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Main Boards => Hunting Legislation & Policies => Topic started by: bama on April 20, 2011, 09:12:00 AM
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I read the below article yesterday.
Legislators Pass Baiting Bill Only the Governor's signature stands between legalized baiting for Southern Zone deer hunters. By GON Staff Posted Thursday April 14 2011, 1:28 PM The Georgia House of Representatives voted today, April 14, the final day of the legislative session, to approve House Bill 277, the "Baiting Bill."
The only remaining step before HB 277 becomes law is the signature of Gov. Nathan Deal.
The Baiting Bill will allow Southern Zone hunters to hunt deer and hogs over bait with no distance requirements.
The Baiting Bill does not allow Northern Zone hunters to deer hunt over bait. Northern Zone hunters would be subject to the existing law, which requires hunters be 200 yards away from and out of sight of bait to hunt deer. However, the Baiting Bill would allow Northern Zone hunters to hunt hogs any day of the calendar year over bait with no distance requirements.
The House had already once voted in favor of HB 277, but the state Senate had made a change to the House version, so the House had to vote again to approve the bill with the Senate change. The House today voted 110-39 to agree to changes made in the Senate.
The Senate amendment, and the reason the Baiting Bill went back to the House for another vote, addressed concerns over Northern Zone properties because of the 200-yard rule. Feed placed within 200 yards of a property boundary could cause hunters on an adjoining property to be hunting illegally too close to feed. This is not new. It has been an issue for a decade, since the 200-yard rule was first implemented. The Senate amendment made it so deer hunters would not be in violation of baiting law for feed placed on an adjoining property.
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If two Northern zone fellows, with adjoining properties, wanted to bait, they could legally help each other out for sure.
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this is a sad day for deer hunting in Ga. maybe they are trying to draw a bunch of these TV hunters in to make "hunting" shows.
Bad move in my opinion.
The term "hunting" is used very loosely.
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To me the beginning of the sad days in Ga. was back when they raised the limit on does to ten.
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Alabama supposedly has a similar bill,don't agree with it but it's already happening.
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That was a bad move too. I don't know anyone who shoots 10 does during a season but the fact that you can shoot them beginning day one, Everything goes nocturnal alot sooner. Season is a lot longer and should be moved backwards not forward.
They really screwed bow season up by starting it too early. Hunting in Ga. is good , its just "different" from the way it used to be when I started in 1970. Baiting is just not needed here, of course nobody had food plots back in the early days either. "the times they are a changing"
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the 200 yd rule is a joke anyway. that just opened the door for a lot of corn in the woods.
No more scouting for trails , rubs , scrapes.
makes it real easy now.
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Baiting is allowed here in arkansas and it is sad...however it is not allowed on state owned land and wildlife management areas so there are still a few refuges for those of us who still want to hunt the way it used to be...and should be in my opinion
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It's definitely needed for the hogs. You certainly can't eliminate them, but at least put a dent in the population.
Where I lease(in Fl), deer(bucks actually) rarely come to a feeder during daylight hours.It's definitely not like shooting fish in a barrel.
Thanks for the update.
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I'm ok with baiting for hogs which is allowed by land owners only after deer season and before turkey season starts. we are beginning to have a hog problem here in North Ga. where we didn't used to. I think the 300-200yd. baiting law a few years ago has something to do with that too.
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:coffee:
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I'm assuming it passed because of popular support in the southern half of the state. That being said, if its the will of the people, I'm fine with it.
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I grew up in Michigan where pretty much unrestricted baiting was allowed for a while. In my opinion it made the deer more nocturnal and wary. It also disrupted the natural order of nature. concentrating them in areas and teaching them to depend on rotting piles of sugar beets. eventually diseases pop uo in the herd. To make matters worse the DNR in Michigan is run by political hacks and not real conservationists. I would hate to see the same thing happen in Georgia
I personally think the real root of out of control herds herds is the dramatic decrease in the number of hunters. Too many people are too busy to take a kid hunting or fishing
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I guess you could drink a lot of coffee while propped up watching a bait pile huh.
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I have a feeder in my back yard and been feeding the deer now for over 2 years it’s not to hunt over , the wife and I like to watch them from our back porch. I seen one spike in those 2 years the rest have been does. IMHO I think a bunch of people will be spending a lot of money on corn for no reason.....stabow
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I grew up in Michigan as well, hunted a lot before and after baiting became the prefered method of hunting deer. Trust me baiting works! Ive hunted over bait and shot bucks off bait piles. Not just little bucks, I shot respectable, representitive bucks for the area. I cant say as it was the method I prefered but it was a legal activity none the less. Later when I decided I just didnt like the method and switched to no bait it became a challenge to find suitable spots that would produce shots at good bucks during daylight hours. Half the time I ended up setting up on a travel route to some other persons bait without knowing it. Eventually I found places to hunt where baiting had little effect on the deer, I didnt see the number of deer I would have over bait but I hunted on my terms which suited me. I guess in the end I had to look at it this way, it was legal and if I didnt like it I could choose not to do it.
