this year so they can just not order the stuff next year.

it would be nice to move muzzle loader season to follow youth season youth go Thursday through Sunday then put muzzle loader through to the following Sunday , it is about useless the 7 days after gun deer
for the counties that need more deer taken just make gun deer 2 weeks like around the metro area and put muzzle loader right after youth weekend.

I seem to recall an October muzzle loader season once, the bow hunting lobby would scream more than about crossbows over that. I am in an urban setting and have more deer tags than we can use right next to my subdivision, because the deer live in the subdivision conservancy. I didn't hunt Sunday to Wednesday so my granddaughter would maybe have a chance at a buck on my 30 acres. She hit an eight point but we did not come up with it, still looking.

agreed

I would make the argument that the xbows are the more ethical way to go

your 90 pound woman and your old man , the 70 pound kid , they just are not going to draw enough weight to adequately put down a deer quickly and reliably.

I knew a lot of people with messed up shoulders who had given up on bow hunting , it was both expensive and a hassle to get a disabled permit for xbow.

I don't know. I'm not fully convinced about that. Too often some people seem to think they're Superman with a crossbow and appear more likely to take shots they ought not to be attempting.