Thanksgiving week in Wisconsin is not only about travel, turkeys, and shopping, it also is the week of the Wisconsin gun hunt season for deer. Deer widows (and perhaps some deer widowers) get to have some time to themselves without a pesky spouse or significant other being in the way. Some deer widows take it upon themselves to enjoy eye candy provided by some beefcakes. Of course, for many the peak of the week is not Thanksgiving Day, but the start of the Christmas shopping season, now named Black Friday, which now starts on Thanksgiving day. Thanksgiving may or may not provide an interlude to the hunters from their Wisconsin tradition of the week long deer camp.
Deer camp, often conjures images of a small cabin heated by a wood stove deep in a northern Wisconsin Forest. Rural legends, and stories abound about what occurs at deer camp. It may be more about beer, male bonding and camraderie than about deer. Dad's who hunt now pass on the jouirney of the hunt not only to their son(s) but in an increasing number of cases their daughters. For those who wish the deer population to be controlled this is a good thing, as the number of persons who hunt has seen higher numbers. Yet controversy always seems to exist as to the amount of deer present. In an undated article I believe to be written sometime after 2011, outdoor writer Bob Lamb says the number of deer are down and no one knows quite what to make of it. He goes by the decrease in harvested (a euphemism for kill) deer since 2000 (which was the peak year), not relating the figures to number of hunters (or other factors) and he goes on to recite figures that he, Governor Walker and others did not shoot a deer and many never saw one. Although he proudly points out that DNR Secretary Stepp shot a 7 point deer. A DNR game manager noted that he believes the deer numbers to be down, but in his opinion that is a good thing.
Several years ago the WIDNR attempted to control the burgeoning deer population by creating the earn-a-buck rule. The rule was never fully embraced by the gun hunters. Even though many say the reason for the hunt is to control the deer population, it really is to bring pride to themselves that they got a deer. What they really want is a large deer population, just like Bob Lamb, to increase their chances of getting a deer. It is more than that, they also want to get the big buck, eight points or better in most instances. Some even set an eight point rule for bucks. Governor Walker understood the frustration with earn-a-buck, and with efforts to significantly reduce the deer population in southwest Wisconsin due to the outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease (which is similar to Mad Cow disease). Governor Walker brought in an outside expert who noted the futility of the DNR efforts, and to let hunters hunt. In the meantime, CWD has worsened, and is most prevalent among the big bucks that hunters wish to kill. It is reported that few choose to have their deer tested for the disease. I know persons who hunt in southwest Wisconsin and have not had their deer tested.
The prions that lead to the disease take rather extreme temperatures to kill. Their presence was such that their was concern that deer with CWD placed in a landfill would see the prions reach the landfill leachate which in, the Madison area, goes to the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District. The leachate is treated, and the treated effluent released in the environment. The problem was that no one knows if the treatment plant process will effectively kill the prions, posing risk to public health.
What is good for the hunter may not be good for the environment. I have an acquitance who is near 80 years old, and grew up just south of LaCrosse. In a conversation with him a few years ago, he noted a time, many years ago that the spotting of a deer made it into the LaCrosse paper. Likely proving the DNR game managers point that the deer herd is too big. Other evidence of an overpopulated deer herd can be seen in car-deer crash statistics, although there are many more cars on the road. But it is also shown in our forests. In June 2015 I had a chance to tour some of the many acres of forest land owned by one of my siblings and his family. What I noticed is that few small birch trees exist, and many of the older birch were dying, likely of birch leaf miner borer. He noted that the small trees cannot take hold as they are eaten by the deer. St John's University in Collegeville, MN has over 2000 acres in an arboretum and outdoor learning center. They are studying the effects of the deer population on their sustainable forest management techniques, and realize the population needs to be controlled due to the damage deer do to young saplings. Forests are living mechanisms and require regeneration and renewal.
Deer also are rather adaptable. They have moved into suburbia, not unlike foxes living near downton Madison have adapted to an urban environment. The move of homes into exurbia takes away space for hunting, and in so doing provides the deer with safe shelter areas. I live within a few hundred feet of some wetlands, and have seen up to eight deer in my back yard. One dry year the dear came up and would nibble most all of my garden plants. The quality of deer in southern Wisconsin was shown to me in a high school biology class years ago when deer skulls from northern, central and southern partsof the state were compared in terms of thickness and other qualifying features. The southern Wisconsin deer scaled much better than the other two locations, only proving garden and corn fed deer of the south are better than those gatherer deer of the north. This helps prove the thesis that the southern hunters going north to deer camp is more than just killing a deer--after all they are not only better, but maybe more prevalent in the southern part of the state.
