Deer Observations

As a general rule I refrain from publishing crappy, blurry and otherwise poorly-composed trail camera photos.  That’s mostly what you get anyway.  The really nice ones are the only ones worth saving.  Today I’m publishing three not-so-good Moultrie trail camera photos because I want to share a few observations and words about the local deer herd and make a post-season point with my report.    

Everyone around here hunts deer.  Everyone has been successful killing multiple deer for trophy purposes and wholesome table fare.  The crew I hunt with killed eleven deer during the 2019 season.  In our own attempt to manage the growing numbers of deer all of them were girl deer.  The lives of all the little bucks were spared.     

Nevertheless, the anecdotal scouting record supported by trail camera documentation is that there remains a large, localized population of deer on the landscape.  To be clear - this is solely anecdotal inasmuch as it is physically impossible to perform a census of each and every deer.  Now that all the crops are off the fields and the deer are now concentrated in the natural cover for winter there is an added measure of validity even for anecdotal observations as the photographic evidence is indisputable.       

Consider this:  There are a great many 1½ to 2½ year-old bucks.  These range from spikes, forks and sixes to big, mature 3½ year-old eight-pointers.  They’re easy to count as their movements cover predictable territories and they can be distinguished from one another by their headgear.  There’s a large number out there so the buck hunting is going to remain robust – even in the unlikely event no more bucks are born next spring. 

Furthermore, does and fawns are abundant.  If you could paint a number on each they would be easier to count.  But when you spot groups of four at a time...

And possibly five at a time.....

You can build a rather convincing case that there are plenty of them on the landscape.  And there’s a high probability most of the females are now pregnant.  Yes, farmland deer can become pregnant before they are a year-old.    

So in closing I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the deer hunters around these parts are going to continue to enjoy better than average success rates.  Unlike the Wisconsin state legislature smart hunters like the ones around here understand that whitetails are not uniformly distributed across the landscape of our great state.    

Raising a toast to supportable deer numbers and healthy sex/age ratios. 

New Management Coming?

Another deer camp gun opener is in the archives and camp diary.  A good one indeed.  Let there be know doubt that we do our level best to manage the local deer herd and control their burgeoning numbers. 

With the mid-term elections behind and the change in management at the top in Wisconsin coming before too long I wonder if there is hope that beginning in 2019 this nonsense that passes for deer policy will end and science will prevail. 

With all due respect to Cool Hand Luke I'll not hold my breath.....

Locavore

Productive day began with a visit in town with my State Representative.  It was a terrific opportunity to have a productive and friendly chat about the burgeoning deer numbers on the peninsula and Wisconsin's one-size-fits-all approach to managing deer populations.  Remember - the legislature has been in charge of managing wildlife resources - not the Department of Natural Resources, or the Natural Resources Board or (gasp) biologists.  We'll see how it goes and if anything constructive comes of this.

Back at The Platz I took the girls out for a romp to swap-out the SD cards from the trail cameras. 

Following that Jill and I cut-back the raspberry canes, I pruned the suckers from the big apple tree and pruned the 'poop on a stick' branches from one of the Canada Cherry trees.  After that I thought better of proceeding any further until I knew more about the cause and spread of this fungal disease.  I disinfected my lopper and put it away.

I helped Jill clean the GMC and later my lovely wife got her second wind and finished cutting the lawn after the sun peeked-out later today.

Dinner tonight was a feast:  Grilled venison loin, crashed German Butter Ball spuds and a medley of frozen sweet corn with fresh-picked asparagus.

Everything came from our field, forest or garden. Except the beers.  It's a satisfying feeling for sure...

Politicizing Deer Management

Like most sportsmen, I’m tired of sitting in a deer stand all day and not seeing any deer, said Walker.  As governor, I will name a ‘Whitetail Deer Trustee’ to monitor the health and population of the deer herd. That way, we take the politics out of the forest and put the deer back in.