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In Michigan, baiting has created a Hatfields and McCoys between baiters and non-baiters, after a bait ban was put in place in 2008 as a result of a CWD action plan created in 2002, followed by a CWD positive deer found in an enclosure in 2008.
The bait ban was the unanimous decision of all the deer biologists in the DNR. They still want the bait ban.
Michigan has longterm TB in the deer herd, a case of CWD in a pen...and a solid 50% or more of the deer hunters are demanding that the bait ban be lifted. In fact, most of those never stopped baiting, they only reduced the amounts, according to bait sales figures. Bait for sale is still found everywhere.
In my opinion, in light of what we know now about baiting vs 20 years ago, baiting is a symptom of our society's thirst for instant everything. Instant gratification, instant communication, instant success, etc.
We see it in schools pushing that kids shouldn't keep score because the kids that work the hardest shouldn't score more than the kids who put in less effort.
Love bait or hate bait, one cannot argue that it's widespread use in Michigan has created large numbers of now two generations of Michigan hunters that know of no other way to deer hunt other than to bait and baiting is the only tactic they employ. Without bait, even in a state with 1,500,000 deer, they claim they don't see deer without bait. This opinion is now the opinion of roughly 300,000 Michigan deer hunters.
The bait debate has it's pro's and con's on all sides.
The pro bait argument is that some people don't have time to scout or "go to the deer", so as a way to "level the playing field", those folks should be able to bait in order to enjoy the hunt like the next guy. Many people don't hunt much and aren't very knowledgeable, or they're hunting poor deer habitat or in area's with few deer and bait gets them into seeing game. As far as disease threats, the pro bait folks see no difference in drawing power of bait vs other food sources and claim the deer biologists are wrong with some hidden agenda.
The pro "natural" argument is that bait disrupts natural deer movements and the act of many people repeatedly replenishing bait sites makes deer nocturnal, just as the crush of 600,000 Michigan hunters 2 days before firearms opener puts the deer on notice. The view of these folks is that nothing draws deer like bait, and that bait (corn, apples, sugar beets, carrots) in a pile is like crack cocaine to deer.
Another argument is, on public land, some hunters squat on baited sites and the non-baiter gets edged out of public lands baited by another.
I'd baited in the past. In fact, in the unrestricted baiting days, we baited heavily, because we had to in order to keep up with all the neighbors. It got to the point where the DNR even coined a term for it, "defensive baiting".
In my opinion from that experience, bait is like crack to deer, but widespread baiting turns deer sightings into a "last light" event, due to the human activity/pressure of baiting, so the piles usually get hit hard after dark. In fact, if bait isn't such the draw, regardless if after dark, why are so demanding it's return? The truth is, bait is king in drawing power in the deer woods and he with the biggest and most piles usually wins. The only problem is, the tracks and sign of the 20 deer that hit the bait may have all been at midnight.
To me, a bait pile is also like a smoker in a crowded room. He thinks he has the right to smoke and the other non-smokers around him want him to stop. If a smoker wants to smoke at home or in his truck, that's fine. But when he lights up at the table next to my family in a public place, then it becomes my problem, even though I never asked for it. Since deer are a public resource, one cannot claim total landowner "rights". Unlike a neighboring ag field or orchard, which everyone knows is there well before any hunt, a neighboring bait pile affecting all the deer movement around it can pop up anywhere, at any time, often in the middle of the night.
I hope our bait ban stays in place. Our hunting has been much better after the ban, likely because even though many still bait, they bait far less because they don't want to get caught.
We're seeing much more deer movement hours before and after last/first light, because the deer get up to seek normal foods. Before the bait ban and many baited with larger piles, deer movement was often right at last/first light. But sadly, I think so many folks are so used to the practice, (addicted to it) and unable or unwilling to use other tactics, that the folks who think they need bait are going to bait no matter the law.
If you guys get baiting, I hope for your sake it's only a 1 gallon limit and corn only. You may also wish to suggest that it be on private land only, like Ohio and North Dakota do, because if you're a public land hunter in area's with decent hunter pressure, you're scouting efforts will likely be for naught, if others are baiting nearby.
Here's among the best video's I've seen on the subject, from the North Dakota DNR...
http://gf.nd.gov/multimedia/pubs/baiting-video.html
Here's also a very recent story from the Detroit Free Press on the issue that the Michigan NRC may vote to allow baiting in the LP again...
http://www.freep.com/article/20110417/SPORTS10/104170630/1058/Eric-Sharp-Ted-Nugent-shouldn-t-support-deer-baiting
Eric Sharp: Ted Nugent shouldn't support deer baiting
Apr 17, 2011
"Routine bovine Tuberculosis (TB) surveillance testing conducted by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently found two bovine TB positive beef herds in Alpena County located in the Modified Accredited Zone."
