Who's going to save Deer Hunting from Scott Walker?

Let's see, "registered deer down about 1% from 2016, the second-lowest total in 35 years, Hunter participation also was down, the lowest in 41 years." 

The Walker administration hopes the following denials and weak excuses will make sense to their diehard true believers. Like saying deer hunting itself is not declining in popularity...or that hunting is more spread out now. Ah, show us the numbers? WPR:



How did we get here? A short history:

Democratic Sen. Kathleen Vinehout-Nov. 2014: "The Texan ‘Deer Czar’ James Kroll the DNR’s the new rules change the “season framework, management units, and antlerless deer hunting permits.' Gone are “management zones” setting deer overwinter population goals, gone are free tags & $2 tags in highly populated or CWD areas; gone are landowner deer tags, gone is registering your deer at the local bar or convenience store.

Hunters tell me: change the rules, make it hard to get public tags, expensive to hunt in private land and leave folks on their own to register a deer? Isn’t this asking for trouble?"

The response to the comment above?

Anon: Mark Bye nailed it. All those rural white male voters that voted for Walker are getting what they voted for. They just never cared to understand what they were voting for. Time to let the chickens come home to roost.

Mark Bye: Hell, I don't hunt and even *I* get it.

Steve Hanson: I'm not a hunter, but I own property on which others hunt. I have to admit to being TOTALLY bamboozled by how complex the new rules are. And the folks hunting here are just as bewildered. 

Deer hunters left the sport in droves after chronic wasting disease spread through Wisconsin like a California wildfire. Wisconsin State Journal Nov, 2015:

Fear of eating CWD-tainted venison initially scared many hunters and made owners of hunting land in southern Wisconsin concerned that their property would lose value if the hunt died off, said Jeff Schinkten, national president of Whitetails Unlimited.

But instead of fighting the disease like neighboring states, Scott Walker hired a Deer Czar who couldn’t wait to play down the threat with massive defunding and anti-science opinions.
________________________________________________________________________________

Fast forward to now. Guess what?

JS: Hunters registered 195,738 deer for the 2017 Wisconsin gun deer season, down about 1% from 2016 and the second-lowest total in 35 years, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Department of Natural Resources.

Hunter participation also was down. The agency sold 588,387 gun licenses, a drop of 10,420 from 2016 and the lowest in 41 years.

It was just the second time since 1976 that fewer than 600,000 licenses were sold for the nine-day season.

Here's the latest on the problem with CWD, from WPT's Here and Now:

With deer hunting season underway, Ron Seely, a freelance journalist and lecturer at UW-Madison, discusses the issues arising from Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). According to Seely, new research shows that the diseased can linger in soil. Over the years, DNR-led efforts to monitor and manage CWD have seen a dramatic decline in testing, and have yet to provide a clear picture of how prevalent the disease is overall. Yet even limited data points to a growing problem — as the state tests fewer deer over time, it finds more and more animals infected with this always fatal disease. At the same time, evidence is mounting that CWD, caused by infectious proteins called prions, could jump the species barrier to humans.

Gaming the System? You bet, and it looks like a few deer hunting mentors attributed deer kills to babies and kids under 5:

On the heels of a law change that eliminated the state's minimum hunting age, 10 Wisconsin hunting licenses were sold this month to children under the age of 1, according to data released Tuesday (Nov. 28) by the Department of Natural Resources.

It's not known whether any of the infants actually participated in any way in the hunt ... they could have been used to register a deer killed by another hunter. The low-priced, first-time mentored hunting licenses carry all the harvest authorizations of a similar adult license. One deer was registered to a 4-year-old hunter, and seven deer were registered to 5-year-olds, according to DNR records The harvest records don't indicate who killed the deer.

In all, 52 hunting licenses were purchased this month for hunters ages 5 and under, according to the DNR.

CWD Deer Hunting Season off to a Great Start...eat up.

Hunter beware, buyer beware...hell, beware of life in general because public safety is no longer the intrusive governments responsibility. Man-up!

Deer hunting season is here, as hunters march out into our endangered wilderness with CWD infected deer. Don't worry, we don't think human ingestion of CWD infected venison will kill you.

Hunter Beware: What you don't know will Kill You: In the "bad is good" Bizarro World of Republican politics, who cares about the spread of brain killing prions:

The country's prion disease surveillance center that looks for new brain disorders potentially caused by eating meat from infected animals, would lose all of its federal funding and cease operations under President Donald Trump's proposed fiscal 2018 budget.

The disease is in the same family as chronic wasting disease (CWD), which is endemic in Wisconsin's deer herd. The loss in funding would come at a time of heightened concern over whether chronic wasting disease can infect people. Recent research showed that it could infect monkeys that were fed venison from infected deer. At the same time, the number of Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases has jumped substantially nationally and especially in Wisconsin, where chronic wasting disease has now been identified in wild deer in 18 counties. 

Seriously, Republicans are counting on their surreal efforts to popularize hunting by distracting hunters away from the dangers of feeding CWD infected venison to their entire family. Anyone aware of the warnings...nope. If they really wanted to bring deer hunting back, get rid of CWD? Doh! Now even kids can hunt sick deer:

The disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a family that includes scrapie as well as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (both of which are fatal to humans) … health experts, including at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, have long issued strong advice against eating venison from CWD-positive animals. "Venison from deer harvested inside the CWD Management Zone should not be consumed or distributed to others until CWD test results on the sources deer are known to be negative."

Scott Walker again, Missing in Action: Like the prisons and veterans home debacle, Walker won't participate in, or allow a photo op, tying him to the real festering problems eating away at our state that only government can improve. 

Chronic wasting disease has arrived in Wisconsin's deer factory. State officials announced two CWD-positive white-tailed deer were found at a Waupaca County shooting preserve. The two CWD-positive bucks represented the first findings of the fatal deer disease in the central Wisconsin deer hunting hotbed.