Candidate Walker intoned those memorable words more than six and a half years ago and today the legislature is in charge of deer management.  Manage deer by means of sound, scientific principles?  Nope.  Manage deer with the guidance of wildlife biologists?  I don't think so - better to eliminate those positions from the Department of Natural Resources.  How about a deer management plan that involves consulting foresters?  Are you kidding? All that science makes their heads hurt.  

So much for taking the politics out of the woods.  A larger pile of steaming and stinking BS hasn't been spoken since.

Today Wisconsin has a one-size fits-all legislated deer season framework that has resulted in a dearth of deer in the northern third of the state and a surplus of deer in other parts of the state.  Door County's CDAC suggested an antlerless season might be a solution to stemming the burgeoning deer herd - but that got shot-down.  Wait...what about an earn-a-buck framework?  Maybe once every three or four years or so to bring the herd closer to goal and grow some big bucks?  Alas, the governor and legislature tell you no way.   

As a consequence there are no tools left in the deer management tool box anymore.

As for me the deer are eating me out of house and home.

All of this browse damage is enough to give me a big, damn headache and leave me pissed-off.  The good news is that my friends like deer hunting and aren't afraid to stack them up.

Sigh...

Shooting Baldies on the Agenda

There has been nothing but trouble since the Walker Administration decided to turn deer management over to the legislature.  No longer are scientists asked what to do.  Science makes legislator's heads hurt.  Forestry experts who make deer management recommendations make the governor's head hurt.  Farmers and orchard owners who warn about the losses they suffer from too many deer are ignored it hurts so much.  

As a consequence Door County’s CDAC (County Deer Advisory Council) recently voted unanimously for an antlerless-only deer hunt this coming fall in an effort to cull the deer herd.  With an estimated 67 deer per square mile of habitat, and a goal of 25 deer per square mile the CDAC is at its wits end as to how to reduce the county's deer population.   

In 2016 hunters received three free antlerless permits for each deer license.  That means if you hunt with a bow and a gun you got six free tags.  26,000 permits were issued last year resulting in only about 2,400 deer killed.   

The habitat is getting clobbered by all the deer and becoming more degraded all the time.  The CDAC will make its final decision tomorrow night.  7 PM at Sturgeon Bay High School.  Learn more about what’s happening here…

Governor Scott Walker - Deer Manager

In a late Friday afternoon press dump Governor Scott Walker announced a series of changes to Wisconsin's chronic wasting disease (CWD) plan.

“Managing our natural resources and preserving our hunting heritage is a delicate balance,” Governor Walker said. “By working together, we are taking actions and will continue to assess and update our chronic wasting disease plan to make sure we are doing everything we can to contain and address this complicated disease.”

Various steps have been proposed, including: 

• Seeking input from hunters, landowners, farmers, and foresters in every county using   County Deer Advisory Councils (CDACs);
• Directing the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to conduct a comprehensive study of deer population dynamics;
• Creating Best Management Practices for the deer farm industry;
• Conducting more frequent fence inspections; and
• Developing quicker test results for hunters.

Following an entire first term of endless denial and foot dragging pressure has been mounting on Walker to address the escalating spread of CWD after infection rates in 2015 hit a new high.  Other than promise to further study the matter there isn't anything in last Friday's news release to suggest that anything is really going to happen.

Or is there?  

Let's review point by point.

Seeking input through the County Deer Action Councils?  Toothless.  CDACs are advisory only.  All season framework and deer management policymaking now rests with the legislative and the executive branch.

Another comprehensive study?  The topic has been studied to death.

Deer farms and fences? The current Wisconsin standard is to inspect a deer farm fence once every ten years.  Until recently, a deer farm of less than 80 acres had to be part of a monitoring program to gain DNR approval for single fencing and to export or import deer. The program required the operator to maintain records of deer they added or subtracted as well as CWD test results.  If the operator didn’t participate in the program they couldn’t move deer and had to install double (or solid) fencing.