Anyone who read that announcement last week and still thinks we should resume deer baiting in the Lower Peninsula doesn't care about Michigan's deer, never mind that two more Michigan farmers might see all of their cattle slaughtered.
You might argue that because you hunt many miles from Alpena County, you should be allowed to bait. But where do you draw the line? Fifty miles from the infected farm? One hundred miles? Two hundred?
The reason TB hasn't become commonplace in deer outside the core area (although there have been scattered cases) is because the Department of Natural Resources has contained it to the northeast lower.
Bad management decisions in the middle 1990s underestimated the threat from bovine TB, which reached a rate of 4.9% in deer at the core area in 1995. But the DNR overcame a late start and brought the incidence of disease down by drastically dropping deer numbers and banning baiting and feeding.
But as deer numbers dropped, so did the number of people who went to that area to hunt deer. That led to illegal baiting and feeding by many people who continued to hunt there, and the infection rate was still 1.9% at the core last year.
Deer bait is sold openly by businesses throughout the TB zone. Even after the baiting ban was extended following the discovery of chronic wasting disease in a single deer on a game ranch, deer bait continued to be sold blatantly by businesses that knew it would be used illegally by hunters who knew it's illegal to use it.
We don't yet understand everything about the transmission of diseases such as bovine TB and CWD, but we do know they spread from animal to animal, so deliberately concentrating those animals will spread disease.
Recently, rock star Ted Nugent told Gov. Rick Snyder that baiting should be allowed in Michigan -- and that we should not require people to buy turkey licenses because the birds are as common as mosquitoes.
This brought down the wrath of groups such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, which pointed out that hunters' license money brought the wild turkey back from the edge of extirpation in much of America.
Nugent is a rock star whose career depends on getting public attention. Because of that he has more than once made a statement that was outrageous or thoughtless.
But his defense of baiting is more than disingenuous. Last year Nugent was fined $1,750 after pleading no contest for baiting deer in California and not having a properly signed hunting tag. He managed to plea-bargain away another charge of illegally killing a deer, which would have had far more serious consequences.
Had Nugent been convicted on the illegally killing a deer charge, he would not have been able to buy hunting licenses for up to three years in many states, including Michigan.
Nugent also told Snyder that the state should not try to ban game ranches and that the threat from feral pigs is greatly exaggerated. Once again, Nugent's claims need to be taken with a bucket of salt: He owns game ranches in Michigan and Texas (where he now lives) and sells canned hunts.
Nugent's Web site said he charges $5,500 for people to hunt buffalo with him at his fenced Sunrize Acres facility in Michigan. And people can pay up to $7,700 on his Texas ranch to hunt various Asian and African antelope, sheep and deer. They can also hunt whitetails with him there, but it costs extra (the Web site says "call for pricing").
Nugent sells hunts for "wild boar," which makes his statement about feral pigs less than disinterested. (Michigan's wild pig problem began with escapees from game ranches.) Though he might not be concerned about them, wildlife, agriculture and environmental agencies in several states spend millions of dollars each year to try to eradicate wild swine and repair the damage they do.
At the federal Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in Florida (home to the Kennedy Space Center), trappers remove 2,500 or more wild swine each year, and car-pig collisions are a serious problem. The ancestors of those swine were introduced by the Spanish 400 years ago, but they still breed like rabbits.
Michigan's pig farmers are concerned about escaped swine because they say the feral animals can carry serious diseases that threaten a pork industry valued at about $500 million.
Ethical hunters understand that their primary concern isn't their desire to kill a specific animal or bird during the next open season but maintaining the health of all the wildlife and the habitats in which they live. Nearly as important is maintaining their image as ethical among that great mass of people who don't hunt but do vote.
If it's just about making it easier to kill deer, let's not stop at baiting. As one reader suggested, why not let hunters put sedatives in the bait to slow the deer and make them easier to shoot?
Whenever I hear hunters complaining about the threat from animal rights advocates, I tell them not to worry about that small group. If they want to see the biggest threat to hunting, many hunters need only look in the mirror.
Contact ERIC SHARP: 313-222-2511 or [email protected].
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Here's some info on how baiting alters deer movement.
Here's SCI's full opposition to allowing baiting...
http://www.scilowcountry.org/georgia_wildlife_baiting_controversy.htm
Deer Movement Patterns
Another behavioral change in deer frequently attributed to deer baiting is increased nocturnal activity.
1. A Mississippi study noted that 90% of bucks use of bait stations was during non-legal shooting hours. Over 84% of total use occurred during the hours of darkness.
