February 10, 2022 at 11:59 a.m.
2021 deer season statistics reviewed
2021 deer season statistics reviewed
Archery licenses fell from 134,876 in 2020 to 124,791 this past season. Gun season license numbers also fell slightly, to 565,910. This was a drop of approximately 5,000 licenses, according to customer service bureau director Kimberly Currie. When looking at 2019 as a base, however, both crossbow and gun license sales were up, she said. In 2020, with many people exploring more outdoor activities due to the pandemic, license sales, like many other department authorizations, saw a spike.
Over 754,000 licenses were sold to Wisconsin residents, Currie said. Hunters came to Wisconsin from all 50 states as well as 20 foreign countries for the 2021 deer season.
In the way of customer service needs, she said, the day before the nine-day gun deer season was the busiest, as per the norm. That day 2,438 calls were fielded with 95% of those calls answered within two minutes, she said. During the week of November 15-19 a total of 8,199 calls were fielded by customer service staff with an average answer speed of 21 seconds overall.
Over 60% of hunters purchased their licenses online, she said. Just over 32% of hunters continued to use in-person options, whether that be at retail locations throughout the state or DNR service centers. While total new hunter license sales and mentored hunter numbers were down from 2020, Currie said with the spike in hunting activity due to the pandemic, it would be some time before a long-term trend could be put together. Of note, Currie said, was that hunters of all ages participated in this year's deer season, with 460 hunters over the age of 90 taking to the woods in total. The oldest woman licensed to be in the hunt was 94 and the oldest male was 100 years old.
Chief warden Casey Krueger updated the NRB on public safety, enforcement and education. He said unlawful baiting and feeding complaints comprised approximately 35% of total enforcement calls. Overall, patrol had 12,135 contacts over the course of the season called in by officers. This was similar to years past, he said.
He also spoke about gun deer incidents. There were a total of five non-fatal incidents in the woods during the season this year and one fatal incident. Of the last 10 years, Krueger said, six of those were fatality-free years.
In 2021, mentored hunting situations were down approximately 5% from last year, he said. There were eight Learn to Deer Hunt events last year with over 35 participants, even with Covid-related constraints. The other 23 Learn to Hunt programs for waterfowl, bear, pheasant and turkey, drew another 228 participants. The Hunt for Food program also drew approximately 25 participants as well, he said. Sixty-nine of the 75 loaner bows the department has for hunters to get into the sport were rented out, he added.
DNR deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl told the board there were no "bucks only" deer management units for the 2021 hunt. Thirty-six counties that participated in the Holiday Hunt and 27 of those held an extended archery season, running until the end of January. Preliminary registration totals showed a total of 10.2% below last year, he said. A large portion of that, he said, is made up of reduced antlerless harvest in the farmland zones in the state. Pritzl said there were a number of areas that would be explored in relation during the spring meetings, but did not expand on that thought.
He also mentioned long-term antlered harvest trends. The percentage the last few years, he said, had been fairly stable.
Pritzl's presentation to the board included this year's harvest in each management zone as compared to the five-year average, a metric commonly used. In the Northern Forest Zone, 32,793 antlered deer were registered, down 5.9% from the five-year average. Antlerless harvests were down only slightly, at 0.4% to 20,659 in that zone.
In the Central Farmland antlered harvest was up 1.6% compared to the five-year average, at 80,654. Antlerless harvests, though, were down 7.2% at 92,990 harvests.
The Central Forest Zone saw the biggest decrease in percentage of antlered deer harvested from the five-year average at -11.7%. In all this was 6,275 animals. Antlerless harvest for this zone was up 0.4% from the five-year average at 4,209.
The Southern Farmland Zone saw a decrease in both antlered and antlerless harvests from the five-year average. For antlered deer this was 31,522, a drop of 5.5%. For antlerless harvests the 9% drop meant 34,637 antlerless deer were registered in that zone for the 2021 season.
Pritzl also spoke about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) surveillance. The focus this year was on the 13 remaining counties in the Northeast District, he said. There were 255 CWD sampling locations with 184 self-serve kiosks available to hunters.
The expansion of the dumpster project, he said, has received a lot of attention this year. There were 121 carcass disposal locations throughout the state, up 16 from last year and 147 carcass disposal locations. Seventeen kiosks were in the Adopt-a-Kiosk program and 64 dumpsters were placed with the Adopt-a-Dumpster program.
Almost 16,500 deer have been submitted for the 2021 CWD year. The preliminary turn around time for results, he said, was 19.5 days. In mid-November, he said the DNR was informed of staffing issues at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostics Lab which created a bottleneck at that facility.
His last update was in regard to the deer donation program. In the second year of Deer Donation Partners program, 45 deer were donated from hunters in Marquette and Green Lake counties through this program, almost double from last year. This partners program came about in response to falling numbers of donations as hunters lacked access to processing facilities involved in the program, he said. With the partners program involved, state hunters donated 1,335 deer to the program overall. This, Pritzl said, was similar to years pasr and the department was happy with that result.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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