Worse yet, the state agency with authority over captive cervid facilities - the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection - isn't doing anything to snuff it out ... it appears the DNR has lost its will to combat CWD. And the state's agriculture and consumer protection agency has clearly sided with the business interests in the deer farming industry.

"I've been dreading this day," said Todd Schill, 55, of Waupaca who has deer hunted in the county for 40 years. "I didn't buy hunting land here to be next to CWD."

Welcome to "small government" deregulation. Again, maybe stopping CWD will bring hunting back: 

Jan. 4th, 2017: Notably, hunter participation also was down. The agency sold 598,867 gun licenses, a 40-year low and the first time the number has dipped below 600,000 since 1976. Hunters registered 196,785 deer during the 2016 Wisconsin gun deer season, the lowest total in 34 years. A longer term solution may involve looking beyond user fees ... (fees have the) potential to harm state efforts aimed at reversing a decline in hunting ... The DNR outlined other alternatives that include cuts to wildlife and fish-stocking programs and new efforts to attract more people to hunting and fishing.

Voluntary testing is available...voluntary, what could go wrong there?

Guys with Guns, what could go Wrong? While Republicans remove any kind of firearm training, responsible gun owners are rising to the challenge, it's just going to take going through a few growing pains first.

Good responsible gun owners don't need no training, they're the real Americans, carrying on the hunting tradition...let's see now, day 1...

Three hunters shot and wounded themselves Saturday. A 49-year-old man shot himself in the right ankle. A 51-year-old man in Shawano County shot himself in the leg when he bent over and his holstered handgun fired. And in Forest County, a 49-year-old Crandon man was sitting in the cab of his truck when he saw a deer around 9 a.m. When he attempted to move his rifle, it went off, sending a bullet through his legs and the truck’s seat and door.

Walker's DNR turns Deer Hunting into regulatory nightmare of borders and tags.

Sorry to say, but my bleeding heart liberalism no longer extends to areas negatively affecting conservative strongholds and issues. It will be hard to sit on the sidelines watching rural schools die and hunters participate in destroying their own recreational sport, but it’s what conservative voters wanted and I we have to respect that.

And for a party that convulses at the thought of over-regulation, from assistance to recreational hunting, they’ve got no problem with the Rube Goldberg mishmash of hoops and rules to do the simplest things. 

  

Case in point, the following editorial by State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout about the DNR’s new hunting guidelines:

Sen. K. Vinehout-Uppity Wisconsin: Deer hunters taking to the woods in Wisconsin are facing a slew of new hunting rules. Hunters will experience the long-talked-about rules of the Texan ‘Deer Czar’ James Kroll. In the DNR’s words, the new rules change the “season framework, management units and antlerless deer hunting permits.”

Gone are “management zones” setting deer overwinter population goals. Gone are free tags & $2 tags in highly populated or CWD areas; gone are landowner deer tags. Soon-to-be gone is registering your deer at the local bar or convenience store. Next year all registration will be on-line. Tags are more expensive (6 times more expensive), limited, and depend on whether you hunt a private or public area.

Many times Secretary Cathy Stepp repeated, “The rules have changed, but the tradition remains.”

Hunters whom I've spoken with wonder if all we’ll have years from now is the fond memory of what used to be Wisconsin’s very equal deer hunting tradition. Store owners are worried folks won’t stop for coffee and a doughnut if they register deer on-line.

Hunters tell me: change the rules, make it hard to get public tags, expensive to hunt in private land and leave folks on their own to register a deer? Isn’t this asking for trouble?

Here are a few responses to the guy who commented with the picture below, who by the way, said he wasn't a hunter. Brilliant:

Anon: Mark Bye nailed it. All those rural white male voters that voted for Walker are getting what they voted for. They just never cared to understand what they were voting for. Time to let the chickens come home to roost.

Mark Bye: Hell, I don't hunt and even *I* get it.

Steve Hanson: I'm not a hunter, but I own property on which others hunt. I have to admit to being TOTALLY bamboozled by how complex the new rules are. And the folks hunting here are just as bewildered. 

The most revealing was this comment showing the DNR's real influence:

lufthase: I just happened to catch the DNR's "Deer Hunt 2014" program because it came on right after the Milwaukee Bucks game (ironic programming choice), and I noticed that the host and a number of presenters chose to wear Safari Club International hats. This seemed a bit odd for a DNR-produced program. Safari Club International is a lobbying organization, and a pretty radical one at that-- they promote trophy hunting, canned hunts, hounding bears/wolves, and oppose endangered species protections. Stranger still, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp appeared on the program wearing a vest that prominently featured the logo of Wern Valley game farm - offering canned hunts for which no hunting license is required (but a $1,195 annual membership is), according to their website.

Here's an edited clip of the show promoting the Safari Club International and the Wern Valley game farm (their ad too). Special thanks to lufthase for the help:



The DNR "doesn't expect you to remember all these changes," you know, making the hunting experience supposedly so much easier. But bigger problems should be addressed, as lufthase suggests in the comments:

Now, the question is will Sec. Stepp be held accountable? She was performing an official function as a state employee and promoting an interest group and a private corporation. And there's also the question of whether Stepp paid for the vest herself or received it as a gift, which would be a(nother) no-no.

Walker's career record Repair Campaign slaps together a quick plan to control CWD, after hunting took another hit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Scott Walker owns the spread of CWD and the decline of Wisconsin's deer hunting tradition statewide.

I've been covering the out-of-control spread of CWD in Wisconsin for years. I've pointed out that deer hunting isn't down because the hunting age didn't include babies or that hunting in parks and around schools was off-limits, it had more to do with Chronic Wasting Disease. We can thank Scott Walker's deregulated, voluntary, "common sense," unscientific management of the deer population.

