‘Deer czar’ critical of DNR’s population estimate, CWD procedures | wausaudailyherald.com
March 30, 2012
Dr. James Kroll
Todd Richmond
The Associated Press
MADISON — The deer population estimates of Wisconsin’s wildlife officials are flawed; they don’t know enough about how predators affect deer; and they have treated deer in chronic wasting disease zones as pests, according to a report Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “deer czar” released Wednesday.
James Kroll’s study concludes hunters and landowners feel an “intense dissatisfaction” with the Department of Natural Resources and the agency needs a more human touch to rebuild its credibility.
“The WDNR has placed an inordinate emphasis on estimating population goals and establishing population density goals (which commonly are not met), while giving much less emphasis to habitat and people,” the report said.
Frank Coppenhaver, 66, of the town of Texas has hunted deer since he was a kid and usually hunts with both bow and gun near Montello in Marquette County. Coppenhaver said he agrees with Kroll’s conclusion that the DNR suffers from a credibility problem among the public.
“I just feel the DNR should listen more to the landowners and be more receptive to what their ideas are and what their solutions are, instead of being pretty much I-know-it-alls,” he said. Click link below for full story!
Is Wisconsin the Best State for Trophy Deer Hunting? | Outdoor Life
February 15, 2012
Sorry Iowa, Texas and Kansas, Wisconsin is now the best state for trophy deer hunting, at least according to the Boone & Crockett club. The club recently issued a press release stating that the number of trophy deer taken in the Badger State has risen by 857 percent over the last 30 years. And during the last five years (excluding 2011) Wisconsin hunters entered 383 bucks into the book. That’s higher than any other state. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Is Wisconsin the Best State for Trophy Deer Hunting? | Outdoor Life.
Fond du Lac area man’s buck falls short of record | fdlreporter.com
January 30, 2012
Laurie Ritger
For Wisconsinoutdoorfun.com
Hopes for a state record whitetail buck were dashed when scoring for antlers from a Johnsburg man’s buck fell short.
Jeff Weber registered a 15-point typical buck Oct. 6, 2011, at Dutch’s Trading Post in Fond du Lac after spending hours tracking the deer the previous night. Weber was new to bow hunting and the shot at his massive “Weber buck” was the first he had ever taken with a bow.
“It wound up short of the state record,” Weber said of the impressive set of antlers.
Share your trophy buck shots | Browse 2011 trophy shots
Weber had to wait for a 60-day drying period for final measurements on the antlers to be taken. The buck was scored at 173 1/8 inches after deductions were taken. The current Pope & Young bowhunting record is 187 inches, Weber said. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Fond du Lac area man’s buck falls short of record | Fond du Lac Reporter | fdlreporter.com.
Cougar Captured On Camera In Wisconsin | Ashland Current
October 26, 2011
Cougar image courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
A recent photograph of a cougar has been verified as legitimate by two wildlife biologists with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.The photograph, taken in Juneau County, clearly shows a young adult cougar moving against a nighttime background of native grasses. The camera was located a bit more than two miles north of Mauston.Two DNR biologists – Adrian Wydeven and Jon Robaidek – visited the site, interviewed the landowner, checked other photos in sequence on the camera and checked the background in the photograph against the actual location.“It’s obviously a cougar,” Wydeven said of the large, tawny cat in the photograph. “It’s good sized, most likely a young adult.”While it is not possible to determine the gender of the cat using the photograph, Wydeven said it is likely this is a male cougar in search of new territory.This is the seventh time a trail camera has captured a cougar in Wisconsin, although three of these instances probably involved the same cougar. DNR biologists have confirmed the presence of four individual cougars in Wisconsin during the past three years. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Cougar Captured On Camera In Wisconsin | Ashland Current.
The Badger Herald: Earn-A-Buck deer hunting law repealed
October 20, 2011
By Annie Murphy
Hunters in the state would no longer have to shoot an antler-less deer before killing a buck, a policy enforced by the Department of Natural Resources, under a bill recently passed in the Assembly.
