What would you do if you were the head of the DNR?

[buckhunter21]

I don't see there being any wrong with food plots Fish.  They are basically the same as farmers putting out crops, but they just aren't harvested.  Are you saying that farmers should stop planting as well?  Hunters don't just use food plots to harvest/hunt deer, they do it to keep the herd in check health-wise.  Actually I'd probably say this goes 50/50 as far as hunting/health is concerned.  Are you saying it's bad to keep a deer herd healthy?  Just a little confused. 

[Bigfoot]

i'm wondering if anyone has read this on the WDNR site

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/hun ... itfeed.pdf


Baiting and feeding of deer in Wisconsin – Update 2008
Keith Warnke, Bureau of Wildlife Management
Chris Jacques, Bureau of Science Services



on page 6(and i disagree with the "significantly reducing " part)

Food plots
The Department does not promote food plots as an acceptable deer management practice for
many of the same privatization, ethical, and human conflict issues identified above. Additionally,
planting food plots can have the same effect of providing additional (and unnecessary) energy as
a bait site or feeding station, however that effect is for a more limited time (food is not replaced)
and spread geographically over a greater area. As a result deer to deer contact and local site
contamination is less likely to occur at a food plot than at a bait site or feeding station thus
significantly reducing the risk of disease transmission at a food plot.

[Goose]

It sounds to me like you've got neighbors that are doing the right thing and your upset with them for that. Its too bad you don't enjoy shooting does, I do immensely and am proud of each deer taken with the bow. I guess I'm not in it for just the rack, I enjoy every outing deer or no deer. 
By planting food plots and managing the land with hinge cuts, clear cuts, and tree planting I'm improving the habitat for all wildlife not just big bucks and I would think that biologists would not disagree with that.
If you just want to go out and get that big buck pay an outfitter and get it over with. If you want to give back to nature and reap what you sow spend some time managing the land.
Just my 2 cents.

[Nubs]

Goose, well said. That was more like 2 dollars.

[Fish]

Again, goose...yeah got my goat.  I was using myself as an example, as hard as it might be.  We all have BIG ideas but seldom ever act on them.  If there is anyone who is/has been more proactive than I,.... thank you for caring.
 
I've said the shooting of doe on our property for the last 10 years, was bad.   It caused a lot of hard ache between my grandfather and me.  Now that he's gone.....even the biggest doe killer in our group has admitted TOO MANY DOE SHOT!
 
Goose, not to argue with a moderator but you unjustly judge me.  I have never pd to harvest an animal.   I hunt to harvest the animal of my choosing.  Others in my group shot doe so it was pointless for me to.
 
As I said, if the DNR is on the same page w/food plots, maybe there is something to be said......
 
I was just being honest on my hunting practices, although they were wrong.  I'm one of the reasons we are in this situation.  Can you admit it?  Everyone has answers, but no one is ever to blame.
 
If you want to hunt, I'd be happy to take you back few miles back in the hills in WY.   The outdoors is my life.  To the extent, I've gutted and processed a deer infront of my 2 and 4 yr old.  It is ALL natural and I want them to understand it.   I don't know if anyone has written as much as me?  Have you written other states?  spoke with their biologist? The game and fish in WY darn near knows my voice and name by heart, why ???? it's not even my state.  It's cause I care!
 
If I can realize I've made mistakes in my hunting practices, maybe others can too.  If you think blindly that your not to blame, you are probably one of the biggest concerns.
 
Anyway, we obviously agree to disagree.   Things like that are best discussed over a beer while sitting on the tailgate of my truck, back in the sticks.  I'm always up to talk hunting with my buds..... And if you'd like an opportunity at a wallhanger, I'd be happy to set you up.  It's not just the shooting I care about, it's the challenge of patterning, stalking.... trying to outsmart a smarter advisary..in their own elements.  So your wall or mine, the same pride is there.....
 
 
 

[Goose]

Fish- Don't mean to get your goat and as I stated before I enjoy your passion and do respect you. You are a good sportsman who does alot nobody else will. I'm not going to compare us in who's done more but I've talked to our DNR, Mr. Warnke, local wardens, out of state wardens out of state biologist and so on. Gone out to WY a couple of times, camped on public land and walked for miles chasing mule deer and antelope, been out to Colorado in the mountains walking and and hunting elk and so on. I put in 150 hrs on stand hunting deer here in WI each year and the rest of the year I'm doing something related to deer hunting. I'm a passionate bow hunter who's been blessed with some pretty good land to hunt and I understand not everyone is in that position.
Please don't think I just have good land to hunt and don't do anything to deserve it. During the winter, spring, and fall I'm doing everything I can afford to improve the land and the deer that roam it. I work in a mill and work every hour of o.t I can to take care of my family and if theres enough left over Ill use it to put gas in the tractor or buy another stand. Do I have hundreds of acres to hunt and manage no, but we have 50 acres that we get to put our sweat and blood into to try to encourage the deer to stay on our property a little more. Theres nothing wrong with that. We're good sportsman just like you and do what we can to have our little deer heaven.
Everyone on here is a passionate hunter who cares about the deer we hunt and chase. We're all sportsman in one way or another and we each do our own thing to help out. Am I a gifted writer who can put the right words together to express my point? no, but when I run into a warden or even a fellow hunter Ill listen to them and share my opinions as well. Do I make a difference? I don't know, but I do what I can and thats all I can do.
I love conservation and the work that goes into it. I enjoy that as much as I enjoy hunting.
We all are brought up hunting with different beliefs, whats great is that we can look back and learn from our mistakes. I think we all need to take more action and do what WE can do to improve our little neck of the woods. If that means not shooting does then don't shoot does, if your in earn-a-buck try different legal ways to earn your buck, maybe theres a farmer with 10 acres that'll let you hunt and take a doe there or whatever. If you need to take a couple of does off your land then do so.
I say quit blaming everything else and take matters into your own hands. Ill do what I think is right and try to get my neighbors to do the same but beyond that its out of my control. Ill try to do what I can do make a difference and to be heard but once again thats all I can do.
The best way for me to make hunting better for me and those in the future is to work my butt off and try to improve the habitat for those that live in it. Thats where I try to make the biggest difference.
 
