"DEER HERD REDUCTION" in CWD zone

[drewevans]

well they came out and finally said it. cornicelli says that sharp shooters are shooting all deer adults and yearling as too reduce the population of deer in the area where he says there are 80 deer per square mile. well he may be right about o 3 of those square miles with pry one being within rochester city limits and one in a area with hundreds of houses and no hunting allowed hardly too be spoken of. the other right where that cwd deer was killed...... yet they can barely get there hands on those deer and never will for the most part there will still be 80 deer in that square mile...... also this deer count was done when deer were herded up more than most winters because of the hard winter and food sources being far and few between. every winter there are absolutely no deer within a mile too 3 miles of my fathers land they just dont spend their winters there, they spend them with other deer at good food sources. so where they see 80 deer 50 of those deer represent the areas where there are no deer. this whole thing i think is a crock of BAD WORD...... this area is going to loose a hunting tradition fro years too come and many kids will wait years for there first deer or just give up all together, i am fortunate too be on the fringes of the CWD zone... FOR NOW the DNR have been contacting land owners miles out of the zone now in other "over populated areas" too kill deer thank god the land owners have pretty much ran them off for the most part. the killing needs too stop make it manditory for any deer killed to be tested or be fined if you dont i dunno anything but this "herd population murdering of deer!!!!!

[lakevet]

this area is going to loose a hunting tradition fro years too come and many kids will wait years for there first deer or just give up all together

I am nowhere near the CWD zone, but the above quote reminds me of when I started hunting in the 1970's. Low deer population and lots of wolves in our area. DNR says no does, unless you applied for this new thing called a antlerless permit. Guys were all upset, calling the DNR all kinds of names. Said kids wouldn't hunt, etc. Well the adults in my group were not happy, but we made the best of it. Me and my cousins took several years to get our first deer. Typical to find one deer track after covering 800 to 1000 acres of woods. Then you get a chance after seeing nothing for days or even a couple seasons and a doe stands in front of you, but no doe permit. Youth treated same as adults. No exceptions. Long story short is it made me a better hunter, tracker,etc. and I appreciate how good we really have it now as far as deer numbers. All of us who started then are hunters til the day we take our last breath. We have the mentality that we are bummed if we fill out, because the hunt is over. Shooting the deer is a very small part of the deal. If you have kids in your group, I feel for you. But make the best of it. I think ultimately the mentor has the major impact on the kid, not the lack of a parade of deer opening day.

MN has a golden opportunity to potentially nip this CWD in wild deer in the bud. I personally would say go for it to the DNR. Then again I hunt in an area where one winter and ever present wolves can knock the herd down so we are "scratching" hard for the whole 16 day muzzy season to get a deer. To us very low deer population would be "been there, done that" hunt harder for less. Just a different cause. But I think a very good cause with a lot of long term benefits of not having CWD persisting in our wild deer herd. The deer will bounce back. Absolutely no question about that.

If you are really wanting you kids to shoot a deer, south dakota has a youth season that is several months long something like oct-jan rifle antlerless and tags are only something like $10.

lakevet

[FHW]

I attended the CWD forum meeting on tues. night at the Rochester Public Library and Cornicelli said herd reduction is a top priority. He also stated there will be relaxed limits and no antler restrictions in the defined area. Cornicelli also compared there CWD plan to the TB plan that they carried out in northern MN. These ralaxed limits and loose restrictions will not be solved in one season, not next season and probably not the next said Cornicelli. I just wonder when and where it will end.

[drewevans]

it wont end until there are next too no deer in the area, it is strictly up too land owners and hunters me included too swallow the mistakes we made by bying into this skeme the DNR pulled on us to kill of what many people spent life times to build up. i here people say that where they hunt has no deer and that the winter kills them off every year, so what were dealing with is what they deal with every year. well then do what many land owners have done down here and do alll you can too help the herd by planting food plots and spreading food during dire times of food needs and do proper management of what you kill every year. there are ways too build up a great hunting resource........ just learn from our mistakes and WI mistakes and make a good decision when and if you are ever in a situation like we are. Many people have spent unbeleivable amounts of money and years to have a hunting source like we have here in SE MN and now it is being destroyed in our area!

[B. Amish]

what do you suggest they do? complaining and ranting without a solution is pretty childish.

[ERdeerhunter]

[quote name='lakevet

I am nowhere near the CWD zone' date=' but the above quote reminds me of when I started hunting in the 1970's. Low deer population and lots of wolves in our area. DNR says no does, unless you applied for this new thing called a antlerless permit. Guys were all upset, calling the DNR all kinds of names. Said kids wouldn't hunt, etc. Well the adults in my group were not happy, but we made the best of it. Me and my cousins took several years to get our first deer. Typical to find one deer track after covering 800 to 1000 acres of woods. Then you get a chance after seeing nothing for days or even a couple seasons and a doe stands in front of you, but no doe permit. Youth treated same as adults. No exceptions. Long story short is it made me a better hunter, tracker,etc. and I appreciate how good we really have it now as far as deer numbers. All of us who started then are hunters til the day we take our last breath. We have the mentality that we are bummed if we fill out, because the hunt is over. Shooting the deer is a very small part of the deal. If you have kids in your group, I feel for you. But make the best of it. I think ultimately the mentor has the major impact on the kid, not the lack of a parade of deer opening day.

