Wisconsin hunting groups disagree on expanding gun-deer hunt

MADISON (WPR) Deer hunting groups in the state are at odds over a proposal to expand next year’s gun hunting season from nine days to 16.  Public hearings are underway.

At issue is how to control the state’s deer herd.  The plan in place, until it was suspended this year, required hunters to Earn A Buck by first getting an antlerless deer.  The owner of Buck Rub Outfitters in Waukesha is glad it's gone.  As a member of the Hunters Rights Coalition, Greg Kazmierski says it took the fun out of hunting. Kazmierski says last year, he shot a doe and for the first time in 40 years of hunting, had regrets shooting a deer.  He says the deer population in the area he was hunting was down, but shot the doe anyway because of the threat of Earn A Buck the following year.

Kazmierski served on the committee to find a workable "alternative" to Earn A Buck.  That proposal now includes a longer gun season – 16 days instead of 9.  And that’s riled up another hunting group.  

Mark Toso is a resident of Roberts in western Wisconsin, and President of the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association.  He says giving hunters a choice of which deer to shoot isn’t the way to manage the deer herd.  Toso says private landowners who won’t shoot deer are driving up population estimates, which has led to this 16 day season proposal. He says Earn A Buck targets land and helps bring the deer population down.

But Earn A Buck is not up for debate at the public hearings. What is, besides the longer gun season and how early it should start, is a longer archery season, new seasons for muzzleloaders and a ten day late December hunt that has other snow sports groups up in arms.  Hearings are scheduled Wednesday (10/21) in Madison, Rhinelander and Ashland and continue through November 3 around the state.  (http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/news/hearmeet.html)

Public meetings to discuss the proposal will be October 21st in Ashland at the AmericInn Conference Center and October 28 in Spooner at the high school.  Both meetings begin at 6:30 p.m.

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Information from Wisconsin Public Radio, www.wpr.org