Deer

into 2019 we had a buck harvest estimate (which was 3,071) and if everything would’ve stayed the same we would’ve probably hit it,” Johnson said. “But we had that early to late-season change, which messed with every unit. The model responds to that, but it also knew that the winter going into 2020 season wasn’t that bad. ... Right out of that early to late season change, we tend to overestimate our buck harvest one year, then the model overcorrects and then we tend to underestimate the buck harvest the next year.”

Riggle noted, as he had in past meetings, Taylor County has never hit the predicted buck kill since the CDAC was established. During the meeting, he as well as council members Brian Bucki and Chip Courtney commented that between what they see and hunters they talk to see, they are skeptical the deer numbers have risen much the past couple of years.

“What I have seen with my own eyes and what I have heard and what was echoed in our public response is that by and large in Taylor County the private land deer herd has stabilized and in some cases decreased slightly,” Courtney said when he proposed keeping the privateland quota at 2,500 for another year. “I think we have done a good job of managing that and it seemed to me that the quota we had settled on last year would also be appropriate for this year.”

“I think you had a good thought, keep it the same and see where our buck kill goes,” Bucki said. “By no means do I think in one year it’s going to blow up. We’ve heard that for three years now. From what I’m hearing from the private land owners, there’s a lot of them seeing less deer.”

Johnson said that might not be the case, pointing to results from the DNR’s 2020 random survey of deer hunters and its registration survey filled out by successful hunters. In a rarity, the hunters randomly surveyed in Taylor County reported seeing more deer last season (1.12 per hour) than the successful hunters registering deer (1.01).

“The general hunter survey that goes out to a random number of hunters across the state, and it’s a lot of hunters, took a significant jump,” Johnson said. “It jumped above our registration survey, which I didn’t think would happen. That registration survey is biased higher because those are successful hunters. ... You guys seem to be doing a good job increasing the herd. People are seeing more deer out there the last seven to eight years.”

The statistical starting points presented Tuesday also showed a county-wide quota of 6,130 would be needed to maintain the countywide deer population as it is. A zero quota would raise it about 23%, a quota of 1,544 antlerless deer would raise it about 18%, a quota of 3,087 would raise it about 12% and a quota of 4,631 would raise it about 6%.

The council looked at public land first, where 242 of last year’s 1,000 bonus tags were filled. Riggle suggested keeping the quota at 300 and raising the tag numbers based on the success rate, which was supported by five other members. Forestry representative Jake Walcisak proposed going higher with a quota in the 450-500 range based off the starting points which project higher quotas could still result in higher populations this year. Riggle said those percentages, however, don’t reflect the status of public lands, where deer densities are believed to be much lower than they are on private land.

The private land discussion centered on the questions of bonus permit sales and how high could the quota go. Last year’s 8,350 private-land antlerless permits didn’t sell out until the nine-day gun season was about to begin. Courtney started by proposing his 2,500 quota with a 28% success rate, which would’ve resulted in 8,925 tags. A vote on that resulted in a 3-3 tie, which Riggle broke by saying no and that a slight increase was probably needed. Mildbrand, Walcisak and Allan Koffler also supported going up with the numbers.

“I think that maybe we’re underestimating how nice of a winter we’ve had for the deer,” Mildbrand said. “I think that maybe the population is going to go up more than what it has the last couple years. The main thing I think is we’re not going to be able to sell these tags anyway. You might be able to sell 9,000 tags, but I think we’re talking about something that’s just not going to happen. But I could be wrong.”

“I’m kinda going with Scott on this one,” Koffler said. “I think with this warm weather we’re going to have a lot higher population. I think we actually need to increase the tags to about 10,000. Do I think we’re going to sell them? No. But at least we can have the public speak on that one. If we don’t sell them, then we know.”

Riggle suggested a 3,000 quota then modified it to 2,800 with a 28% success rate. That was supported 4-2 by the group with Courtney, Mildbrand, Koffler and Tracy Swedlund agreeing and Walcisak and Bucki saying no. Walcisak wanted to go higher with a quota of about 4,300, while Bucki preferred staying at 2,500.

“I think it will serve two things,” Riggle said after the vote. “I think we’re not taking on a huge increase. It’s a pretty minimal increase but I think the increase in tags, even if our success ratio drops, it’s just a good test to see if we can sell 10,000 tags and we’ll have a lot more information next year at this time as to where we can go.”

Johnson, as he has in previous meetings, said the county needs to be wary of what could happen if quotas aren’t set high enough.

“This is a key year,” he said. “In our tables we can plug in different WSIs. For instance if we had a WSI similar to last year, a quota of 3,100 would equate to a negative percent change in the population, so it just goes to show you how much of an impact the winters really have on our deer herd up in the Northwoods. With the increase that we have, it’s targeted a lot on public land but also a lot on private land. I think on private land I would’ve stayed closer to zero (increase) just because of what we’ve seen, what we’ve heard and what I’ve seen on DMAP properties I’ve been on and with ag damage going up.”