WI Deer numbers

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why would you hope that is not when they do it?

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Steve- My guess on the reason why is because the count would not be completely accurate. In some areas such as in the northern extremes, the deer actually migrate to wintering areas. This would show an extreme number of deer in small areas while other areas would be all but void of deer.
In the farmland areas, we do not see the yarding aspect of the deer due to plenty of available food sources within their home range. Large tracts of forest do not have that availability so the deer on a sense have to migrate.
That is my take on the situation

As far as the deer herd goes, it definitely must vary depending on the area. I know in this area (Holmen/LAX/). there are still a lot of deer. They are however shifting to a more urban and safe haven. I still see a lot of deer while out and about.

My guess on this is that the southern areas located anywhere near the Management zones, or those that have been in the EAB zones for a few years are the areas most of us are talking about. Especially if there area good number of hunters that look at it as a challange to shoot as many deer as they can. As others have stated before, they ot only take out that doe, but the fawns for the next year. Not saying that some did not need to be removed, but I know some areas are starting to get to scary numbers as far as what is left.

I think I mentioned earlier about the doe numbers we saw in the field and what we saw on film this year. We are definatly concerned about what we did not see. Does and young of the year animals this time around. Even on the sides of the road, you are not seeing any deer during the rut. Just things to ponder

Thanks Watson. That is exactly my thought on that.

The biggest problem I see is that public land is getting wiped out. People hunt their private land on opening weekend and go make drives during the week on public land since the DNR has been giving out vurtually unlimited T zone and herd reduction tags. The public land is getting hit hard while a person can manage the #’s on their farm. I went with a group to the Black River State forest to make a few drives this year and with 8 guys – 1 guy saw 3 deer and the rest of us 7 didn’t see a deer the whole day. They need to be able to manage the state forest separately. Those deer aren’t a road kill hazard deep in the state forest and they aren’t causing crop damage because all they have to eat is swamp grass and a few scattered acorns. Why does that herd need reducing??

Witte