MN has a golden opportunity to potentially nip this CWD in wild deer in the bud. I personally would say go for it to the DNR. Then again I hunt in an area where one winter and ever present wolves can knock the herd down so we are "scratching" hard for the whole 16 day muzzy season to get a deer. To us very low deer population would be "been there, done that" hunt harder for less. Just a different cause. But I think a very good cause with a lot of long term benefits of not having CWD persisting in our wild deer herd. The deer will bounce back. Absolutely no question about that.

If you are really wanting you kids to shoot a deer, south dakota has a youth season that is several months long something like oct-jan rifle antlerless and tags are only something like $10.

lakevet

[/quote']

Killing and testing 900 animals is NOT their means of stopping CWD. No state has been able to stop CWD. Sounding like they had ulterior motives for the shoot all along, CWD became a good excuse for herd reduction. Never understood what killing these 900 was going to accomplish anyway, they have already killed and tested more than 32,000 deer (hunter harvested) from the area in recent years with no positive results.

[Musky Buck]

Of those 32,000 a few were moose and elk I believe. I get your drift. I'll stick to my belief, you get 2 CWD deer from an area thin em out is maybe the way to go, keep testing road kills and during our seasons, 6 months or so bow season is going again, keep pushing the public to call the DNR if they suspect anything unusual about the deer they took, show us where how and what to look for on the outside or inside. Put that clearly in the pamphlets. The tough part about this is would've deer number 901 tested positive. Will someone taking a CWD deer in the future claim it was taken elsewhere just to protect there own area from the slaughter, hopefully lessons are being learned and hopefully ideas are being shared from state to state on this matter.

[drewevans]

what do you suggest they do? complaining and ranting without a solution is pretty childish.

stop killing deer, test all road kills, and make it mandatory to test all deer killed during hunting seasons in the fall. most of stop the killing now the deer dont even have anough meat on them now to even say they are donating meat to some one owens locker plant in PI has procssed many deer and are getting an average of 30 lbs of meat of from yearlings they are bing in and not much more from the adults these deer had a long winter and have been basically living of their own body to survive. so a person gets a deer pays $75 to $100 for 30 lbs total may as well donated the money some where or bought twice the meat at a store.

[FHW]

I participated in the landowner CWD shoot in February and it clearly states on the permit, from the DNR, that only mature deer were to be taken. When the publics season was over the landowner allowed the USDA to come in. He said they could take 4 adult deer and that is enough for his property. Well I get a call from the DNR to come pick up 2 deer the sharpshooters had shot on that property, I go and pick them up and they give me 1 45lb. doe fawn and 1 55lb buck fawn. I ask them I thought we were shooting mature deer, they said its hard to tell size when it's dark. I then ask if they count towards the 900 and they say "not fawns". My question is why the double standerds and further why test the fawns when they said its to hard to tell if they have CWD because of their age. To me testing those fawns they shoot is a big waste of the sportsmans money.

[jerkbait]

I feel for all of you down there. We went through all this garbage with the TB zone. Our hunting land is right in the middle of the TB zone. Wait until they bring in the helicoptor with the sharpshooter to wipe out the deer herd. There will be many tuff years of hunting to come, not only in the core area, but the areas surrounding since the deer from surrounding areas will filter in to the core area reducing the numbers of deer in the surrounding areas. This was are 1st year here without sharpshooters. Hopefully we are done, only time will tell. Good luck, I feel your pain.....

[Musky Buck]

Back to the original poster, if there's 80 per square mile why hasn't some disease kicked em down a notch, I would commend the hunter who in late november took down a sick deer and I think in the big game regs they should reccomend that any deer appearing to be ailing not that a cwd deer would show outward signs of illness, but take em out of the mix.

[creepworm]

You mean a disease like CWD? It's natures way some would say.

[FHW]

There is not 80 deer per square mile year round in the CWD zone. The DNR counted these deer in February and this year was one of the worst. those deer were yarded up where the most food was and there is always good food sources in a few places within the CWD zone. this year some deer came from a ways away to find food. As for the "sick" deer the DNR aged her at 12 years old, most deer dont make it to 5 years old around here! In deer years you cant tell me a 12 year old deer, in the wild, is not skinny,slower, limping, and acting "wierd".

[lichen fox]

From a 15 year radio collered deer study...found this on MNDNR HSOforum...

Conventional wisdom among wildlife biologists held that deer fertility hit its peak at about 8 years old, but DelGiudice and graduate student Michelle Carstensen documented does as old as 16 years giving birth to twins. During winter captures, they recorded pregnancy rates of 97 percent for does 2 to 7 years old, and 99 percent for does 8 to 15 years old. Most does annually gave birth to twins.

That information would put a 12 year old right in the middle of her peak!! So much for "conventional wisdom" eh?

[Spike76]

If a wolf eats a deer with CWD, will they start killing all the wolves in that area? Before long it could spread to eagles and other wildlife. Until we know more about it, maybe we should stop killing everything. Hopefully CWD isn't as bad as they think. Hopefully they won't think mercury in large fish is so dangerous, that they eliminate all the large northerns and muskies.