Larger deer farms were regulated under one of two possible scenarios.  To maintain only a single fence an operator had to participate in a Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) monitoring program or a DNR harvest monitoring program.  Without participation in the DNR or DATCP programs a double (or solid) fence was required.

Effective last December operators of a deer farm are now allowed to opt out of Wisconsin’s CWD monitoring program in its entirety without having to upgrade their fences.  

Yup, under the Walker administration the rules have changed so as to reduce costs to the proprietors of farmed deer and free them of annoying regulatory hassles.  Never mind that a rigorous fencing mandate might minimize the spread of disease from captive deer to healthy wild deer.

The only redeeming proposal is the notion of speedy test results.  As the spread of disease grows in enormity I suppose finding out about it sooner is better than later.

Our border neighbor states have performed a splendid job of containing and slowing the spread of CWD by means of reducing deer numbers.  Wisconsin - not so much.  Governor Walker and the legislature have embarked-upon a policy of managing for high deer numbers without any allowance for the fact that deer are not distributed uniformly across Wisconsin's landscape.

As evidence of this the Governor has already rejected out of hand any suggestion to resume thinning the state's deer herd.  Why you ask?  Because he's the decider.  That's why.

The 'changes' to Wisconsin's chronic wasting disease program are nothing but meaningless platitudes.  More of the same inaction and a recipe for expansion and spread of the disease. 

It’s a madcap, mixed-up world when it comes to science-based conservation of this state’s keystone wild game animal.  But why sweat the important stuff when your governor and representatives place a priority upon passing legislation to hunt while wearing blaze pink.

• Seeking input from hunters, landowners, farmers, and foresters in every county using County Deer Advisory Councils (CDACs);
• Directing the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to conduct a comprehensive study of deer population dynamics;
• Creating Best Management Practices for the deer farm industry;
• Conducting more frequent fence inspections; and
• Developing quicker test results for hunters.

- See more at: http://walker.wi.gov/newsroom/press-release/governor-walker-announces-several-initiatives-combat-chronic-wasting-disease#sthash.Eio4jKlh.dpuf

Door County Deer Damage

Been spending some time performing winter chores on the tree farm this weekend and I wanted to share with my readers evidence of the damage to working forests when a deer population begins to outgrow the carrying capacity of its habitat.  I took these photos last weekend.

In this part of Door County there is no longer any natural regeneration of cedar, oak, hemlock, white pine, etc.  None.  Having been picked clean by the deer and any new growth halted in its tracks (no pun intended) the understory is barren.  These cedars have been hammered by browsing deer.  

They’ll survive in their stunted condition but as a food source they’re done-for.  Nothing left to eat and it’s only the beginning of February.

This is one of many smaller trees.  It happens to be a red oak.  Like its thousand or so other struggling hardwoods it happens to be anywhere from knee to shoulder in height and already has been stripped of this season's buds by browsing deer.   

The tree will push out replacement buds in order to grow new leaves but a tree can only do this so many times over the course of several growing seasons before its reserves are depleted and the fatally-weakened plant succumbs to disease or insects.  This is not a laughing matter.  This has a cost that is measured in real money.

Southern Door County has too many deer.  Be mindful that high deer numbers result in a severe economic loss to tree farmers across the state.

After four years of inaction the Walker administration rolled-out their County Deer Advisory Councils (CDAC).  The purpose of the CDACs is to allow grassroots participation at the county level to influence deer management decision in each of Wisconsin's counties.  The Door CDAC has voted unanimously to reduce deer numbers.  The CDAC also voted unanimously to put an end to baiting and supplemental feeding of whitetail deer.

They already cannot sell $12 antlerless permits that nobody cares to purchase.  And as soon as the bait piles come out in September the deer restrict their movements to the dark hours when there is no hunting pressure.

Getting rid of the baiting and supplemental feeding is a good start.  And if I had my druthers I'd bring back the October antlerless gun hunt.  Oh wait.  Everything has to have legislative approval now.  Good luck with that.

Gotta wonder what use is the CDAC process after-all.