Get politics out of the deer hunt

A 30 percent drop in the number of deer harvested this gun-deer season has state politicians hunting for a trophy of a different type.
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker has called for the heads of the Department of Natural Resources Deer Management Team. While Rep. Mary Williams doesn’t necessarily want them terminated, she wants them to explain why the deer numbers have dropped so much in recent years.
The gun-deer season is an institution in Wisconsin, especially in the rural areas where getting meat for the freezer often is as or more important than getting the trophy for the wall.
Beyond just the outdoorsmen and women who are in the woods hunting, there is a whole economic support structure for hunters in Wisconsin. The deer hunt represents an important influx of money for rural economies impacting local processors, retailers, restaurants and motels.
It is understandable that politicians wanting to be responsive to their constituents meddle in the deer management process. The problem is deer management is — or at least should be about science. Good things seldom come out of the meeting of science and politics and money muddies it even more. Throw the millions of dollars deer hunting brings into the state each year and the mix becomes hopelessly tangled.
Those managing the state’s deer herd should be held accountable for their actions. But who should they serve?
Should they manage the state’s herd so that every hunter can walk 30 feet into the woods and bag a trophy the opening morning of the deer season?
Should they reduce the numbers of deer to cut down on the number of car-deer collisions and save Wisconsin residents money on their insurance premiums?
With open land through much of the state being continually fractured into smaller parcels with limited access for hunters, how do you manage for the increased pressure on public lands?
These are all questions the state’s deer management experts must take into account when developing an overall management plan. Compromises must be made between competing constituencies, but sound science should trump the purely political motives of those who are attempting to make hay by jumping on an anti-DNR bandwagon.
There are as many theories on why the deer harvest was down this year as there are barstools in Wisconsin or seats in the state house. Before the state legislature launches a witch hunt in the DNR deer management office, there needs to be a time for sound science rather than political knee jerking.