Oneida County Deer Advisory Council recommends fewer antlerless tags

The Oneida County Deer Advisory Council met at the Woodruff Town Hall last week to make a recommendation as to the number of antlerless tags that will be made available for the 2024 deer season. 

With many hunters in the Northwoods concerned about a lack of deer the overall feeling in the room was to issue fewer antlerless tags this year.

This winter severity index (WSI) was one of the topics of the evening. The 2023-24 winter season was much different than the 2022-23 season. 

In 2022-23, the WSI was much higher, leading to deer that were not as healthy, more susceptible to predation and, overall, less likely to make it through the winter. Doe survival was also impacted. This year, however, deer are much more likely to have come through the winter healthy.

Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Curt Rollman started the session with a presentation to the council members and those in attendance regarding the deer metrics system used by the state. 

The buck harvest decreased last year by approximately 13%, he noted. While still down, Oneida County’s harvest was not down as far as some other counties in the state. Indeed, across the entire Upper Midwest, harvest was down, although not as much as in the Northwoods.

Rollman reviewed several indexes of the population that were put into the model used to track the deer population. 

He admitted none of the indexes were likely perfect  but all of them put together could give the best possible idea of where the deer herd numbers are going.

One of those metrics was the fawn to doe ratio. As it sounds, this ratios tell how many fawns there are to each doe. That number, Rollman said, had been holding around 0.8 in Oneida County as an average. 

There are more does with zero or one fawns than there are with two fawns, he said. This information is gathered from surveys in August and September. Surveys come from the general public as well as from the DNR. The surveys are done at this time of the year as this is when fawns are more mobile and less vulnerable to predation, meaning they will likely make it through to the next year. Obviously, these fawns and even adult deer, could still fall victim to predation, sickness, car collisions or other mortality, of course, but Rollman indicated August/September is the best time of the year to look for this indicator of herd health. 

“I’m not saying it’s perfect,” Rollman said about many of the indexes.

He also looked at the timing of the hunting season for this coming year. Last year, the nine-day gun hunt was at the earliest date possible, which usually results in a better harvest. With the WSI being what it was, and other factors possibly being at play, there was already a downturn last year.

This year, the opening day of the nine day is at the latest possible date, minus one due to leap year). That would normally mean a 20% reduction in harvest from the previous year. However, this year, with the record mild winter, and the fact that last year was already down, it is difficult to predict how it will play out. The mild winter should work in favor of the deer herd, but the gun hunt would still be almost the farthest date possible from the rut.

Rollman noted that there is a general feeling that the DNR does not take predation into account when looking at deer herd metrics. But that’s not true, he said.

“What is true is that there is not a direct input through any our models with predation,” he said. “That could be improved. That could be better. I do not dispute that. But there are different indexes that predation is built into.” 

Fawn to doe ratio was one of those, he said. As that ratio goes down, the model goes down with it. Fewer fawns that make it through to the next fall and have made it through the fawn-specialist predators.

Feeding and baiting was another hot topic of the evening. The general feeling was that there is a lot of both activities going on, and there is little incentive for people to stop these behaviors. Kelly Thiel asked the CDAC members what was being done and why it seemed like there was so little concern for chronic wasting disease (CWD) if, indeed, animal to animal contact was a way the disease spreads.

“I’m still amazed that I still see baiting and feeding up there that nobody talks about,” Thiel said. “I spoke pretty strongly at the Vilas County CDAC meeting, because I’m sick and tired of it.” 

He said he has been hunting Vilas County for 49 years and feeding and baiting is a subject  no one was talking about. There are more people feeding and baiting deer than ever before, he suggested.

“This is unbelievable to me,” he said. “How serious is it? I’m here for the deer herd right now. I’m here to protect our deer herd.” Even during the deer listening session in December, no one brought up baiting and feeding. He said youth have not learned about hunting, they have learned how to carry a bucket of corn into the woods.

Bailey Strasburg of Strasburg’s North Country Taxidermy spoke about the changes they have seen over the years as well. Seventy percent of the deer they mount have come from out of state, she reported. People are going out of state to hunt when they are no longer seeing deer here in the Northwoods, she added.

County split

There has been a push for the last seven years to split the county east and west along Highway 51, noted council chair Ed Choinski. 

Gregg Walker, the DMAP representative on the council and publisher of The Lakeland Times and River News, is among those who have been to Madison many times to talk about the need to split the county based on habitat and predation issues, which are not the same across the entire county. 

The idea seems to be gaining traction, but it will not be happening for this year. 

Both Walker and Choinski said they felt it would be in place by next year.

CDAC review

The CDAC was charged with reviewing Rollman’s presentation, but also taking into account public comments, both those sent in prior to the meeting, and from people in the room, and to put together recommendations to send on to the Natural Resources Board for their approval. 

Council members made it known that they were making every attempt to address hunter concerns while also offering hunting opportunities. 

As pointed out by many, much of the county’s economic driver is tourism. With that said, some council members wanted to keep the antlerless quota the same as last year, and others wanted to see fewer tags. 

Walker said he would rather see no antlerless tags at all in the county. Many in the audience agreed with him. 

Of the 300 respondents who took the online survey, 60% wanted to see fewer antlerless tags for this year. Predators were mentioned in approximately 50% of the comments from this online input opportunity. Feeding and baiting came up 10% of the time and changing the management units came up 5% of the time. 

In the room, the main topics were the lack of deer, the rise of predators as well as feeding and baiting issues. Hunters also were concerned with keeping opportunity for youth and for keeping programs such as the Northwoods Youth Deer Hunt alive for kids to celebrate the hunting heritage of the Northwoods.

“This year was the least amount of hunters that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime and on this side of county, we rely on one source of income, and that’s tourism,” Walker said. On a road that traditionally 40 or more camps, traveling that road this year, he saw one vehicle. Bars, restaurants and other businesses affected by deer hunting that he reached out to reported having the worst year they could remember. In order to get that back, the deer herd would need to be built back up.

“It’s absolutely asinine that we would kill any does on the western side of the county when you’re having DNR biologists, retired biologist, actually saying there shouldn’t be a hunt,” Walker said. 

Lee Bastian, the tourism representative on the CDAC, agreed with him.

For the better part of an hour the debate raged on.

In the end, the CDAC members did settle on a quota. They decided to keep private land tags at 2,160.

With predation, they pointed out, many of the deer had moved closer to houses and onto private land, with baiting and feeding a possible added draw for the animals. Leaving public tags the same, meaning a quota of 540 animals, was thought to be the best idea by the majority of the CDAC. 

“They are eating on the private and sleeping on the public,” said agricultural CDAC representative Denny Nitzel of the deer herd and land types.

The CDAC did cut antlerless tags on public land, however, suggesting a quota of zero. While youth would still be allowed to harvest antlerless deer, that would be reserved for them on public lands. Rollman said the assessment he heard from the CDAC in setting that quota was something the department could support. The recommendation will go to the Natural Resources Board for final approval.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].