The public can talk with wildlife professionals about the 2006 deer hunt and deer management unit (DMU) population estimates at Department of Natural Resources public information meetings across the state. Locations and times are posted on the DNR Web site and at DNR Service Centers.
DNR wildlife managers will discuss deer harvest results by DMU, population estimates, proposed antlerless quotas for the units, and the likelihood of reaching those quotas with the regular nine-day hunting season framework. Meetings may have an initial informational presentation followed by questions and answers or may be open house style, depending on location.
"We won't have final harvest quota recommendations by the time of these meetings, but the information the field biologists have will be pretty close," said Brad Koele, assistant DNR deer ecologist. "From that, we'll have a pretty good picture as to whether or not a management unit could be recommended for a herd control season structure in 2007."
Of interest to many hunters will be the status of antlerless gun deer hunting in October and in December north of Hwy 8.
"The antlerless harvest numbers we have at this time appear to be sufficient to continue the temporary moratorium on October gun hunting," says Koele. "And, I expect the department will recommend continuing the December antlerless gun hunt north of HWY 8 when it takes the proposed 2007 hunting season structure to the Natural Resources Board for approval."
The season structure recommendations will be presented to the state Natural Resources Board for review at its March meeting.
Topic: Wisconsin Deer Management Meetings to be Held Statewide (Read 1080 times)