On Tuesday, the Assembly voted in favor of a bill which would repeal the Earn-A-Buck Bill, which is now headed to Gov. Scott Walker for final approval. The program is a Wisconsin law that requires deer hunters in specified areas first kill an antler-less deer before they can aim for bucks.
Rep. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said the law was “inconvenient” for trophy hunters who only desired the big antlered bucks.
She also said the law also has had many positive effects, including helping DNR scientists monitor the deer population in Wisconsin to make sure it remains stable.
“Deer hunting is a strong tradition in the state and an important economic driver. Deer hunting in Wisconsin creates more than $1 billion of economic activity annually and supports 16,000 jobs,” Kurt Thiede, an administrator for the Division of Lands in the Department of Natural Resources, said in testimony before the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources.
The DNR estimates the size of the state’s deer population by analyzing the data from the previous year’s deer hunting reports, Thiede said.
Hunters had previously opposed the Earn-a-Buck program, saying it caused disruption to the archery season and required hunters to pass on a trophy buck if the hunter had not had the option to shoot a doe first, he said. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via The Badger Herald: Earn-A-Buck deer hunting law repealed.
Wisconsin hires ‘Dr. Deer’ as trustee – JSOnline
October 4, 2011
By Paul A. Smith of the Journal Sentinel
The Department of Administration has retained James Kroll of Nacogdoches, Texas, as Wisconsin’s white-tailed deer trustee.
Gov. Scott Walker created the position, unprecedented in more than a century of Wisconsin wildlife management, in a Sept. 23 executive order.
Kroll, 64, has cultivated the moniker “Dr. Deer” from his work as a deer management consultant, appearances on hunting shows and as author of articles in hunting magazines. He also is a professor of forest wildlife and director of the Institute for White-tailed Deer Management and Research at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.
Kroll did not respond to requests for a phone interview Monday.
In a Department of Administration news release, Kroll referenced his 30-plus years of deer management experience.
“That, combined with the expertise of staff at the Wisconsin DNR, will provide a solid foundation for a scientifically based review of Wisconsin’s deer management practices,” Kroll said. “In the end, this work will help Wisconsin’s deer hunting tradition to thrive for generations to come.”
Kroll is charged with providing an “independent, objective and scientifically based review of Wisconsin’s deer management practices.” Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Wisconsin hires ‘Dr. Deer’ as trustee – JSOnline.
Hunter’s arrow finds its mark – JSOnline
October 27, 2010
By Paul Smith
Deer may be largest ever taken in Milwaukee County
Kim Acker of Waterford was in her deer stand, feeling a bit fortunate to be fastened to the big old oak tree.
Pushed by strong south winds, the mercury had topped 80 degrees on this late September day.
Now, as the sun started to drop toward the horizon on the Franklin farm, the breeze was still strong enough to waggle some of the sturdy oak limbs and buffet nearby rows of corn.
The experienced bowhunter knew the wind direction, though, was perfect for her quest.
A trail camera had detected a big buck using an adjacent trail; Acker would be downwind of the animal if it took the same route this evening.
Acker, 36, assumed her customary position in the stand: She hung her bow within arm’s reach and waited for the wildlife cinema to unfold.
“I don’t do a lot of thinking,” Acker said. “I just like being out in nature, watching everything that goes on.”
The first two hours on stand had yielded little of note. The wind made it nearly impossible to hear footfalls on the trail; the whipping vegetation made it harder to see wildlife.
But nothing could have obscured the image that appeared minutes before 7 p.m.
As Acker shifted her vision to the left, she was met by the living form she had seen on the trail cam.
“I remember thinking it’s the biggest deer I’ve ever seen,” Acker said. “Then I tried to tell myself to not look at the antlers, just focus on the target.”
A West Allis native, Acker didn’t hunt until she met her husband, Kurt, who introduced her to gun deer hunting 15 years ago.
She has taken to hunting like color to the October woods. She especially likes bowhunting for deer.
