Wisconsin residents vote against big deer season changes

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released the results for the 2020 Spring Hearing questionnaire, with voters being against drastic deer season changes among the most noteworthy outcomes.

A total of 64,943 voters responded to the questionnaire. Almost all of the responses came online after COVID-19 canceled the 72 public meetings that were scheduled for April 13.

The questions proposed by the Natural Resources Board focused on deer season changes and drew the most interest from hunters around the state.

Question 10 proposed that the current nine-day firearm season in November be extended an additional 10 days. Wisconsin residents voted 41,531-14,380 against it.

Question 13 proposed to invalidate archery and crossbow buck tags during the firearm season, being voted 34,608-17,987 against it.

A closer vote came on the topic of allowing hunting with crossbows in October and then reopening crossbow hunting for the duration of the archery season after the gun deer season has ended (question 14). The vote was 27,407-25,159 against.

A couple deer season questions that voters favored were to eliminate the antlerless-only holiday firearm deer season (32,461-20,057) and to simplify and streamline regulations by eliminating deer management zones and continuing to manage by county units and public or private land antlerless tags (34,368-14,073).

Among some of the other questions favored by voters were to establish a spring bear hunting season and establishing an earlier opening day for the spring turkey hunting season.

Question 28 opposed the proposed Back Forty proposed metallic sulfide mine that’s located on the banks of the Menominee River. Of 42,352 voters, 35,406 opposed the mine.

The lone citizen resolution in Shawano County — reintroducing a Holiday T zone hunt in the county (proposed by Shannon Thiex, of Birnamwood) — was failed by a 301-310 vote. A total of 306 voters expressed no opinion on the resolution.

The results for to the questionnaire can be found at https://dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/springhearing.html.

The results will help guide decisions on potential future rules. No final decisions have been made at this time.

The public input results will be considered during the Conservation Congress convention that may be held later this summer and during a Natural Resources Board meeting.