Steve
02-08-2000, 08:20 AM
To regain some
constituent support,
DNR should address
antlerless issue
Friday, February 4, 2000
Column By Bob Gwizdz
Booth Newspapers Outdoors Correspondent
LANSING - The DNR's inability to effectively communicate
its management message to deer hunters continues to
cost the state agency its credibility - despite department
attempts to listen to disgruntled sportsmen.
A recent meeting between state wildlife officials and the
newly organized Whitetails Forever failed to make any
headway. About a dozen members of the group left the
meeting with a handful of Department of Natural Resources
officials even more disillusioned than when they arrived.
"They continually gave us the impression that it was a
Gratiot County problem," said Richard Heathcock, a
Gratiot County commissioner and group organizer. "They
just didn't seem to comprehend that it was a problem
larger than a few disgruntled sportsmen in Gratiot County."
The group, organized in Gratiot County but claiming
membership in 75 of the state's 83 counties, has had it
with the DNR's unlimited antlerless permit program. The
way Whitetails Forever sees it, the state's wildlife officials
have abrogated their responsibility to manage the deer
herd, essentially allowing the lunatics to run the asylum.
As Heathcock puts it, the DNR is acting like an adult who
dumps a five-gallon bucket on candy in front of a bunch of
9-year-olds, then expects them to make some sort of
intelligent decision on how much to eat.
Heathcock's analogy is not without merit; take a class of
third-graders and some will eat a little candy and some will
make themselves sick. The question then becomes: Once
you have made yourself sick on too much candy, will you
have learned your lesson? Will you repeat it?
The guess here is that the DNR agrees with Heathcock -
that some deer hunters will think this thing out and kill as
many (or few) deer as they think necessary, while others
will go hog wild. But over time, those going crazy killing
deer will decide for themselves - when they see what their
actions have wrought - to moderate their behavior.
But the change in management philosophy has been so
radical that the DNR shouldn't expect hunters to accept it
without a healthy dose of education. Think about it:
Today's deer hunters were raised with the philosophy that
antlerless deer were to be protected. Gradually, game
managers tried to introduce the notion that a modest
antlerless harvest was acceptable - a concept that many
hunters failed to grasp. So the next step, that antlerless
deer deserved even less protection than bucks, is pretty
hard for some hunters to swallow.
And that, frankly, is exactly how many hunters interpret
the DNR's current antlerless deer policies. There's a
two-deer limit on bucks, but you can kill all the anterless
deer you want; there's a 16-day firearms season on bucks
but twice that many days on antlerless deer; and there's a
$13 license fee for bucks, but a $3.50 tag for antlerless
deer.
A reasonable hunter could look at those policies and
decide that antlerless deer lack value.
And that's what some hunters argue: The DNR's policies
have so devalued antlerless deer that they now are
considered a nuisance. Some guys - not very deep
thinkers - are out there laying waste to antlerless deer
because they think the DNR wants them to do so.
One argument Whitetails Forever makes is that it costs a
hunter almost four times as much to hunt rabbits as it
does an antlerless deer. This is a result of a misguided
policy that makes anterless tags stand-alone licenses.
Several conservation officers have told me it is common to
check hunters - even early in the season - who have only
anterless tags in their possession. The DNR should
immediately institute - and, if necessary, seek Legislative
authority to do so - a policy that makes possession of a
full-priced deer hunting license a prerequisite to buying an
antlerless tag.
The alternative, of course, is to raise the price of the
antlerless tags. That would be a mistake; recent history
shows the DNR's leaders will just throw the money away
on non-game programs. Such fiduciary irresponsibility
should not be rewarded.
But the DNR must begin a program to win back some of
its lost constituent support. And policy that indicates
antlerless deer are a valued segment of the state's wildlife
would be a good first step.
constituent support,
DNR should address
antlerless issue
Friday, February 4, 2000
Column By Bob Gwizdz
Booth Newspapers Outdoors Correspondent
LANSING - The DNR's inability to effectively communicate
its management message to deer hunters continues to
cost the state agency its credibility - despite department
attempts to listen to disgruntled sportsmen.
A recent meeting between state wildlife officials and the
newly organized Whitetails Forever failed to make any
headway. About a dozen members of the group left the
meeting with a handful of Department of Natural Resources
officials even more disillusioned than when they arrived.
"They continually gave us the impression that it was a
Gratiot County problem," said Richard Heathcock, a
Gratiot County commissioner and group organizer. "They
just didn't seem to comprehend that it was a problem
larger than a few disgruntled sportsmen in Gratiot County."
The group, organized in Gratiot County but claiming
membership in 75 of the state's 83 counties, has had it
with the DNR's unlimited antlerless permit program. The
way Whitetails Forever sees it, the state's wildlife officials
have abrogated their responsibility to manage the deer
herd, essentially allowing the lunatics to run the asylum.
As Heathcock puts it, the DNR is acting like an adult who
dumps a five-gallon bucket on candy in front of a bunch of
9-year-olds, then expects them to make some sort of
intelligent decision on how much to eat.
Heathcock's analogy is not without merit; take a class of
third-graders and some will eat a little candy and some will
make themselves sick. The question then becomes: Once
you have made yourself sick on too much candy, will you
have learned your lesson? Will you repeat it?
The guess here is that the DNR agrees with Heathcock -
that some deer hunters will think this thing out and kill as
many (or few) deer as they think necessary, while others
will go hog wild. But over time, those going crazy killing
deer will decide for themselves - when they see what their
actions have wrought - to moderate their behavior.
But the change in management philosophy has been so
radical that the DNR shouldn't expect hunters to accept it
without a healthy dose of education. Think about it:
Today's deer hunters were raised with the philosophy that
antlerless deer were to be protected. Gradually, game
managers tried to introduce the notion that a modest
antlerless harvest was acceptable - a concept that many
hunters failed to grasp. So the next step, that antlerless
deer deserved even less protection than bucks, is pretty
hard for some hunters to swallow.
And that, frankly, is exactly how many hunters interpret
the DNR's current antlerless deer policies. There's a
two-deer limit on bucks, but you can kill all the anterless
deer you want; there's a 16-day firearms season on bucks
but twice that many days on antlerless deer; and there's a
$13 license fee for bucks, but a $3.50 tag for antlerless
deer.
A reasonable hunter could look at those policies and
decide that antlerless deer lack value.
And that's what some hunters argue: The DNR's policies
have so devalued antlerless deer that they now are
considered a nuisance. Some guys - not very deep
thinkers - are out there laying waste to antlerless deer
because they think the DNR wants them to do so.
One argument Whitetails Forever makes is that it costs a
hunter almost four times as much to hunt rabbits as it
does an antlerless deer. This is a result of a misguided
policy that makes anterless tags stand-alone licenses.
Several conservation officers have told me it is common to
check hunters - even early in the season - who have only
anterless tags in their possession. The DNR should
immediately institute - and, if necessary, seek Legislative
authority to do so - a policy that makes possession of a
full-priced deer hunting license a prerequisite to buying an
antlerless tag.
The alternative, of course, is to raise the price of the
antlerless tags. That would be a mistake; recent history
shows the DNR's leaders will just throw the money away
on non-game programs. Such fiduciary irresponsibility
should not be rewarded.
But the DNR must begin a program to win back some of
its lost constituent support. And policy that indicates
antlerless deer are a valued segment of the state's wildlife
would be a good first step.