Steve Heiting

As Wisconsin Outdoor News interviewed hunters, loggers, and business owners for the recent five-part series about the deer herd situation in northern Wisconsin, the message that came up repeatedly was that deer hunting has been especially frustrating during the last five years. So, as a series finale, WON decided to see if facts support their beliefs.
Articles in previous issues analyzed and reported deer harvest numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ online deer metrics page. Those articles looked at the last 45 deer seasons in the north, ranging from lean years starting in 1979 through the halcyon times of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and ended with what many found to be a season of disappointment in 2023.

A proposal that seems to be gaining momentum in Wisconsin is a return to the old deer management units system, which was in place before county-based management was instituted after Dr. James Kroll’s 2012 Deer Trustee Report.
Proponents believe the old “numbered” unit system allowed deer to be better managed according to habitat, whereas the current county system is too broad. There are perhaps no greater examples of the reasoning to return to the previous unit system than Forest and Florence counties in northeastern Wisconsin.

Sawyer and Price counties don’t form the northern border of Wisconsin like the other counties being discussed in this series, but deer hunters have also struggled there in recent seasons.
In Sawyer County, Bill Rands has created sort of a deer utopia on his land and believes he’s in a neutral position to discuss what wolves have done to the deer there. In Price County, Dave Mabie points to coyotes as the primary issue for the county’s deer herd.

Vilas and Oneida counties in north-central Wisconsin are in lake country with more than 2,400 waterbodies between them. Those lakes attract tourists and the region is busy in summer.
For many years those counties were busy in the fall, too, thanks to some fantastic deer hunting. But as numbers of deer have fallen in northern Wisconsin, the number of hunters has followed suit, which has affected local businesses. Both counties, which have historically produced big bucks, are now among the leaders in the state in percentage of yearling bucks carrying spike antlers.

They say if you want to know where the deer are, ask a logger. After all, the men and women who cut and haul timber for a living are in the woods every day of the year.
If you ask Terry Peters, he’s going to tell you he’s not quite sure where to find deer in northern Wisconsin.
“Last year, after 60 years, was the first year I never saw a nose, an ear, a side, a tine or a rump while I was hunting,” Peters said. “I’m disheartened. I don’t feel good.”
Meanwhile, Henry Schienebeck, executive director of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, said while walking timber sales over the past winter he “hardly saw a track.”