CDACs hold annual spring meetings

Three of the DNR’s northernmost counties in the 19-county Northern Forest Zone recently held their annual spring County Deer Advisory Council (CDAC) meetings. The CDACs for Douglas, Bayfield and Ashland counties made their recommendations on how many — if any — antlerless permits should be offered for the 2024 deer hunting season before being moved on for final approval.

The County Deer Advisory Councils are made up of members of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and up to eight citizen stakeholders representing Tribal, Agriculture, Forestry, Tourism, Transportation, Local Government, Hunting Organizations and Deer Management Assistance Program representatives. The CDAC’s charge is primarily gathering public opinion on deer populations and providing the DNR with recommendations on population objectives and quotas.

Ashland County — Unlike during the 2023 deer season when antlerless permits were available to the public, there will be no antlerless deer harvest in 2024. Ashland County will be buck only except for youth hunters, who will be able to harvest an antlerless deer.

Bayfield County — In 2023, Bayfield County had an antlerless quota of 2,300 deer. In 2024, the antlerless quota will be 1,200 deer. There will be 4,510 permits issued and all will be for private lands. There will be no public land antlerless permits issued in 2024.

Burnett County — For the third year in a row, the Burnett County CDAC elected to reduce their antlerless permits for 2024, with a 10% reduction on private land tags and 20% reduction on public lands. This means there will be 1,120 public land tags and 5,040 private land tags available this fall.

“We have 299 square miles of public land that’s considered deer habitat in Burnett County,” said wildlife biologist Bob Hansen.“With that much public land, we could have a higher antlerless quota there than we do.”

Hansen also said there were comments from the public about the difference between deer numbers in the heavily wooded northern parts of the county and in the more agricultural southern end.

“There seems to be strong public support for going back to habitat-driven deer management units and away from the current county line boundaries,” said Hansen. “That way, the various habitat types could be managed separately.”

Douglas County — In Douglas County, CDAC Chairman and Conservation Congress member Jarid Rankala ran his first CDAC meeting.

“I felt it was important to pick up the torch after the passing of longtime Congress delegate and CDAC Chairman Al Horvath,” said Rankala.

Horvath, who passed away in March of 2022, felt strongly that it was impossible to manage the deer herd in a county the size of Douglas County, with its various types of habitat by using the county boundaries. He felt strongly the county should be broken down into habitat-driven deer management units.

“I’ve been told there’s a good chance those changes will be made in the months to come. For Al’s sake and the good of the deer herd, I’d like to see that happen. Douglas County has the sand area (south of Brule) with its scrub oak and jack pine, the low lands and predator-loaded west side of the county where numbers are low, and the agricultural lands to the north that seem to have better deer numbers,” said Rankala.

Douglas County’s recommendations are similar to the 2023 numbers. The county-wide antlerless quota is 1,300, with 65% going to private land hunters and 35% to public land hunters. There’s a 450 anticipated harvest for youth, disabled and military permit holders. The remaining quota of 850 will be split with 1,235 private land permits and 665 for public land hunters. Rankala said there were 18 members of the public at the recent meeting, adding, “Online comments were primarily related to low deer numbers and the high predator load. Another frequent comment on why it takes 10 years to get a bear tag in Zone A.”

Jeff Pritzil, the WDNR Deer Program specialist, attended the Bayfield and Ashland county meetings this year.

“It’s interesting to observe how different counties are taking different strategies with permit allocation. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it may help inform the changing relationship of antlerless permit availability and buck harvest in subsequent years,” said Pritzil.

Other counties in the northwest corner of the state have yet to hold their CDAC meetings. Sawyer County’s meeting will be held April 29, 6:30 p.m., at the DNR Service Center, 10220 State Hwy. 27, Hayward. The Washburn County meeting will be on May 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the DNR Service Center, 810 W. Maple St., Spooner.