Ill take a brandy old fashioned sour while we're solving the worlds problems on your tailgate!
And seriously, thank you for doing your part.
 

[mtnman]

Well said and stated Goose.

I think for the most part that everyone here is looking out for the benefit of our wild game. Some just more so than others.  The closer you live to the animals in their natural environment, the more you see, how different actions and environmental conditions effect the populations, patterns, and everything else in nature's plan.

I use to put a couple apples out on a trail when I went hunting (back in the day). My idea is that it was natural forage. It was in my area...we had alot of apple trees around. The trees lost their apples over the fall and through winter, depending upon the species. Then came in those that said "well if a little is good , more is better". And would bring in all kinds of apples. Then came in the non native species of bait. corn, cabbage, squash, pumpkins, carrots, and anything else you can imagine. Those that hunt here, but are from not from the area need to recognize that baiting like this for a month or so out of the year is detrimental to the deer herd. They get a fast infusion of food, then the huinters leave and they are left high and dry to starve. The natural browse has not been regenerated during the fall, and when bait is gone, what is left is woody browse with no nutritional value. For along time, I have seen the problems baiting has done. I'm against it all together, and would ban it if I could. Get back to being hunters instead of sitters and shooters. I am not proud to see what deer hunting in many areas has become.

Fish's point of food plots is good also. Food plots are not enough to give sustenance for a herd over a long period of time. We go back to the browse issue. Farming can help with a herds nutrition...it is done on a large basis, and provide basic nutrition, not an attractant. Up here in the hinterland, the dairy farmers plant clover and alfalfa for their cows. The season is limited to maybe May through October, then it goes domant until next year. It is a high yeild, low cost feed that allows about 3 cuttings per growing season. In the plants life during those months, is only palateable to deer about four times. Initial growth, and the times right after cutting. So, even with the crop being there, the deer have to depend on the apple, berry, and acorn crops at other times of the season, to make a well rounded meal. Along with this is the browsing of other vegetation. If the deer forsake all the others for one source, they will starve. They need the variety that nature and browsing provides. For the benefit of all.

I am flexible, so I can go with a beer, Jack and Coke, or whatever. Being in the woods is better than any day in the city. And is an intoxicant in and of itself that you never get enough of.

My 2 cents worth.

[Centralwisconsinland]

Goose, Fish, Mtnman, and Everyone Else,
 
Is this what is great about this forum.  Everyone has there own ideas on how to manage their land and herd.  My two cents:  Mananging land in the southern part of the state is not the same as it would be in the northern part of the state.  It is total diversity.  The same to be said for and about the herds.  I was brought up shooting does, Party Tag System, 1 doe per every 4 hunters, with one of the four hunter havesting the doe.  I was the kid BACK then, 40+ years ago,  so I was allowed to havest the doe.  To this day as a hunter in the woods that I hunt, I am not in EAB.  If I see that there are an abundant amout of does I will havest a doe, much to the chargrin of my brother-in law("I wasn't brought up to shoot does").  So I think in every hunting party there are different opinions.  By the way there is no other hunter that I want to hunt with, than my brother-in-law.  Fish I like you idea of trying to keep deer in their patterns with 1 acre of food plot per 40 just enough to keep the does interested.  You are not going to hold bucks on your property with food plots, of course I hunt in an area that has a lot of farm fields.  We have bedding trails, feeding trails, escape trails, and ramming trails plus other trails that I haven't figured out yet. I have hunted the US and Canada and seen how other states and provinces contol the herd and hunters.  I would like to see the units become larger than they are now, maybe something like the way the turkey units look now.  That is my two cents.  If that tail gate is getting full, my truck will be there, with a whiskey and coke.  Merry Christmas to all.

[Washburn]

ORIGINAL: Goose
Its too bad you don't enjoy shooting does, I do immensely and am proud of each deer taken with the bow. I guess I'm not in it for just the rack, I enjoy every outing deer or no deer. 

Roger that.


Washburn

[Fish]

I agree, this forum is great.  I enjoy the opinions and commradery.  The tail gate is never full, but with all this take of beer and booze, we better what out for the DNR.  lol
 
Minus hunting, is there anything better than sitting on/around a tailgate, in the woods, having a drink with a nice deer or two on the ground?  Well, I guess I could think of a few, but this is a family forum. ha