DOR
Life Member
An interesting read from WI....
Pat Durkin column: Thank earn-a-buck for trophy bucks
Few are surprised anymore when hunters shoot more than 300,000 deer during a nine-day season, only to awaken the Monday after to complaints of fewer deer sightings, confusion about CWD and Zone T regulations and immortal conspiracy theories targeting everything from crossbows to earn-a-buck.
Meanwhile, one couldn't help but smile the past few weeks and marvel at all those big-buck photos, whose numbers surpassed everyone's dreams. Our smiles only broaden when happy hunters invariably say, "I'm glad we didn't have earn-a-buck this year or I wouldn't have gotten him."
Can irony be more oblivious, more blissful? No doubt, hunters these days voluntarily pass up more yearling bucks, but such self-sacrifice remains random across regional landscapes. Truth is, widespread earn-a-buck laws from 2002 through 2004 were the main source of November 2005's monster bucks. Requiring hunters to kill a doe or fawn before they shot an antlered deer provided the largest reservoir of older-age bucks Wisconsin probably has seen since Europeans settled the state.
Although the gun season's statewide preliminary buck kill, 138,038, was within 3 percent of the 10-year average, 142,940, older bucks made up a larger segment of the kill. In the northern forest, only 35 percent of registered bucks were yearlings. The 10-year mean percentage for yearling bucks there is 60. In the state's central forest, 45 percent of registered bucks were yearlings, a record low. There, the 10-year mean percentage is 57.
Because of special CWD regulations since 2002, buck-age averages in southern Wisconsin can't be compared. However, nowhere in Wisconsin were bucks pounded harder. The buck kill jumped 70 percent in Lafayette County from 2004 to 2005, and it was up 61 percent in Iowa County, 58 percent in Richland, 43 percent in Sauk and 34 percent in Rock.
The next-most dramatic region for buck-kill increases was Northeastern Wisconsin, where earn-a-buck regulations were widespread in 2004. Outagamie County's buck kill was up 41 percent; Waupaca, 36 percent; Green Lake, 31.5 percent; Shawano, 31 percent; and Door, 29 percent. Elsewhere, big 2005 increases in the buck kill also mirrored areas with earn-a-buck in 2004.
So, smile until your face aches and remember how good it felt. A year from now, we'll see far fewer "grip-and-grin" big-buck photos. By removing earn-a-buck regulations during 2005's regular archery and gun seasons statewide, the DNR allowed hunters to hammer the herd's buck population.
In addition, that open season on bucks likely helped slash antlerless registrations to 174,368, the gun season's lowest doe-and-fawn kill since 1997, when 171,296 were registered. The 2005 antlerless kill was 24 percent below the 10-year average of 230,814 antlerless deer.
All those numbers suggest a few things. For instance, although it's too soon for predictions, much of the state might require earn-a-buck regulations in 2006. That's assuming the DNR stands tall and insists that we acknowledge the impacts of overpopulated deer herds on woodland habitats and agricultural crops. With fewer big bucks to offset whiners, politicians and whining politicians, we'll be left with the same ol' complaints about fewer deer, more management modifications and regulations that confuse Bubba, Babs and lawyers alike.
Sigh. One doubts some folks ever will make the connection. By spinning the regulatory dial on deer hunting every year, who isn't bewildered? If we would just install the oft-ignored rules from "Deer 2000 and Beyond" committees and live with them for five years, much befuddlement would disappear with experience. Instead, we're scuttling Zone T's October hunt in 2006 and 2007 while piling on a menu of minor changes no biologist expects to control the herd. It's time we pause and study the deer data and parade of big bucks from November 2005. They suggest awesome regulatory and deer-management power within earn-a-buck's grasp.
If hunters, legislators and the DNR recognize this obvious tool and brandish it, Wisconsin would be the envy of North American deer hunting
Pat Durkin column: Thank earn-a-buck for trophy bucks
Few are surprised anymore when hunters shoot more than 300,000 deer during a nine-day season, only to awaken the Monday after to complaints of fewer deer sightings, confusion about CWD and Zone T regulations and immortal conspiracy theories targeting everything from crossbows to earn-a-buck.
Meanwhile, one couldn't help but smile the past few weeks and marvel at all those big-buck photos, whose numbers surpassed everyone's dreams. Our smiles only broaden when happy hunters invariably say, "I'm glad we didn't have earn-a-buck this year or I wouldn't have gotten him."
Can irony be more oblivious, more blissful? No doubt, hunters these days voluntarily pass up more yearling bucks, but such self-sacrifice remains random across regional landscapes. Truth is, widespread earn-a-buck laws from 2002 through 2004 were the main source of November 2005's monster bucks. Requiring hunters to kill a doe or fawn before they shot an antlered deer provided the largest reservoir of older-age bucks Wisconsin probably has seen since Europeans settled the state.
Although the gun season's statewide preliminary buck kill, 138,038, was within 3 percent of the 10-year average, 142,940, older bucks made up a larger segment of the kill. In the northern forest, only 35 percent of registered bucks were yearlings. The 10-year mean percentage for yearling bucks there is 60. In the state's central forest, 45 percent of registered bucks were yearlings, a record low. There, the 10-year mean percentage is 57.
Because of special CWD regulations since 2002, buck-age averages in southern Wisconsin can't be compared. However, nowhere in Wisconsin were bucks pounded harder. The buck kill jumped 70 percent in Lafayette County from 2004 to 2005, and it was up 61 percent in Iowa County, 58 percent in Richland, 43 percent in Sauk and 34 percent in Rock.
The next-most dramatic region for buck-kill increases was Northeastern Wisconsin, where earn-a-buck regulations were widespread in 2004. Outagamie County's buck kill was up 41 percent; Waupaca, 36 percent; Green Lake, 31.5 percent; Shawano, 31 percent; and Door, 29 percent. Elsewhere, big 2005 increases in the buck kill also mirrored areas with earn-a-buck in 2004.
So, smile until your face aches and remember how good it felt. A year from now, we'll see far fewer "grip-and-grin" big-buck photos. By removing earn-a-buck regulations during 2005's regular archery and gun seasons statewide, the DNR allowed hunters to hammer the herd's buck population.
In addition, that open season on bucks likely helped slash antlerless registrations to 174,368, the gun season's lowest doe-and-fawn kill since 1997, when 171,296 were registered. The 2005 antlerless kill was 24 percent below the 10-year average of 230,814 antlerless deer.
All those numbers suggest a few things. For instance, although it's too soon for predictions, much of the state might require earn-a-buck regulations in 2006. That's assuming the DNR stands tall and insists that we acknowledge the impacts of overpopulated deer herds on woodland habitats and agricultural crops. With fewer big bucks to offset whiners, politicians and whining politicians, we'll be left with the same ol' complaints about fewer deer, more management modifications and regulations that confuse Bubba, Babs and lawyers alike.
Sigh. One doubts some folks ever will make the connection. By spinning the regulatory dial on deer hunting every year, who isn't bewildered? If we would just install the oft-ignored rules from "Deer 2000 and Beyond" committees and live with them for five years, much befuddlement would disappear with experience. Instead, we're scuttling Zone T's October hunt in 2006 and 2007 while piling on a menu of minor changes no biologist expects to control the herd. It's time we pause and study the deer data and parade of big bucks from November 2005. They suggest awesome regulatory and deer-management power within earn-a-buck's grasp.
If hunters, legislators and the DNR recognize this obvious tool and brandish it, Wisconsin would be the envy of North American deer hunting