...promote voluntary landowner surveillance testing permits, encourage the reporting of "sick deer" at the local level...

and...

...Allowed deer herd growth favored by hunters in areas with chronic wasting disease despite the advice of some scientists who say less deer density will slow the disease’s spread.

Scott Walker's Sudden "better-late-than-never" reelection Year Solution for CWD: One-by-one Walker is trying to cross off every ignored policy failure. Ain't happenin'.

Walker's critics were right about what should have been done. It turned out the Democrats weren't spewing hate and partisan attacks like he said they were.

From the governor who pulled state funding for road kill removal, we just saw this report:

Avid hunter and Oneida County Deer Advisory Committee (CDAC) Vice Chairman Roger Sabota said, "It's bad, but we're going to get through it. If we get more people concerned with it, we get some people with professional backgrounds involved with it... A lot of our businesses are dependent on hunters."

Walker might have also got a whiff of this on Feb 21, 2018:

The Tomahawk meeting (came) just a month after CWD was found in a wild deer in Lincoln County. It was killed in between Rhinelander and Tomahawk and it is the only wild one in North Central Wisconsin testing positive for CWD. "Obviously I'm concerned," said Jim Blankenhein, who lives just a few miles from where the deer was killed. "It makes me a little nervous." Blankenhein was one of about 50 people who showed up to the meeting. When it's been established in a population for any length of time, population's really drop off," said Chuck McCullough, a DNR Wildlife Supervisor. "If you have CWD in a population of wild deer it seems like it's a one-way trip downhill."

WPR came out with these two reports yesterday (Tuesday, May 2). Walker's panicky CWD plan, which doesn't exist yet, maybe finalized sometime before hunting season. But like before, Walker is calling for meetings, volunteer work and finally putting in place rules critics have been begging for the last 8 years. But it still doesn't measure up. Walker also mentioned his old plan, suggesting there was one...not really (audio):

Walker said the new rules will ... compliment a state CWD response plan initiated in 2010. "We need to protect Wisconsin’s hunting traditions and long-standing heritage by working together to contain the spread of chronic wasting disease in deer." How has that worked out so far?

Scott Loomans, policy initiatives advisor for DNR Secretary Dan Meyers, said "We’ll be working this summer to get rules in place for the hunting season this fall ... We have regulations currently but they’ve kind of become out of date." Loomans said that’s because current law allows hunters to move carcasses from places that have a high prevalence of CWD.

Increased surveillance, increased sampling, carcass movement restrictions and local community involvement are just some the goals outlined in the recently updated Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources CWD Response Plan. The plan, part of Gov. Scott Walker's Chronic Wasting Disease Initiative ... will be the guide for CWD response and management over the next five years. 

Walker's CWD Disaster Explained: I had to include Patrick Durkin's comprehensive article on how Walker has botched something so important. And yes, private business interests played a part:

Two wild deer far outside Wisconsin’s endemic zone for chronic wasting disease tested positive last week for the always-fatal disease, and yet the Department of Natural Resources downplayed the news in press releases, emphasizing instead that the discoveries renewed baiting and feeding bans for the areas.The new CWD cases were reported April 18 in Eau Claire County and April 20 in Oneida County. Both were those counties’ first CWD cases in wild deer.

Then again, downplaying CWD has been the DNR’s game-plan since Gov. Scott Walker took office in January 2011. Gov. Walker quickly entrusted Wisconsin’s deer management to Greg Kazmierski by appointing him to the Natural Resources Board, which sets DNR policy.

Kazmierski owns and operates Buck Rub Outfitters in Pewaukee, an archery/bowhunting pro shop and manufacturer. Kaz frequently fusses that publicly discussing CWD hurts tourism and makes hunters go elsewhere or quit hunting.

Case in point: When Tami Ryan, the DNR’s wildlife health section chief, spoke at the DNR Board’s Feb. 28 meeting, she reported that an Iowa County study found CWD-infected deer dying at three times the rate of healthy deer. Instead of probing such findings, Kazmierski fretted that DNR data and terminology make Wisconsin’s CWD status sound worse than necessary.

Kaz urged the agency to quit using the word “affected” for counties within 10 miles of a CWD case. He suggests labeling them “watch counties” so folks don’t confuse “affected” with “infected.” Board member Fred Prehn chimed in, saying many CWD-affected counties have never had a deer test positive.

Sigh. How can we declare any county CWD-free when the DNR hasn’t conducted widespread systematic testing in over a decade?

Walker's attack on DNR endangers Hunting, outdoor recreation and forestry...that's a jobs plan?

All the pieces are fitting neatly together now, with this plan:

jsonline: Walker is calling for a thirteen-year suspension of Wisconsin's popular, bi-partisan program to acquire important habitat, wetlands, trails, and forests for public recreation.

This piles on what Walker put in place his first year in office:

A law Walker has signed ordering the DNR to sell 10,000 acres of public lands (by 2017).

So we should have seen this coming. Welcome to my epiphany:

LODI WI INFO Apr. 2012: According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.” These are just two insights into the man who has been asked to provide analysis and recommended changes to Wisconsin’s deer management program.
 People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. 

So to fight socialism, it makes sense to call for a moratorium on the states Stewardship Program. Walker doesn't want these commie, cocktail conservationists wildlife ghettos all over the state.

And for those tweeting trolls who've blasted me for my heavy criticism of Walker's anti-science, do
what feels good public opinion driven deer management disaster, he just took the "public" out too. Serves them right:

The budget calls for ending the department's oversight by its long-standing public body, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board. his budget ends as well the authority of two DNR-related panels of citizens and local officials.

