NorthJeff
01-11-2006, 09:38 AM
I hope many of you will take the time to visit the DNR meetings across the state to listen to what the DNR has to say....even call and talk to your local biologist. Like most things in life...listening first, and then raising questions or concerns in a professional manner is a great approach. After speaking around the U.P. at least a dozen times in the past 18 months, being on the radio, quoted in newspapers I have first hand knowledge how some will come to a meeting with a pre-conceived agenda and not listen to one word that is said..not one. In fact, it get's to the point that most in the room will actually look around at some of those asking questions and some have actually said..."weren't you in the same room the past 45 minutes?" Thankfully those folks are few and far between, but they can really drag down both the content and the level of the discussion.
In the past several weeks, and several years I've talked to Bob Depker on the phone, John Madigan, former NRC commisioner Nancy Douglas, and Terry Menzie in the past as well, written letters, emails, and if you listen you will probably not agree with everything they say, but you will begin to understand that they are real people, with real problems, and honestly attempt to come up with solutions relative to herd health, herd quality, habitat health, hunter pressure, public pressure, and unfortunately political pressures.
Interestingly enough, when deer numbers are high, complaints are low(whether there are real problems or not!), and when deer numbers are low complaints are high(even though there maybe the same problems when deer numbers are high..other than deer numbers). One of the biggest concerns on everyones mind should be the winter severity, winter loss, and winter habitat. Just something to think about. In the 15 year period ending in 2004, hunters harvested 1.1 million deer. During the same period, winter severity claimed 900,000. Now, if we averaged 350 wolves a year for the past 15 years, that would equate to about 100,000 consumed deer...many of which were more the result of winter loss, so wolves themselves actually would kill many less....that 100,000 number would be just what they eat. Anyways, some of our northern portions of the U.P. have never had doe permits, yet are the most effected by the 900,000 loss over the past 15 years. Sometimes we yell and scream about a few hundred doe permits over a 2500 square mile DMU unit..yet seem to ignore the 50,000 deer that die in the average winter in the U.P....and up to as many as 200,000 in one year just in the last 10 years...even 110,000 in the winter of 2000-2001! On top of that, there are guys that will heartely complain about the lack of deer, yet are happy and eager to go into a deer yard in Dec. and shoot a mature doe.
Just attempting to offer perspective. I do not like everything the DNR does, but I support them because you will get absolutely no where by being a loud angry voice and you have to recognize they have great minds that accomplish a very tough task and are generally very good people. In fact I would say we have some of the best DNR staff right here in the U.P...and they have the toughest task in the state. We have to work together. I'd like to see us kill more deer in the U.P., but in order to do that we need to improve the winter habitat...summer habitat supports in many cases several times more than our deer herd needs, so it's not even something to worry about until we address the winter loss and loss of winter habitat either to cutting, age, or replacement. I'd also like to improve the buck age structure and we won't do that by further limiting hunters by license, unless we go to buck quotas, but instead by keeping hunters from shooting young bucks and increasing the quality of the winter habitat. As far as predators go, the most comprehensive study out there shows that hunting coyotes can actually increase predator numbers due to litter increases of several times unless the efforts are aggressive and consistant....might be very true, might be partially true...but it's something to consider greatly and mirrors my own experiences as well in that I have never shot a yote, have yotes on my property every single night, but get double the fawn recruitment for the area.
Buy hey, whatever your ideas, whatever your feelings about the DNR, I hope they are based on something else other than lunch room rant sessions and coffee shop complaints. Learn on your own, listen to what they have to say, take notes, even come to the meetings with notes, absorb, and ask questions. But this a great opportunity to learn, and if we go into these meetings with an open mind with an eagerness to learn I would be willing to bet you will come away with much more than you may suspect.
Again, a loud angry, even large voice will get nowhere...but listening, reason, education and professional dialouge can accomplish great things in a very positive and constructive manner. If you do not regularily communicate with wildlife officials...this is a great opportunity to do so, but communication goes both ways.
In the past several weeks, and several years I've talked to Bob Depker on the phone, John Madigan, former NRC commisioner Nancy Douglas, and Terry Menzie in the past as well, written letters, emails, and if you listen you will probably not agree with everything they say, but you will begin to understand that they are real people, with real problems, and honestly attempt to come up with solutions relative to herd health, herd quality, habitat health, hunter pressure, public pressure, and unfortunately political pressures.
Interestingly enough, when deer numbers are high, complaints are low(whether there are real problems or not!), and when deer numbers are low complaints are high(even though there maybe the same problems when deer numbers are high..other than deer numbers). One of the biggest concerns on everyones mind should be the winter severity, winter loss, and winter habitat. Just something to think about. In the 15 year period ending in 2004, hunters harvested 1.1 million deer. During the same period, winter severity claimed 900,000. Now, if we averaged 350 wolves a year for the past 15 years, that would equate to about 100,000 consumed deer...many of which were more the result of winter loss, so wolves themselves actually would kill many less....that 100,000 number would be just what they eat. Anyways, some of our northern portions of the U.P. have never had doe permits, yet are the most effected by the 900,000 loss over the past 15 years. Sometimes we yell and scream about a few hundred doe permits over a 2500 square mile DMU unit..yet seem to ignore the 50,000 deer that die in the average winter in the U.P....and up to as many as 200,000 in one year just in the last 10 years...even 110,000 in the winter of 2000-2001! On top of that, there are guys that will heartely complain about the lack of deer, yet are happy and eager to go into a deer yard in Dec. and shoot a mature doe.
Just attempting to offer perspective. I do not like everything the DNR does, but I support them because you will get absolutely no where by being a loud angry voice and you have to recognize they have great minds that accomplish a very tough task and are generally very good people. In fact I would say we have some of the best DNR staff right here in the U.P...and they have the toughest task in the state. We have to work together. I'd like to see us kill more deer in the U.P., but in order to do that we need to improve the winter habitat...summer habitat supports in many cases several times more than our deer herd needs, so it's not even something to worry about until we address the winter loss and loss of winter habitat either to cutting, age, or replacement. I'd also like to improve the buck age structure and we won't do that by further limiting hunters by license, unless we go to buck quotas, but instead by keeping hunters from shooting young bucks and increasing the quality of the winter habitat. As far as predators go, the most comprehensive study out there shows that hunting coyotes can actually increase predator numbers due to litter increases of several times unless the efforts are aggressive and consistant....might be very true, might be partially true...but it's something to consider greatly and mirrors my own experiences as well in that I have never shot a yote, have yotes on my property every single night, but get double the fawn recruitment for the area.
Buy hey, whatever your ideas, whatever your feelings about the DNR, I hope they are based on something else other than lunch room rant sessions and coffee shop complaints. Learn on your own, listen to what they have to say, take notes, even come to the meetings with notes, absorb, and ask questions. But this a great opportunity to learn, and if we go into these meetings with an open mind with an eagerness to learn I would be willing to bet you will come away with much more than you may suspect.
Again, a loud angry, even large voice will get nowhere...but listening, reason, education and professional dialouge can accomplish great things in a very positive and constructive manner. If you do not regularily communicate with wildlife officials...this is a great opportunity to do so, but communication goes both ways.