2. Normal diurnal: nocturnal movement ratios averaged 2.22 for bucks and 2.03 for does in a Georgia study.
3. A Texas study of baited and non-baited stands showed that deer use of baited stands became more nocturnal as the hunting season progressed.
4. A Michigan study documented that most feeding at bait stations occurred at night and daytime feeding was non-existent.
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stands to reason when a deer can go to one spot and eat his fill in short order he wont have to forage around during the day for total caloric daily needs
baiters are not sportsman they are killers
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Great information and some excellent points Mojo.
I have encountered several problems with baiting in my 22 years of hunting state land in Michigan. First is the sense of ownership of an area having a bait pile gives some people. They feel once their bait is set no one should be in the area for any reason. Next, I have seen ATV and 4x4 trails established illegally to bait sites. Bait piles, as practiced here, are ugly things in the wild with the resulting litter, rotting produce and cut trees you usually see.
A couple of other observations I have made recently. One is that since the bait ban in lower Michigan has been in place, I have seen more hunters in the woods on public land. I have also been told by a teenager that he quit hunting because "siting in a tent watching a pile of carrots" wasn't much fun and didn't seem sporting.
Personally, there is no sense of adventure or connection to nature in baiting. Those are what I believe ultimately hold young (and old) people's interest in all forms of hunting. I do not believe baiting results in more hunters.
Hopefully, if you can keep baiting out of Georgia you will not have to experience the social issues and the disillusionment of the younger hunters that I have encountered in Michigan.
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I wish we could bait in NY. :coffee:
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I understand baiting in places like TX....they don't have the forage to support very much of a healthy deer herd otherwise. And, I understand baiting bears in Canada for the reasons they do there.
But, we don't need baiting in GA. The deer herd thrives here and it is just not needed. Its not hard to kill a deer in the large majority of GA at all if you learn how to hunt them. I really hate to see GA do down this road.
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Terry,
I don't know if the "bait debate mess" will be as bad for you guys down there or not, but it's a mess up here in Michigan.
Especially so if you're a traditional archer who wants to hunt from the ground and rely on natural deer movements.
Here's a story from Minnesota, and they banned baiting years ago. But once that genie is out of the bottle, you'll never get it back in.
This line from the Minnesota DNR talking about the Michigan DNR tells you all you need to know...
"Our counterparts in Michigan and Wisconsin warned us that if there wasn't support for baiting in Minnesota yet, there would be soon, and that it would be very hard to get the genie back in the bottle,'' said Schad. "They told us that baiting was basically out of control in Michigan, that disease was going to be a big issue and that baiting had changed the entire face of hunting over there, from skills-based to who could put out the most bait.''
Here's the whole story...
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/sepoct08/bait.html
The Race to Bait
To bait or not to bait -- that is a question some hunters ask as firearms deer season approaches, even though deer baiting in Minnesota has been outlawed for almost two decades.
By John Myers
Conservation officer Tim Collette had a pretty good hunch what was going on in the woods southwest of Longville. He was acting on a tip that three hunters on a tract of public land were illegally using corn to bait deer to their hunting stands -- miles from the nearest cornfield. He even saw spilled corn on the ground.
Collette approached one hunter in the group who was standing over a freshly field-dressed deer. The man insisted they hadn't put any corn on the land for more than two weeks -- in accordance with Minnesota's law that bans feeding deer for 10 days before and during deer season, except in northwestern Minnesota.
Collette wasn't buying it.
"He still had his knife in one hand, so I asked if I could borrow it,'' Collette recalled of the incident during the 2007 firearms deer season. "I reached down and cut open the deer's stomach, and the corn just poured out.
"He looked at me and said 'I guess I'm screwed now.' ''
The three hunters admitted their crime, and Collette issued citations -- $382 each for deer baiting. And he confiscated the deer. The three violations were among the 100 issued last year in the northeast region, making illegal deer baiting the region's fourth most common violation during the firearms season. Most violators don't get caught. Some officers report that nearly half the deer stands they check have evidence of illegal baiting -- a violation seldom seen a decade ago.
Seventeen years after the Department of Natural Resources banned the practice, agency biologists say there are compelling reasons to keep baiting illegal -- especially the potential spread of disease: Baiting brings too many deer too close together.
Baiting Everywhere.
Deer baiting may be illegal, but it's not hard to find when firearms season opens in November.
"I fly over deer camps on the day before the season and see the feed bags in the back of pickups and on four-wheelers,'' said Al Buchert, a conservation officer-pilot in northeastern Minnesota.
"I'm seeing baiting everywhere I fly, even in the farm areas,'' said Lt. Tom Pfingsten, a conservation officer-pilot who patrols much of the central portion of the state. "[In one case] they dumped corn in the corner of a plowed field, right in front of a deer stand.''