Yesterday, Sen. Tom Tiffany deferred to the expectations of his "constituents" desires, not those pesky scientists. Tiffany seems to think his constituents aren't that smart:

Tiffany: "If you talk to my constituents here in northern Wisconsin, there's probably not one in a thousand that know what the Bureau of Science Services does, and doesn't bring value to the taxpayers."

So get rid of it? For those conservative trolls who thought Walker was doing a great job, Tiffany's got bad news for you, going back two years; "In northern Wisconsin, the deer hunt has been a disaster." Thanks for making my point.

In one of the most jaw dropping interview disasters ever, Tiffany let's it all hang out. WPT's Here and Now:



I liked this insightful comment left on my YouTube page:

You know, there is probably not one in 100,000 of your constituents who know what the hell a heart surgeon "actually does" either. I say let's get rid of them too. Tom you dumb bastard, this is what is called a "race to the bottom." Just breathtakingly stupid. 

And could we do away with this "unelected bureaucrats" BS? Those bureaucrats are approved by ELECTED politicians and the governor, so in fact, someone is accountable.

Walker's lack of action last year was evident:

WPR news: DNR Is Unlikely To Act As Deer Herd Faces Possible Starvation: Minnesota Starts Emergency Deer Feeding Fund, But Wisconsin's DNR Can't Follow Suit Without Legislative Approval.

Or this brilliant irresponsible unnecessary move:

The state Department of Natural Resources proposes moving to online and telephone reporting as soon as this fall.  DNR officials warn they could lose detailed biological data on the state’s herd and tissue samples used to test for chronic wasting disease.

Even against overwhelming opposition, hunting in some parks was allowed, based on this Walker lackey, Cathy Stepp:

AP: A state board voted to limit a new law expanding hunting rights in state parks ... after Wisconsin residents said they wouldn't feel safe visiting parks where hunters might be active. The Sporting Heritage Bill (would have) allowed hunting in virtually all state parks and state trails. DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said the board should remember that lawmakers passed the law with the intent that hunting be expanded. “Ours is not to debate what the elected officials decided,” she said.

Or this post:

Sen. K. Vinehout-Uppity Wisconsin: Deer hunters taking to the woods in Wisconsin are facing a slew of new hunting rules … the new rules change the “season framework, management units and antlerless deer hunting permits.”

Gone are “management zones,” setting deer overwinter population goals. Gone are free tags & $2 tags in highly populated or CWD areas; gone are landowner deer tags. Soon-to-be gone is registering your deer at the local bar or convenience store. Next year all registration will be on-line. Tags are more expensive (6 times more expensive), limited, and depend on whether you hunt a private or public area.

Hunters whom I've spoken with wonder if all we’ll have years from now is the fond memory of what used to be Wisconsin’s very equal deer hunting tradition. Hunters tell me: change the rules, make it hard to get public tags, expensive to hunt in private land and leave folks on their own to register a deer? Isn’t this asking for trouble?

This comment:

Steve Hanson: I'm not a hunter, but I own property on which others hunt. I have to admit to being TOTALLY bamboozled by how complex the new rules are. And the folks hunting here are just as bewildered. 

Citified Madison Republican Politicians Mismanage, Destroy Wisconsin's Hunting Tradition.

I don’t hunt, so it’s kind of odd that I continue to cover the Republican mess created around Wisconsin’s deer hunting tradition. Here's a link to all my coverage.

Our throwback Republicans seem to think we’re on the cusp of a deer hunting renaissance. These are the same guys who feel that way about coal, which should put things in perspective for you.

Registering deer online was inevitable, you can’t fight progress. But Republican voters with businesses directly affected, small town bars and convenience stores that continue to manually register deer, got the shaft again by their own party. Business is down again. Pair that with Wisconsin’s fading hunting tradition, and you’ve got another reason to resent the government, but still reelect the same bumbling losers.

1. “We’ve lost thousands of dollars in food and liquor sales,” said Lisa Wynn, a cook at Harryz Boondocks in the Jefferson County hamlet of Hubbleton, just off of Highway 19 midway between Waterloo and Watertown. “We don’t have as many hunters coming in or people coming in to just look at the deer. Now, they shoot a deer and go home and mow the lawn or something.”

2. At the Schellter Bar & Grill in Leland, a farming community near Natural Bridge State Park and about 14 miles west of Prairie du Sac, LeRoy and Connie Schell (saw it this way), “I don’t like the fact that they messed with the tradition of the nine-day hunt and the registration but we still have people coming in and showing their deers off, even if they’re not in the contest.”

3. Mike Meixelsperger of Plain who works in information technology, said he understands why the registration change was made but says the system is still more difficult than in-person registration. “It was easy just to come in and the guys here would come out, check everything out for you and you were done,” Meixelsperger said. “It has totally wrecked the experience.”

4. Emil Diehl, who has owned the bar for 38 years, said “I’d say our business is down 40 percent.”

It also didn’t help downplaying science and playing up those anecdotal wish lists by the zaniest of avid hunters. Is the move to game farming just around the corner? Throw in the updated list of convoluted regulations from our small government Republicans, is anyone surprised to see our hunting tradition fade from the landscape? DNR Sec. Cathy Stepp tried to sell hunting reform in 2014 while everyone wore game farm vests, hats and stuff. The game farm ad is oddly included. Hint, hint:

In the DNR’s words, the new rules change the “season framework, management units and antlerless deer hunting permits.” Gone are “management zones” setting deer overwinter population goals. Gone are free tags & $2 tags in highly populated or CWD areas; gone are landowner deer tags ... gone is registering your deer at the local bar or convenience store. Tags are more expensive (6 times more expensive), limited, and depend on whether you hunt a private or public area.

Steve Hanson: "I'm not a hunter, but I own property on which others hunt. I have to admit to being TOTALLY bamboozled by how complex the new rules are. And the folks hunting here are just as bewildered."

