Bowsite.com

CDAC

Has anyone here attended the County Deer Advisory Committee meetings yet?

I attended the first one here in Sawyer County Tuesday evening and was surprised only five people other than the DNR and Committee were there. Two of the Committee memebrs were not there either.

I liked what I saw so far though. The DNR website has all the metrics they use and what the CDAC will be using. There is a lot of information there to digest but if interested I suggest looking at it.

I will be at the enxt meeting and will continue to follow progress. I gave input regarding USFS management and its impact on deer and was given some good feedback. It is about habitat.

DNR showed a bunch of photos from their trailcam surveys in the County. They really showed the winters impact on the deer and elk.

Perhaps one of the meetings might be a tad more important thatn a romp in the woods?

Hopefully hunters will use common sense and make those meetings. Whatever your spin is on those meetings five people is pretty pathetic.

Thanks for posting!

What they should do is have online meetings..more folks would participate if it was a live meeting on line..With today's tech..it is the way to go.

A lot of gun hunters are not there and I doubt every bowhunter is out hunting on a Tuesday night.

The process takes time and look at the timetable you will see how it works.

I don't think they did a great job of announcing these meetings though. I also do not recall anything about signing up to be on the committee. Not sure how the members got on board.

Committees are made up of various interests, hunting, tourism, agriculture to name a few. The tribes were asked to take part but I understand that here they decided to not take part.

This is the main CDAC link.

From the public input section:

"If you wish to speak on a more complex issue, consider emailing or mailing written comments to the council liaison for review prior to the CDAC meeting"

Terrible timing and very little effort on the DNR's part to get this out there.

I agree they should have done as better job of getting the word out. But for timing? I can give two hours during season unless it is the rut or if it were the one day off that I could go hunting instead.

Remember though, it is not as easy to say we will raise, lower or maintain the antlerless numbers. So it takes a lot of time over a few months to decide this.

I got quite a bit out of the meeting like how public/private tags will be set; deer health status;hunter success; antler development,etc. All of which is online but the discussion was interesting and not online.

I'm on ours, it seems like it should work pretty well.

Our first meeting wasn't very well posted, it was more intended to go over what is to be expected and to meet the others on the council. We briefly went over the County metrics and got a hard copy to look at before our next meeting.

Howatt, don't worry about not making a meeting(if it is more important for you to only hunt rather than sit in and listen and have input on your future hunts), that is the reason the DNR has the council set up the way it does. It is kind of up to the council members to talk with the public, in their perspective sectors, to get input to bring to the council meetings.

Thanks Smokey for this post/thread.... Thanks for getting involved....... Nothing is perfect, but its a start...... As for attendance, not much published that I saw, not much effort, but hopefully it will change.....

As for the timing, Rut at this time I have to disagree, this is a time, everyone is fired up about hunting, and deet etc, so other than the rut, it should be in the fall........

I believe the CDAC is a good thing for the public hunter. You also have to remember, most of the hunters that hunt the NW and in your area, do not live there. They travel there and have cabins etc....

So besides the open public meeting , online chat would be very helpful..... you would have thought they would have come up with that.........

Smokey it would be nice, if you could get Paul Strong to the next meeting, and wish he would go across the north...... I wish he would listen to us hunters,,,,,,,,,,,

habitat is the key. You only here it discussed on this site, when it comes to private ownership, and landowners do a good job..... We have to get the USFS on board......I even wish the govenor would get on this, I mean he wants to be open for buisness.....

Well good management, will bring in the hunters, grouse, deer etc, which will bring in money to the local buisnesses..........

I will not be back up north for good till Sunday, I want to attend the Florence meeting, and for Forest Co. Hopefully I can find when they are.......

You listen to all the threads about arguements on which weapon to shoot, or how many deer I have, and you do not, or how many I shoot etc...... You would think those that hunt public land, would be screaming about habitat......

On a bright note, I picked up my new dog yesterday, a 3 year old male lab, he is going to be lovin it where he is going. Hopefully the wolves do not get him....

Little deer, they are getting a taste for the dogs...

I attended both Door and Kewaunee counties last week. Was the only member of the public (outside of the CC chair's wife who came along for the ride and to listen, and some DNR observers) at Sturgeon Bay, and one of about four or five additional interested members of the public at Kewaunee. Door had a full slate of seven council members (plus the chair who isn't voting unless there's a tie). Kewaunee only had three, so after the meeting I volunteered for the DMAP position since I'm the only one in the county who signed on so far.

One of the Door members had it right when he said the poor turnout (despite print, online and radio interviews/stories) was due to a largely apathetic public. Of course, if they ever hear the word "decrease" the herd, then some will come out of the woodwork!

I was somewhat surprised that to a man, all members spoke of high deer numbers, and many commented on the damage to forests and ag. One Door member hit the nail on the head when he stated that no matter how many tags you give out, without EAB folks who won't shoot does still won't. The possibility of requiring X number of does to earn a bonus buck tag may be carrot enough down the road. Then again, guys who already shoot does will anyway, as they know what a healthy herd should look like.

Early archery numbers already a solid mix of bucks and antlerless in my two-county area.

Naz, good to hear from you!

One of the members of our DMAP coop is on our county committee. I think some good things will come from this.

I don't think the purpose of the first meeting was to get the general public to attend. In fact, I'm almost positive it wasn't. Maybe that's why the DNR didn't spread the news more.

The timing is what it is. Most of the members are local and have time one week day evenings. It always seems a lot of hunters always complain about the timing no matter when it is. If you want to go, you will find the time. Plenty of time in most of our lives to do the things we really want to do. The next excuse will be, "My wife won't let me go." That is one of my all time favorites.

BC

Hi BC, DNR did in fact spread the news in their weekly press release package in late August (linked), and the public is welcome to not only attend, but reach out to CDAC members in their local area to provide input.

As you well know, though, there is no right or wrong answer for a blanket-wide approach to deer management. Whether local CDACs vote to increase, decrease or stabilize, there will be plenty of disappointed and even some angry folks on the other side of the fence. Bottom line, it's the same thing DNR has had to deal with since day one: widely differing experiences in the deer woods/fields, largely dependent on habitat and hunting smarts.

Hats off to the DNR though for putting together an incredible amount of data for CDAC members to help guide their decisions (links available to county data available to anyone on the website).

These meetings were held weeknights, well after sunset. Was very interesting to see solid and positive interaction among stakeholders vs. the usual pontificating by the think-they-know-it-alls at some of the public hearings/meetings of the past.

Bow Crazy, I was thinking something in that line too like it would be an organizing meeting, which it was sort of. But the committee members said they had hoped for more turn out. I am sure it will pick up later when word gets out more and there is a little more action taking place.

Now just a suggestion; They could serve beer and pizza! That should get them out in force :-)

Register here to reply to this topic