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Forest preserve culling

Anyone else tired of seeing the Lake county forest preserve culling notifications going up again. I don’t understand why they won’t let us do the culling for them. They pay a lot of money for “ sharpshooters “ to use rifles at night over bait. ( hate that) I would pay a small fee to be able to hunt close to home. I walk the preserves regularly and I think they have pretty much cleaned the deer out of the area. Talked to a few guys that hunt private ground in the area and they are seeing less deer. Anyone else interested in ending the culling? Hunting the forest preserves?

Lol several years ago I drew the best zone in the inaugural Kane County archery hunt. Found multiple rubs on 10”-14” cypress trees, put up cams and no mature bucks. My hunt sucked. Afterwards was on a business call and guy said his son was a sharpshooter for forest preserve. He spoke with him and found he shot many bucks on the adjacent private land including 160”, 180” & 200” all of which racks were incinerated. Nice huh?

I actually hunt on private ground next to a forest preserve and have been dealing with that for 15 years now. I’ve learned to just deal with it because nothing is going to change.

I’ve seen the process and they’ll take a certain amount out of each preserve. This is determined by a fly over with an airplane to see what the population is like. They’ll shoot anything at the bait pile, big or small, and the meat is processed and given to a shelter.

I had the same thought in the past about letting people hunt it for a fee but it’s not about the money. They have plenty, look at your tax bill, and it may be supported by insurance companies as well. Because that’s less money they pay out when there’s a car vs deer accident. No deer = no accident.

Dupage cty allows forest preserves to be hunted. You can apply and get like 2 weeks to hunt. Maybe longer , can't remember exactly but they have several hunters and each get a period of time.

I spoke with a Dupage County Forest preserve employee once and asked the same question, according to him, they did not want to allow archers to shoot deer because they did not want deer falling down dead in the neighboring yards. Seems plausible, and a lame excuse, at the same time.

I believe McHenry allows hunting of their forest preserves. Don't think DuPage allows it but I could be wrong.

Tim, I walk the trails quite often at the lake county forest preserve on the outskirts of wauconda. 5 years ago you would easily see 30 plus deer anytime of day, today your lucky to see one. Last year I sent a letter to the lcfp director asking about bowhunting implementation. Her response was very defensive and 100% anti hunting. Instead of paying for sharp shooters, hunting could generate money by implementing land access fees. Blocking sections off and having lcfp officers coordinating, although I'm not sure what they do when temps fall and less people frequent the fp besides opening/closing gates. (I'm sure they do more, I just don't know there full role besides patroling the dog park) Getting permission to hunt private land around here is extremely difficult so it would be a great opportunity for sportsmen. Lake Co fp has definitely acquired a lot of land over the last decade.

I have always wondered if the culling reports are easily available to the public, I did a simple search today and found the following:

https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/programs/CWD/Documents/2019-2020%20CWD%20Annual%20Summary.pdf

Thoughts?

It was explained to me by a biologist and it ain't good. Once they decide on an area to be shot up they do it for five,yes five years. If in the fifth year of shooting if they get no positive CWD results they stop shooting. They believe a younger herd is a healthier herd and they plan on get the herd down to the youngest ever. Face it guys, if your hunting public it ain't going to be what it once was.

LBshooter, It has been bad for the last 10 years that I have hunted! I live in Dekalb county and have been traveling to different areas down south in search of deer. I got an invite to go and hunt central WI, I will most likely take the offer. I was told that if I don't get a deer it will be my own fault! Eight months to go!

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