With CWD on the rise and scientists now thinking it’s possible for human infection, Republicans have decided to go back and “study” the problem. In other words, see ya later suckers. 

Kleefisch Crossbow Madness another Lazy Conservative Shortcut to Kill Deer, shorten Season?

The Walker Authority's deer and hunting policy is in shambles, and isn't getting the kind of press it should. 

With another lousy hunting season behind us (15% decline in harvest), a broken Walker promise to put more deer in the forests, deer herds dwindling, ridiculous public input on deer counts, expanded hunting in state parks, doing away with reporting deer kills at local bars/convenience stores/DNR stations, a White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll who says people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism,” promote hunting via the fake Koch brothers "United Sportsman" group, and the expansion of private hunting permits that may exacerbate the low deer counts, we've now got to worry about the effects of crossbow hunting mania.

Are bow hunters looking at the expanded crossbow hunting law as another misstep that could have negative unintended consequences? Could be. 

Typically shortsighted Republican Rep. Joel Kleefisch pushed through his lazy crossbow law without any attempt to think things through. Even worse, crossbow hunters got an exemption "from a state law that prohibits hunting within 1,700 feet of a school or hospital." To sell his idea, Kleefisch renamed his crossbow hunting "Assembly Bill 8" to the "Deer Collision Reduction Act." Now I feel better about it.

   

Check out the following hunters point of view regarding crossbow hunting. WPR: 

Bill Herrmann of Chippewa Falls, who has been bow hunting for 50 years, said that the accuracy of crossbows gives them a huge advantage over traditional bows, and that he expects high deer kills to eventually lead to shorter crossbow seasons.

Herrmann also said he doesn’t expect many bowhunters to switch over to crossbows just because they’re now able to. “The people that are in archery are dedicated archers. They’re not going to be using crossbows,” Herrmann said. “The people that are going to be using crossbows are the people who don’t want to put in the time and effort to learn how to shoot a bow.”

That describes our lazy, freeloading, public dole Republican lawmakers perfectly. After all, whose got all that time to hunt anymore? 

Republicans, the party so closely tied to guns, hunting and promoting the great outdoors, exposed as city folk fakes.

Another phony marketing image exposed.

And who can forget the United Sportsmen’s debacle, where a Koch front group of political lobbyists tried to sell themselves off as hunting and fishing enthusiast? Since when is the Republican Party of elites, big money, big corporate donors, billionaires, the NRA, and Wall Street wimps concerned about hunting?

Exposed: What else could explain the jaw dropping disconnect between Wisconsin’s hunting tradition and the clueless recommendation by Scott Walker’s deer czar from Texas; register deer kills via the internet; smart phones and home computers.
  

Hunters Outraged:

WSJ: Wisconsin deer hunters have for decades hauled their kills to roadside taverns or gas stations to be counted, hanging around after the work was done to slug beers, swap stories and show off their trophies … the state Department of Natural Resources proposes moving to online and telephone reporting as soon as this fall.

Gov. Scott Walker’s deer adviser, Texas researcher James Kroll, proposed the switch as a way to tally kills faster, save money and make registration more convenient for hunters. But tavern and convenience store owners who for 70 years have relied on registration to draw in hunters worry about the loss of business, and DNR officials warn they could lose detailed biological data on the state’s herd and tissue samples used to test for chronic wasting disease.

Republican legislators see hunters as just voting guys with guns, who should be their lifelong friends because of a concealed carry law, which had nothing to do with hunting.

“It affects the culture. It affects the local economy,” said Lee Fahrney, a deer hunter and spokesman for the Conservation Congress, a group of sportsmen that advises the DNR on policy. “It just affects the whole social underpinnings of the annual deer hunt.” Currently, there are 626 places hunters can go to register their kills, including DNR-run stations, taverns and convenience stores. DNR workers staff 100 or so stations during the popular nine-day November gun hunt to collect age and gender data from deer, and tissue samples for chronic wasting disease testing. The agency uses data from that hunt and others to tally kills, track buck mortality and gender ratios, and assess deer health and antler characteristics. The new rules would eliminate in-person registration across all deer seasons in an effort to maximize savings.

The $182,000 Hunting tradition to costly for state?

Wanda Dogs, who has been registering deer for 15 years at Dog House Tavern in Elroy, predicted the switch would hurt business. “Deer hunting’s a national holiday around here,” she said. “Lot of money you could stand to lose. It helps the whole community, not only our station, but it helps everybody when you have these hunters about. They run to the stores, they run to get gas.”

The incredible insult:

The DNR report suggested business owners could still attract hunters by offering them the use of a computer to complete online registration.

Goodbye Tradition:

“Sometimes when you pull into a registration station and you see a crowd around a vehicle you can bet there is something special,” Stan Brownell, a Sparta deer hunter and Conservation Congress executive council member, wrote in an email to Fahrney. “Maybe a neighbor or someone you know hunts in the same area and they get something special and you see that and hopes arise for future deer hunts for your kids.”

The board’s chairman, Preston Cole, said, “There’s a whole culture that has evolved around showing up around the deer-check station.”

Walker's desperate Deer Hunting revival efforts helping kill time honored sport besides changing times.

Who could blame Scott Walker for desperately trying to create a manufacturing renaissance by spending $3 billion of taxpayer money to bring Foxconn to Wisconsin?

The Walker Authority has been trying to do the same for deer hunting, but without the $3 billion handed out to deer hunters. Well, how about another hairbrained hunting gimmick no one really asked for:

Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill on Nov. 13 eliminating the minimum age for participating in a mentored hunt. According to the data, 1,454 of the mentored hunt licenses authorized children younger than nine to hunt.

So what was the end result?

Hunters killed nearly 14,000 fewer deer during opening weekend of Wisconsin’s nine-day gun deer season this year than last. Hunters registered 102,903 deer from Saturday through Sunday compared with 116,615 deer during opening weekend in 2016. That’s a decrease of 11.8 percent.