“I really like being in nature, watching everything from the stand,” Acker said. “The deer are in their natural movements. And you see so many other things.”
Acker has seen a badger, a fisher and a wolf while bowhunting in Wisconsin.
“How often do people in Wisconsin see a badger?” Kim said. “I would have never seen it if I hadn’t started hunting.”
Over the years Kim had taken three bucks, including a 140-class 8-pointer that hangs in the couple’s basement. She can often be found practicing archery in the family’s Waterford yard. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Hunter’s arrow finds its mark – JSOnline.
Sisters bag bears: DNR learn to hunt program a hit with these girls
September 7, 2010
By AARON HOLBROOK, Editor
Breanna and Michelle Deaver of Fox Lake spent the last weekend of summer on an adventure that will certainly give them plenty to talk about at school.
The two sisters participated in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Learn to Bear Hunt program and both came home with a trophy.
“It’s our first time bear hunting,” said Michelle Deaver, 13, who in less than two years as a hunter has bagged seven deer bow and gun hunting with her dad Chris Deaver.
For Breanna, 10, it was her first chance to harvest big game.
The two had to apply to program in spring. The application process includes an essay and requires that the applicants have less than two years of experience as hunters. DNR personnel select hunters and connect them with guides. Clink Link Below for Full Story!
via Sisters bag bears: DNR learn to hunt program a hit with these girls.
Black bears regain foothold in Wisconsin after 100-year absence- Wisconsin State Journal
July 1, 2010
By RON SEELY | rseely@madison.com
BARABOO — In the deep summer green of a hardwood stand in Devil’s Lake State Park, Bill Ishmael puts on his reading glasses and stares closely at the bark of a slender tree. Up and down the trunk run parallel gouges and scars. In several places the bark is punctured by deep holes.
“We’ll put this one down as a hit,” said Ishmael, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources.
The pronouncement, coupled with the damage to the tree bark, immediately causes one to become more attentive. Suddenly, the forest feels different. It becomes wilder, deeper, stranger. More mysterious and maybe just a little scarier.
All because this woods may now be home to a black bear.
This spring has marked the beginning of a new era in how the DNR thinks of black bears in southern Wisconsin. With multiple bear sightings coming to the agency every day, including numerous reports of sows with cubs, DNR wildlife experts now believe southern Wisconsin is home to its own population of black bears for the first time since the late 1800s.
And this week saw the beginning of efforts to scientifically gather data on the fledgling population as Ishmael and Becky Roth, also a DNR wildlife biologist, conducted the first bear bait station surveys undertaken in southern Wisconsin.
“This year was just crazy compared to the last two years,” said Roth of bear sightings. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Black bears regain foothold in Wisconsin after 100-year absence.
Wisconsin authorities visit Facebook to find evidence of illegal deer hunting | Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2009
Shining deer, or placing a light on them at night and shooting them, is one of the most cowardly forms of hunting, er, poaching.
It’s illegal for a glaringly obvious reason: Deer freeze in spotlights or car headlights and, thus, are extremely vulnerable and can be shot at close range.
Fortunately for authorities, poachers of wildlife aren’t known for their smarts. Case in point: Adam M. Frame, 25, and Dustin J. Porter, 24, of Sullivan, Wis., have landed in hot water after Frame allegedly posted a video of deer-shining exploits on Facebook.
Authorities with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it was its first-ever arrest based on a Facebook video.
Frame reportedly stated in the criminal complaint that he and Porter were driving to Sullivan from a tavern when they spotted deer. Frame added that Porter said he wanted to go home, get his rifle, and use it to shoot deer.
Frame later posted this message on Facebook: “I just posted a video from us hunting at 4 a.m. drunk in a subdivision with my headlight lighting it up.”
Frame and Porter were charged in April with one misdemeanor count each of shining, and being party to a crime for the 2007 incident. Frame, as part of a plea agreement, pleaded guilty last month to shining while in possession of a firearm. His fine amounts to a slap on the wrist, however: $354.
The case against Porter is pending.
– Pete Thomas
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