Some baiters have taken to using black sunflower seeds or placing feed under balsam fir branches to avoid detection from the air. Near the Twin Cities, a baiter strung up camouflage netting to conceal the bait pile from air surveillance.
Conservation officer-pilots take photographs and mark GPS coordinates of bait piles and forward the information to officers on the ground. The fine for illegal baiting is $300, plus $80 or so in court costs. Another $500 can be tagged on for restitution if a deer is seized. Guns may be confiscated as well. But the threat of a citation doesn't seem to be stopping baiters from hauling feed into the forest.
"It's one of those things I shake my head at because I don't understand why so many people are doing this,'' said Mark Johnson, executive director of the 19,000-member Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. "It's not going away. Baiting is a big problem that's getting bigger across more of the state.''
Why Bait?
Opinions and attitudes about baiting vary from hunter to hunter, from state to state, and even depending on the quarry. Baiting has long been considered among the most heinous of waterfowl hunting crimes and remains a violation of state and federal waterfowl regulations. Yet baiting is legal, mostly accepted, and widely considered necessary for bear hunting in Minnesota because bear are more nocturnal than deer and harder to hunt based solely on their natural movements. Without bait, bear hunter success rates would drop significantly in Minnesota's thick forests.
Deer baiting is accepted in some states (such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, Maryland) and shunned in others (Missouri, Mississippi, Iowa). In Minnesota three-fourths of MDHA members oppose baiting for deer, according to a member survey.
Randy Willie of Carlton said some of his fellow Minnesota deer hunters see their neighbors in Wisconsin baiting and wonder why they can't do it here. But he said, "Most guys don't want it.''
Aside from biological issues such as the spread of disease, Willie opposes baiting because it doesn't follow the fair chase ethic.
"I've hunted over bait in Wisconsin because it seems like everybody does it over there. But I feel so damn guilty, I don't even enjoy it,'' Willie said. "You see more deer with bait. But most of them are does and fawns. I don't like it.''
Despite the overwhelming perception that baiting helps hunters bag more deer, that's not necessarily the case. A 2001 Wisconsin study showed surprisingly little difference in success among baiters and nonbaiters. A South Carolina study showed nonbaiters shot more deer in less time afield than baiters did.
It would seem Minnesota hunters don't need another edge over deer. There are an estimated 1.2 million whitetails in the state, among the highest number ever recorded here. Hunters bagged some 260,000 deer last season, fourth on the all-time harvest list and not far from the top years. Hunter success rates in recent seasons have been consistently high; and hunters in some areas can shoot three, four, five, or more deer each season simply by buying extra tags.
The MDHA's Johnson sees increased illegal baiting as a symptom of larger societal problems -- namely laziness and impatience. Johnson said people's lives are so busy that they aren't stopping to enjoy the real attractions of deer season and deer camp -- fresh air in the autumn woods, the annual gathering of friends, and matching wits with nature.
"Baiting is part of the quest for instant gratification. Some people don't want to work for what they get,'' Johnson said. "What's sad is that many of these people haven't figured out that the really good part of hunting is working for it.''
Deer season once meant several days or a week at deer camp or the old family farmhouse, with lots of time to linger in the woods and maybe bag a buck, Johnson said. Now, for many hunters, deer "season'' often boils down to sitting in a tree stand for a day or two before having to rush back to the city for their youngster's sports practice, social functions, or work.
Capt. Ken Soring, northeastern regional manager for DNR Enforcement, said some baiters are entertaining guest hunters on their land and working to assure the visitors have success. Many cases also involve fathers baiting for their sons and daughters.
"I compare it to the hockey dad who wants to see his kid score a goal so much he can't control himself. We've got dads in the woods now who want their son to get a deer so bad they're willing to break the law and break the hunting code of ethics to do it,'' Soring said. "What I'd rather see is the dad out there teaching the skills like scouting and finding deer sign and working the wind.''
Johnson and Soring said hunting DVDs and cable television shows often feature repeated hunter success shooting big-antlered bucks. Often, there's a pile of bait or even a commercial deer-feeding machine visible in the background. Baiting, feeding, and planting special food to attract deer has become a multimillion-dollar national industry.
In some cases, officers get the "everybody's doing it'' excuse.
"It's a form of peer pressure. They see someone else bait and have success,'' Soring said. "And if the next deer camp over is baiting, they think they have to bait to keep up.''
The Right Move.
Without much debate, and without a crisis at hand, the DNR banned deer baiting across the state in 1991. DNR Fish and Wildlife director Dave Schad was the division's big game leader back then. At the time Minnesota had little tradition of baiting, though problems were mounting in some states to the east.