The opening weekend buck kill also was down, from 64,828 last year to 59,142 this year.

Unfortunately, our now chaotically understaffed crony filled DNR is giving the impression they're hiding something:

Hunters purchased fewer licenses (about 5,000 less) heading into the opening days of Wisconsin's traditional nine-day gun deer season than last year.  The DNR sold 582,281 licenses down slightly from 587,440 sold through the Sunday of opening weekend in 2016. The DNR ... didn’t offer a specific figure or clarify whether those licenses included archery licenses or licenses for other gun deer seasons.

I personally love the tradition myself, but seriously, when you don't even try to control Chronic Wasting Disease and then have the balls to tell people it's okay to eat venison despite recent scientific data...well, what do you expect? This is "small government" style management, and it doesn't instill a lot of confidence. Not to mention Americans having less time to get away and the competition from video games that let kids accomplish pretty much the same thing over and over without freezing to death.

They've tried every reckless dumbass idea with no success:

Crossbow hunters got an exemption "from a state law that prohibits hunting within 1,700 feet of a school or hospital." To sell his idea, Kleefisch renamed his crossbow hunting "Assembly Bill 8" to the "Deer Collision Reduction Act."

Don't laugh, that new name may have helped the bill become law. But that wasn't the only effort...

Teenagers could learn in school how to safely handle firearms under a bill introduced last week by Republican lawmakers ... as an elective.

Why? Gun indoctrination and gun industry profits...:

The bill was created with help from trap club coaches and officials overseeing state clay target programs and gun club owners.

Is this a Gun Marketing Plan Targeting Kids, or a sports hunting revival? 

Rep. Joel Kleefisch said... the elective course would teach students about the different types of firearms and how they work, how to safely carry and transport firearms and how to engage a safety lock on firearms, among other skills. “The use of a firearm comes with a massive responsibility. In a state where firearms are part of our heritage, entertainment, sustenance...The bottom line is guns are an integral part of Wisconsin society." 

Walker's Hunting, Fishing, Parks Tourism Mess!!!

In a way, I'm loving this. It looks like Wisconsin sportsmen may have to spend more of their hard earned money just to enjoy fishing, hunting and playing with their non-motorized watercraft such as canoes and kayaks.

State Parks: Never-mind the other growing deficit, our state parks system, a Scott Walker created disaster as well. Odder still is how Republicans brag about park attendance being up, despite higher fees. I'm just guessing, but that means the problem is even worse than we thought:

Republicans removed all state support for Wisconsin’s parks in the 2015 budget, leaving the parks to survive on fees alone. They raised admission and camping fees ... but the DNR still projects the lack of state support will leave a $1.4 million annual deficit in the agency’s parks account.

Hunting and Fishing: Now, after Scott Walker dramatically cut the size of the DNR, they're facing a $5 million budget shortfall.

A $5 million budget shortfall could be fixed temporarily through higher prices for hunting and fishing licenses, new admission charges for non-hunters using natural areas, new registration fees for paddlers, and a smaller annual boosts tied to inflation.

Yup, one of the states biggest bragging points, tourism and outdoor sports, could soon be priced out reach for your average Wisconsinite. And this is only the beginning of the problem. These shortfalls will only keep growing as the state moves from a state supported funding system to an individual user fee, which as anybody can tell you, is much more expensive.  

Scientifically conducted household surveys in 2016 found that a majority of the public would support having everyone pay something for fish and wildlife management, the report said ... others collect sales tax or lottery revenue dedicated to wildlife management, the report said. 

You may want to get your owned framed copy of the following policy statement so often reported in the media, because to tightwad Republicans its an oldie but a goodie: 

The Legislature has resisted requests from the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation for higher fees, and Walker has opposed tax or fee increases unless they are paired with decreases in other budget lines.

Walker's Deer Hunting Debacle: I've been covering this for awhile now, and ever since Walker brought in a Texas "deer czar" pushing game farms, and not science, deer hunting has hit the skids. Nothings working guys, hunting near schools, in local parks, getting rid of the minimum age to hunt, blaze pink clothing, nothing. Funnier still, the DNR blamed the "cold" and "wind" for the low turnout of our rugged outdoors-men: 

Notably, hunter participation also was down. The agency sold 598,867 gun licenses, a 40-year low and the first time the number has dipped below 600,000 since 1976. Hunters registered 196,785 deer during the 2016 Wisconsin gun deer season, the lowest total in 34 years.

What can be done?

A longer term solution may involve looking beyond user fees ... (fees have the) potential to harm state efforts aimed at reversing a decline in hunting ... The DNR outlined other alternatives that include cuts to wildlife and fish-stocking programs and new efforts to attract more people to hunting and fishing.

Cuts to wildlife and fish-stocking seems counter-intuitive, ya think. 

Walker Targets Conservative NRA, Gun Toting Deer Hunters.

I'm a little late on this story, but better late than....anyway, it appears those NRA, conservative gun happy deer hunters in our state will be the next target of our special corporatists version of "freedom" and "liberty."

And they thought they had some kind of party protection. Ha! 

“Public Game Management Is The Last Bastion Of Communism” Dr.James Kroll-Walker Appointed Deer Trustee!! by LODI WI INFO on APRIL 17, 2012

According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism. ”These are just two insights into the man who has been asked to provide analysis and recommended changes to Wisconsin’s deer management program. Kroll’s insights are from an article entitled “Which Side of the Fence Are You On?” by Joe Nick Patoski for a past edition of Texas Monthly.

If nothing more, the article gives an unabashed look into the mind-set that will be providing the Wisconsin DNR with recommendations on how to change their deer management practices. Here’s a sample of the article:

“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.

Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years … People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.

A trip to South Africa six years ago convinced Kroll … he encountered areas of primitive, lush wildlife-rich habitats called game ranches. They were privately owned, privately managed, and enclosed by high fences. He noticed how most of the land outside those fences had been grazed to the nub, used up. “Game ranches there derive their income from these animals — viewing them, hunting them, selling their meat,” he says. “There are no losers.” At his own ranch Kroll has set up a smaller version.

In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists. “That has given landowners more freedom,” Kroll told Texas Monthly. The key difference here is that 98 percent of Texas is comprised of private land.

Wisconsin, on the other hand, consists of approximately 34.8 million acres of land, and 25.5 percent of the state’s 638,000 gun-hunters reported hunting on public land at some point during the season … more than 5.7 million acres of this land, or 16.5 percent, is publicly owned and used for parks, forests, trails, and natural resource protection. 

Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”

Scott Walker serving up the Deer Hunter treat: Diseased Venison

Long before Scott Walker destroyed and basically dismantled the DNR, he went out and hired a game farm advocate to break Wisconsin away from our traditional deer management practices to hunter driven policy based on demand and pet peeves. 

This can be a serious problem when you're trying to control the spread of chronic wasting disease. Anyone want to eat venison contaminated with it?

I've been blogging about this for some time (search CWD in the upper left corner). We're now faced with a nearly out-of-control problem.WPR:

More Wisconsin deer are testing positive for chronic wasting disease ... more than 9

percent, according to state figures. But the number of deer being tested is down from years past ... 3,138 deer, down from 5,465 in 2014. The situation has some lawmakers arguing that the governor and DNR should be more active in fighting the problem.

DNR Wildlife Management Bureau director Tom Hauge (said) hunters didn’t have to visit a deer registration station last hunting season ... (do to) electronic registration system ... funding for testing has also decreased since the disease was first discovered in 2002.

Would you Eat CWD infected Deer? Sure, why not...

A team of researchers from universities in the United States and France say they’ve found new evidence that it’s possible for humans to contract the agents that cause CWD. They injected mice, whose DNA had been modified to resemble humans, with mutated proteins called prions. Testing showed two out of 20 mice tested positive for prion infection.

But former Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Member Dave Clausen advised the results are not cause for alarm. "This study does not mean that human infection is a foregone conclusion," Clausen said. "All it does is demonstrate that it is possible."

That's all it does. Feel better?

Democratic criticism Politics, or actual Criticism? And while Democrats want to deal with this and other problems, they're not being taken seriously, because well they're...the "left." Scott Walker said as much, when he lied about the states commitment, and redefined the Democrats honest fact based criticism as gotcha politics:

Walker said science will drive future deer management decisions – not politics. Walker said the state is committed to a healthy deer herd: "We’re ready and willing to hear their recommendations. They made a call to be more aggressive, but they didn’t give us specifics. If they’ve got specific ideas, we’d be more than happy to work with them or anybody else."

No specifics? Oh god where do we start unpacking that load of BS? First let's see what Walker has done "specifically," besides propose leaving road kill to rot on the side our state highways:

1. The DNR has half the CWD testing budget it had last year.

2. Last year the DNR stopped using the term “CWD management zone” … “In the absence of having any management strategies or tools to deal with it, it is basically an endemic area … endemic means: It’s here to stay.”

3. George Meyer, a former DNR secretary said, “It is going to spread further and further out and eventually ... biologists in the department ... are not allowed to talk about it and not allowed to bring forth proactive measures to deal with it.”

4. The agency will solicit samples at only two locations in southern Wisconsin ... down from between 15 and 20 locations in recent years.

5. Janesville Gazette Xtra: Wisconsin deer farmers can opt out of the state's chronic wasting disease monitoring program without upgrading their fences under an emergency rule the state DNR adopted Wednesday despite concerns the move could spread the disease ... spare deer farmers extra expenses. The DNR recorded 29 escapes this year (2015) alone ... "The DNR fencing requirement is the last safeguard to prevent further CWD contamination of the wild deer herd," Meyer said.

6. Walker says Gov. Jim Doyle and the DNR have engaged in "political games" and "put bureaucrats in Madison ahead of hunters of the state."

7. Trustee Dr. James Kroll said people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”

8. AP: A state board voted to limit a new law ... The Sporting Heritage Bill ... expanding hunting rights in state parks ... after Wisconsin residents said they wouldn't feel safe ... DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said the board should remember that lawmakers passed the law with the intent that hunting be expanded. “Ours is not to debate what the elected officials decided,” she said.

As for the Democrats offering specific ways to deal with CWD? Well, other state's are doing just the opposite of Scott Walker:

1. DNR Is Unlikely To Act As Deer Herd Faces Possible Starvation: Minnesota Starts Emergency Deer Feeding Fund, But Wisconsin's DNR Can't Follow Suit Without Legislative Approval.

2. In Illinois, where officials continued to reduce the herd in diseased areas, there has been no increase, University of Illinois researchers found in a 2014 study. The prevalence of the disease is much lower in northern Illinois, where targeted sharpshooting has been used by Illinois wildlife officials since 2002. The prevalence rate is under 1% in Illinois' 12-county CWD area. In 2007, the DNR defended the use of sharpshooters as an "efficient and effective tool in reducing deer numbers and removing diseased deer," because the shooters were killing more antlerless deer than hunters were.

Another Walker Broken Promise: "Put more deer in the forest." Walker can't blame Doyle....

What, deer numbers are declining? Yes, we saw low deer numbers going into the 2013 hunting season, a hot issue for Scott Walker, candidate. That can't help bring in tourism dollars.

Rewind to Sept. 2, 2010 jsonline:

Remember the outrage...?