My personal experience has been to see deer walk right into our campsites, so other anecdotes exists to offset those of Mr. Lamb. In the end, the hunter desire, like that of Bob Lamb for more deer, not only means more deer-car crashes, but less regeneration of our woodlots. Reduced regeneration will affect the forests of Wisconsin, and who knows, that northern deer camp in the woods, may be in a meadow in a hundred years. Now if the deer would eat the young buckthorn, honeysuckle and invasives maybe they could do some good for the forest.
Photos by author at Willow River State Park Campground, August 2016.
Deer camp, often conjures images of a small cabin heated by a wood stove deep in a northern Wisconsin Forest. Rural legends, and stories abound about what occurs at deer camp. It may be more about beer, male bonding and camraderie than about deer. Dad's who hunt now pass on the jouirney of the hunt not only to their son(s) but in an increasing number of cases their daughters. For those who wish the deer population to be controlled this is a good thing, as the number of persons who hunt has seen higher numbers. Yet controversy always seems to exist as to the amount of deer present. In an undated article I believe to be written sometime after 2011, outdoor writer Bob Lamb says the number of deer are down and no one knows quite what to make of it. He goes by the decrease in harvested (a euphemism for kill) deer since 2000 (which was the peak year), not relating the figures to number of hunters (or other factors) and he goes on to recite figures that he, Governor Walker and others did not shoot a deer and many never saw one. Although he proudly points out that DNR Secretary Stepp shot a 7 point deer. A DNR game manager noted that he believes the deer numbers to be down, but in his opinion that is a good thing.
Several years ago the WIDNR attempted to control the burgeoning deer population by creating the earn-a-buck rule. The rule was never fully embraced by the gun hunters. Even though many say the reason for the hunt is to control the deer population, it really is to bring pride to themselves that they got a deer. What they really want is a large deer population, just like Bob Lamb, to increase their chances of getting a deer. It is more than that, they also want to get the big buck, eight points or better in most instances. Some even set an eight point rule for bucks. Governor Walker understood the frustration with earn-a-buck, and with efforts to significantly reduce the deer population in southwest Wisconsin due to the outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease (which is similar to Mad Cow disease). Governor Walker brought in an outside expert who noted the futility of the DNR efforts, and to let hunters hunt. In the meantime, CWD has worsened, and is most prevalent among the big bucks that hunters wish to kill. It is reported that few choose to have their deer tested for the disease. I know persons who hunt in southwest Wisconsin and have not had their deer tested.
The prions that lead to the disease take rather extreme temperatures to kill. Their presence was such that their was concern that deer with CWD placed in a landfill would see the prions reach the landfill leachate which in, the Madison area, goes to the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District. The leachate is treated, and the treated effluent released in the environment. The problem was that no one knows if the treatment plant process will effectively kill the prions, posing risk to public health.
What is good for the hunter may not be good for the environment. I have an acquitance who is near 80 years old, and grew up just south of LaCrosse. In a conversation with him a few years ago, he noted a time, many years ago that the spotting of a deer made it into the LaCrosse paper. Likely proving the DNR game managers point that the deer herd is too big. Other evidence of an overpopulated deer herd can be seen in car-deer crash statistics, although there are many more cars on the road. But it is also shown in our forests. In June 2015 I had a chance to tour some of the many acres of forest land owned by one of my siblings and his family. What I noticed is that few small birch trees exist, and many of the older birch were dying, likely of birch leaf miner borer. He noted that the small trees cannot take hold as they are eaten by the deer. St John's University in Collegeville, MN has over 2000 acres in an arboretum and outdoor learning center. They are studying the effects of the deer population on their sustainable forest management techniques, and realize the population needs to be controlled due to the damage deer do to young saplings. Forests are living mechanisms and require regeneration and renewal.
Deer also are rather adaptable. They have moved into suburbia, not unlike foxes living near downton Madison have adapted to an urban environment. The move of homes into exurbia takes away space for hunting, and in so doing provides the deer with safe shelter areas. I live within a few hundred feet of some wetlands, and have seen up to eight deer in my back yard. One dry year the dear came up and would nibble most all of my garden plants. The quality of deer in southern Wisconsin was shown to me in a high school biology class years ago when deer skulls from northern, central and southern partsof the state were compared in terms of thickness and other qualifying features. The southern Wisconsin deer scaled much better than the other two locations, only proving garden and corn fed deer of the south are better than those gatherer deer of the north. This helps prove the thesis that the southern hunters going north to deer camp is more than just killing a deer--after all they are not only better, but maybe more prevalent in the southern part of the state.
My personal experience has been to see deer walk right into our campsites, so other anecdotes exists to offset those of Mr. Lamb. In the end, the hunter desire, like that of Bob Lamb for more deer, not only means more deer-car crashes, but less regeneration of our woodlots. Reduced regeneration will affect the forests of Wisconsin, and who knows, that northern deer camp in the woods, may be in a meadow in a hundred years. Now if the deer would eat the young buckthorn, honeysuckle and invasives maybe they could do some good for the forest.
Photos by author at Willow River State Park Campground, August 2016.
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