"Our counterparts in Michigan and Wisconsin warned us that if there wasn't support for baiting in Minnesota yet, there would be soon, and that it would be very hard to get the genie back in the bottle,'' said Schad. "They told us that baiting was basically out of control in Michigan, that disease was going to be a big issue ? and that baiting had changed the entire face of hunting over there, from skills-based to who could put out the most bait.''
Minnesota DNR leaders discussed enacting the ban on baiting to preserve the fairness, quality, and tradition of the state's deer hunting. But the key reason then and now is the spread of disease.
According to Schad, deer that eat from the same pile or feeding station have more face-to-face contact. That contact spreads disease faster. Biologists say deer eating together in planted fields or historic wintering yards don't have nearly as much contact as deer being fed or baited.
"There's just no time in nature when they are that close, nose-to-nose, for that much time,'' Schad said, citing fears of bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease.
Baiting also changes deer movement, pulling animals from one area into another. Increased movement leads to more highway crossings and traffic accidents. Sometimes the move causes animosity between landowners vying to see or shoot more deer. In some areas, baiting pulls deer from public to private land, essentially privatizing a public natural resource.
Officer Collette saw baiting concentrate deer near Pine River last fall. On 500 acres owned by a group of hunters, he found 11 of 13 stands had been illegally baited with piles of oats. Collette asked the violators why they didn't just plant crops on their land.
"They said it wasn't worth the effort for a couple days hunting, that baiting was easier,'' Collette said. "Right next to those guys I ran into a father hunting with two sons, 13 and 14. They were hunting on public land and doing it the right way, and they didn't understand why they weren't seeing any deer. I never did tell them there was a ton of oats sitting 200 yards away.'' (Collette didn't tell the family because he hadn't yet busted the nearby culprits and didn't want to expose his case.)
Feeding ban next?
In a Wisconsin DNR study, some deer stopped migrating to traditional wintering areas because they had so much feed -- from baiting and from feeding by wildlife watchers. Deer researchers in Minnesota near Remer now are seeing the same deer behavior because of widespread recreational feeding. In 2005 when bovine tuberculosis broke out among cattle in northwestern Minnesota, both illegal baiting and legal feeding had increased in the region (see sidebar).
At an MDHA meeting in February 2008, chapter representatives voted to support a seasonal statewide ban on deer feeding. In addition to keeping disease in check, prohibiting all deer feeding from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31 would end any question of why food was being placed in the woods. Johnson said a statewide seasonal feeding ban would put all hunters on an even playing field to see deer based on their natural movement.
Schad said DNR officials have discussed a statewide feeding ban, but such a proposal won't be made lightly.
It likely would face fierce opposition from some groups, especially businesses that sell feed. Many Minnesota COs report that some small stores and even taverns stock up on feed before deer season specifically to sell to hunters. And lawmakers will get an earful from people who like to watch deer feeding near their home or cabin.
The DNR has been working with legislators in recent years to plug loopholes that impaired the effectiveness of existing baiting and feeding laws.
"We'll continue working and monitoring to see if those changes are having an effect," Schad said. "In addition we'll continue very vigorous feeding and baiting enforcement efforts in the TB area of northwest Minnesota." To report deer baiting or other natural resources law violations, call Turn in Poachers, TIP, anytime at 800-652-9093.
Controlling disease in northwestern Minnesota's deer herd
In 2005 an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis -- a progressive and chronic bacterial disease -- among beef cattle in northwestern Minnesota spread to the local wild deer herd. Since the disease can spread through the exchange of respiratory secretions, the deer were most likely exposed when they commingled with infected cattle on farms and shared unprotected feed.
After the disease was confirmed in deer, the DNR banned recreational deer and elk feeding in a 4,000-square-mile area surrounding the bovine TB management area.
"Recreational feeding congregates animals into unnaturally high densities and increases nose-to-nose contact," says DNR regional wildlife manager Paul Telander. "One infected animal can contaminate feed and potentially spread the disease to every uninfected animal at the feeding site."
Because there are currently no effective vaccines or medications for bovine TB in animals, all of the infected cattle herds were destroyed. Between September 2007 and May 2008, hunters, landowners, and DNR-contracted sharpshooters reduced the local deer herd by 2,656 deer.
"This was a major disease control action that called for extreme measures," said DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten. "The future health of Minnesota's deer herd and the economic interests of cattle ranchers and dairy farmers were at stake."
Thanks to the cooperative efforts of state and federal agencies, cattle producers, hunters, and landowners, the prevalence of bovine TB in Minnesota remains low and is confined to a relatively small geographical area. From 2005 through 2007, a total of 11 TB-infected beef cattle herds and 18 TB-infected deer were confirmed. Preliminary results from 2008 indicate six TB-presumptive-positive deer and several other suspect deer. Surveillance and testing of harvested deer is ongoing.
