DSORe POLL s415
Should Wisconsin discard ‘Earn A Buck’?
Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources has used the “Earn A Buck” system in deer management units where deer numbers have been well above management goals. Under Earn A Buck, hunters must first shoot an antlerless deer before shooting a buck. Hunters have criticized Earn A Buck, especially in light of the DNR’s deer-population projections for 2008 that in retrospect turned out to be too high. To date, no one has come up with an alternative system for reducing the deer population in areas where there are too many deer. At Monday’s statewide spring fish and wildlife rules hearings, several alternatives to Earn A Buck will be presented as advisory questions during the Conservation Congress portion of the meetings.
Please give a comment as to… Why or why not?
I wait all year to go deer hunting. I will shoot bucks and does. I enjoy eating venison. If I can’t shoot a buck I will not hunt in that area!! My time and funds are very limited so I will go where I will harvest a deer.
I have hunted since I was 12. I am now into my 60’s with 19 Grandchildren. Most of them boys and they love to hunt with GrandPa. Do you have any idea of how many disappointed kids it makes when they can not get a deer because of earn a buck. Any idea of the costs for licenses, equipment, food, heating fuel, gas for transportation, it takes to get all those kids and their parents to northern WI just to go home empty handed? The loss of self esteem for all these people when there are not enough does to fill the bill and then the lucky ones have to look for the bucks that by then are deep in the forest laying low. The only thing the DNR has done is create more people who will not hunt where there is earn a buck in progress. I am a bit stuck with having a place I have to go back to each year no matter what the BAD count comes out to say. I don’t claim to have the answers but that is what we pay the high hunting fees for and the taxes that help to support smart people in State Government like the DNR.
Al/Jump River,WI
Living in the middle of an EAB Unit is one of the worst case scenarios you can have in WI if you hunt deer. I do and I do not like it. I hunt public land and last year I hunted about 120 hours between bow hunting, muzzleloader and rifle. I saw one doe while bow hunting and could not get a shot. I saw ZERO the rest of the time. I do see deer on private land on my way home from hunting, but as most of you know, the private land, unless you own it or have big bucks to lease it, is off limits. It’s not that I don’t have the experience. I have taken many whitetails with all three types of hunts and both Mule Deer and Whitetails. I have been hunting deer for more than 50 years and consider myself to be at least an average hunter so I don’t think it is me. The DNR needs to do something other than EAB for those of us who hunt on Public Land. I know it would be impossible to set up two different structures – one for Private Land and one for Public Land – but with all of the hunting specialists who we pay at the DNR there should be someone who can come up with a better more equitable solution. And, speaking of WOLVES! We also have some land up by Phillips. This past year we did not see a deer up there, but we did see plenty of wolf tracks. Now that we have wolves expanding to the central part of the state maybe we can clear out our herd down here too. If the EAB is here again for this year it will be the last time I will buy a Patron License in this state and I will use the extra money to go hunt deer in another state. It may cost a little more, but the odds of getting a deer, and yes even a buck without having to shoot a doe first, are a lot better.