Walker called for an independent auditor to monitor the health and population of deer, saying a third party is needed because many hunters had lost faith in how the Department of Natural Resources manages the herd. Barrett and Neumann said it was needless expense … Walker said as governor he would take politics out of deer management with a so-called "whitetail deer trustee." DNR wildlife staff said a "gag" order exists in the department regarding the position.

Walker also pledged to "put more deer in the forest" … Like many hunters, Walker said he got tired of standing in a tree stand last season and not seeing deer. Walker said he has been hunting for three or four years and has not killed a deer.

Mark Toso, president of the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association said Walker is "trying to feed off of anti-DNR sentiment" and frustration among hunters.

Declining deer numbers Under Walker…oops! Looks like that's a BROKEN PROMISE. Blame the harsh winter … for the last 3 years?

The Wisconsin DNR is asking people to report any dead deer they see as the agency works to track the harsh winter's toll on the state herd.

Scott Walker is getting a big pass on an issue he blamed Gov. Jim Doyle for during his campaign for governor:

Walker says Gov. Jim Doyle and the state Department of Natural Resources have engaged in "political games" and "put bureaucrats in Madison ahead of hunters of the state." Walker claimed that the "deer population has dwindled" as a result of "mismanagement" by Doyle and the DNR.

Excuses excuses? 

Last year's significant snow and cold that persisted into May resulted in lower deer numbers going into the 2013 fall seasons … antlerless permit numbers at their lowest levels since the 1990s.

Can’t blame former Gov. Jim Doyle for this DNR failure and deer herd management disaster:

…in northern Wisconsin, where deer numbers have been declining. DNR officials anticipate no antlerless permits or extremely limited numbers of antlerless permits in many northern counties this fall to help the herd recover.

You can thank our “deer whisperer” from Texas, privateer and "white tail deer trustee" James Kroll. 

Hunting Reserves and Game Farms in Wisconsin's Future? Yes.

I noticed this odd item inserted into the new budget that should concern deer hunters everywhere in the state.

Exempting sales taxes for deer sold to Wisconsin hunting reserves and game farms totaling $300,000 over two years.

This fits right in with what our deer czar Dr. James Kroll wants for Wisconsin; private deer ranching. Funny thing, he's been pretty much off the radar:

According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” “Game Management is the last bastion of communism.”
 Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.

Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years … People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.

In a post way back when, November 2012, I had this great comment:

lufthase: I just happened to catch the DNR's "Deer Hunt 2014" program because it came on right after the Milwaukee Bucks game (ironic programming choice), and I noticed that the host and a number of presenters chose to wear Safari Club International hats. This seemed a bit odd for a DNR-produced program. Safari Club International is a lobbying organization, and a pretty radical one at that-- they promote trophy hunting, canned hunts, hounding bears/wolves, and oppose endangered species protections. Stranger still, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp appeared on the program wearing a vest that prominently featured the logo of Wern Valley game farm - offering canned hunts for which no hunting license is required (but a $1,195 annual membership is), according to their website.

Here's an edited clip of the show promoting the Safari Club International and the Wern Valley game farm (their ad too). Special thanks to lufthase for the help. This is where we're really headed:

Deer Populations Down, Chronic Wasting Disease Up! Walker and his "Deer Trustee" Mismanage and Hurt Hunting in Wisconsin.

Assuming a majority of hunters lean conservative, why are they letting the Walker Authority mismanage the deer herds in Wisconsin with no apparent blowback?

Our "unintimidated" great white hunter said this when he ran for governor:

Walker says Gov. Jim Doyle and the state Department of Natural Resources have engaged in "political games" and "put bureaucrats in Madison ahead of hunters of the state." Walker claimed that the "deer population has dwindled" as a result of "mismanagement" by Doyle and the DNR.

And once Walker took over, he used every excuse Doyle wasn't allowed to make for low deer numbers:

Last year's significant snow and cold that persisted into May resulted in lower deer numbers going into the 2013 fall seasons … antlerless permit numbers at their lowest levels since the 1990s.

Now chronic wasting disease is spreading due to Walker cutbacks in population control and discontinuing the use of sharpshooters in certain areas of the state:

jsonline: Chronic wasting disease continues to spread in western Dane and Iowa counties, where about 1 in 4 male adult deer is believed to have the fatal deer malady. That's more than double the figure of 2002, when 8% to 10% of adult males had the disease, according to the agency.

By contrast, the prevalence of the disease is much lower in northern Illinois, where targeted sharpshooting has been used by Illinois wildlife officials since 2002. The prevalence rate is under 1% in Illinois' 12-county CWD area. In 2007, the DNR defended the use of sharpshooters as an "efficient and effective tool in reducing deer numbers and removing diseased deer," because the shooters were killing more antlerless deer than hunters were.

So Walker's policies reflect public opinion, and Illinois' policy used wildlife officials research:

Strong public objections (in 2011) prompted the DNR and the Legislature to curtail some control tactics. Sharpshooting was eliminated. So was an early season on antlerless deer. The Legislature eliminated a program known as "Earn a Buck," which required hunters to kill an antlerless deer before earning the right to shoot a buck.

Another example of administrative mismanagement, and more excuses:

The agency cautioned against making year-to-year comparisons because sampling isn't uniform between years. But the long-term trend is clear: The rate of infection is rising ... David Clausen of Amery, a veterinarian who served on the Natural Resources Board until last year, is a proponent of the DNR taking a more aggressive role in trying to control CWD. Clausen expects the prevalence of the disease to increase and spread if "people choose to ignore reality," he said, and continues to balk at measures to reduce deer numbers to help control the disease.

And now this coming from Wisconsin Public Radio news:

DNR Is Unlikely To Act As Deer Herd Faces Possible Starvation: Minnesota Starts Emergency Deer Feeding Fund, But Wisconsin's DNR Can't Follow Suit Without Legislative Approval.