While it is still too early to know for sure, state officials are confident that the steps taken have greatly improved the chances of successfully eradicating the disease. -Tammi Jalowiec, DNR northwest regional information officer
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Another article from Minnesota, with their Michigan like problems.
A couple highlights.
Here's what the Michigan DNR talks about when they describe "defensive baiting"...
"The main complaint we get is a neighbor is baiting, so it's sucking deer away from someone else,'' Duncan said. "They may feel justified to do so if someone else is doing it."
"People spend less time in the woods, but still expect results," Kuske said. "They use (baiting) to have an upper hand. I think for some guys, it hurts their ego if they don't get a deer. Getting that deer is so important to some people."
Here's the whole article...
Last summer, a deer hunter was quizzing conservation officer Paul Kuske about baiting deer. Kuske explained how and why using bait, such as corn, to lure deer for hunting is illegal. He recalls the hunter's response: "That's terrible that people do that."
But last Saturday, Kuske and other Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officers raided the same hunter's 160-acre property near Pierz, Minn., and found 24 illegal corn piles near deer stands and trails.
Two of the hunter's sons were busted, including a juvenile. The adult son was fined $300. The father wasn't fined because he wasn't hunting at the time.
"It's one of the most blatant deer-baiting cases I've ever seen,'' Kuske said last week. "They knew it was wrong. The landowner's sons had been helping him (bait)."
DNR officials say the incident illustrates how a growing culture of illegal baiting is changing the sport of deer hunting in Minnesota.
Since 1991, Minnesota has prohibited food from being used to lure deer for hunting, but DNR officials say illegal baiting has grown more popular and widespread in recent years.
They say a new breed of baiters don't fear being caught and DNR bait investigators are being pulled away from other deer-enforcement duties.
The trend is confirmed by a Pioneer Press computer analysis of deer-baiting tickets written by DNR officers since 2002.
That analysis, paired with extensive officer interviews, shows that:
-- The number of hunters getting deer-baiting tickets has more than tripled in five years, a period when baiting complaints have risen dramatically and the DNR has increased baiting enforcement.
-- Baiting violations occur across a broad swath of Minnesota's forested region, but less so in the state's southern agricultural region, where deer populations are lower and where corn and other crops are common.
-- There are baiting "hotspots,'' such as around Park Rapids and the North Shore. Officers in those areas write more tickets because they get more complaints and make baiting enforcement a priority.
-- Baiting enforcement is taking away from officers' other deer-season duties, such as checking gun-safety violations and trespassing complaints. Last weekend, some officers spent nearly all their work hours investigating baiters.
No one knows how many of Minnesota's 500,000 deer hunters use illegal bait, but conservation officer estimates range from 1 percent to 50 percent, depending on the region.
DNR officers have written 369 tickets for deer baiting since 2002. Five years ago, baiting barely registered as a top-10 violation. Now it's No. 4.
Moreover, those 369 tickets are "only the tip of the iceberg,'' said Capt. Jim Konrad, DNR enforcement administrative manager. "Judging by the complaints we get and our aerial surveillance, there's a lot more out there.''
Ken Soring oversees 56 DNR conservation officers in Minnesota's northeast region. "Eighty percent of them were involved in baiting enforcement (last weekend)," he said. "It's pretty widespread."
THE RISE OF BAITING
Until Minnesota banned it, deer baiting wasn't viewed as a problem. It is legal in Wisconsin and Michigan.
But when Minnesota's deer herd began increasing a decade ago, complaints about baiting also rose. Most complaints have come from law-abiding hunters whose neighbors bait deer and attract them across property lines.
Minnesota's deer herd of 1.2 million is near record levels. With liberal hunting rules, hunters have recently set statewide kill records. Last year, 37 percent of firearms hunters registered a deer, a success rate near the 10-year average.
So why is illegal baiting becoming more prevalent?
DNR conservation officer Kipp Duncan has written 16 baiting tickets since 2002, more than any other officer in that time. Until last year, he worked along the North Shore near Two Harbors, but now he is based in Duluth, where he spent most of last weekend investigating illegal baiters.
Duncan said baiters simply want to increase their odds of killing a big deer.
"There are so many big-buck contests out there, so it's about bragging rights," he said.
He said some hunters justify baiting because their neighbors bait.
"The main complaint we get is a neighbor is baiting, so it's sucking deer away from someone else,'' Duncan said. "They may feel justified to do so if someone else is doing it."
They also want guarantees.
"People spend less time in the woods, but still expect results," Kuske said. "They use (baiting) to have an upper hand. I think for some guys, it hurts their ego if they don't get a deer. Getting that deer is so important to some people."
Mark Johnson, executive director of the 19,000-member Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said hunters today are influenced by what they see on television.
"If you watch TV, they're hunting over feeders and near feed operations. It's totally getting away from fair chase," he said.
Duncan said he makes baiting investigations a priority because the practice "cheats" ethical hunters by drawing deer away from them.
"People who are hunting honestly and ethically," he said, "rather than shooting deer over a corn pile, should have the same opportunity as the cheaters."
Conservation officer Mike Lawrence, 54, of Park Rapids is also driven to enforce the baiting law by hunting ethics. He wrote six baiting tickets in 2006 and 13 since 2002. He has been a conservation officer for 25 years.
"I think hunters don't want to work as hard as they used to,'' Lawrence said. "Putting bait out for deer is not hunting. Most ethical deer hunters don't like it and they eventually call me (to report bait)."
LEGAL LOOPHOLES
Last year, the Legislature changed the baiting law. The new rule doesn't penalize a hunter on private land if the deer he or she shoots is being draw to a bait pile on a neighbor's land.
In writing the law, lawmakers acknowledged that baiting has become a problem among neighbors, but DNR officials believe the law change only encouraged baiters to find legal loopholes.
"We need to clarify some of the confusion created by last year's law,'' Soring said.
The DNR also made deer feeding and baiting illegal in a portion of northwest Minnesota last year, where bovine tuberculosis was discovered in cattle in 2005 and later in wild deer.
Biologists say recreational deer feeding, which is legal, and illegal baiting encourage the transmission of bovine TB and other diseases.
The DNR also increased the minimum fine for illegal baiting from $100 to $300.
So, how did those law changes affect the incidence of deer baiting this year?
DNR pilots still found 16 areas with deer bait in the TB zone where it's prohibited, despite widespread publicity about the bait ban. "It ranged from a bucket of corn to truckloads of corn and sugar beets," said Capt. Mike Trenholm, the DNR's chief pilot.
Whether the increased fine is deterring baiting is debatable. Kuske said he's made it known around Pierz that he's investigating baiters. "I think some people are cleaning up their act," he said.
But some baiters, Duncan said, continue to play a cat-and-mouse game with officers - using more sophisticated techniques and machinery to camouflage bait and distribute it.
CHANGING THE LAW
The MDHA's Johnson said the outbreak of TB and other deer diseases like chronic wasting disease have his group's membership worried. They'll vote in February on a resolution to ban the feeding of deer from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31.
"We've found tuberculosis in wild deer in Minnesota, so deer feeding is something our membership is worried about,'' he said. "As a side effect, the proposal would also take care of the deer baiting issue."
Any changes in deer feeding or baiting would have to be proposed by the Legislature, Konrad said.
He added, though, that the DNR is reluctant to take up the issue with lawmakers.
Lawmakers could say, "Let's just legalize it,'' Konrad said. "There are those in that camp. It's something we're really worried about."
Konrad said baiting enforcement takes away from other deer-hunting enforcement, but some officers feel strongly it is worth fighting. "They take it personally,'' he said. "It's cheating. They think it's important to catch them."
Kuske said he's determined to catch more.
"I've hiked 20 miles in the past few days, looking for bait,'' he said. "The word is out - we're looking for bait and looking hard."
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From what I heard, it passed in GA south zone.
(I'm all for baiting hogs)
Can anyone substantiate that (in two sentences or less)?
For what it's worth, I've seen some amazing things while hunting hogs over feeders. One of the most memorable was a red shoulder hawk dive bombing some squirrels and landing on a branch 4 feet away!
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Click here for full article... (http://www.albanyherald.com/news/headlines/Gov_Deal_signs_deer_baiting_bill_121543729.html?ref=729)
Yes, the bill was signed by Gov. Deal.
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I think it's up to the hunter to be educated in how game should be managed for his particular land. Some hunters with large tracts need to be able to harvest large quantities of does per year. Baiting, if used, should be used to manage a herd correctly for a quality and healthy herd. But I believe American Hunter magazine wrote an article a year ago that had a study saying that only young bucks and does come to feeders during shooting hours. I personally hunt far away from any feeders because I know that the big boys all know better than to come to the feed. Just know you wont get that monster in Georgia woods by hunting over bait.
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Truth is that most of the folks wanting to bait already were.I hunt mostly on public land where you can`t bait and most is huge tracts of land that won`t be affected by joining landowners as much.One of the reason I don`t hunt private land is because most all the places I have gained permission I found piles of corn while scouting so I did`nt go back.I will hunt those areas now as they are not real far from home. My Uncle has a small Farm that has a few fields on it . When he plants peanuts I`m just about for sure gonna kill a Spring gobbler there as well as a couple of deer. They will be baited up by a couple 50 acre fields. RC
As far as nocturnel goes any deer feeling pressure is gonna come in at dark wether your hunting bait or a white oak.
I barely can afford the gas to go hunting now ,no way I could by feed too...RC