Patrick Durkin

For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Don’t be surprised April 11 if the annual conservation hearings in Wisconsin’s 72 county seats detour early to discuss this fall’s deer hunting seasons.

After all, deer hunters statewide were shocked last week when citizens serving on the Waupaca County Deer Advisory Council voted unanimously to impose antlerless-only hunting seasons this autumn in hopes of slowing the herd’s growth. The group’s 6-0 preliminary decision to eliminate hunting for antlered bucks from September through early January isn’t final, but it highlights that few options exist for managing whitetails in Wisconsin’s most deer-rich counties.

The Waupaca CDAC also OKed an antlerless-only firearms hunt Dec. 24 to Jan. 1. All CDACs make their final recommendations in public meetings April 18-21.

Meanwhile, 14 other CDACs gave preliminary approval to the nine-day “holiday hunt” when reviewing their county’s deer herds during statewide meetings March 14-17 and 21-24. Counties approving holiday gun-hunts were Barron, Brown, Buffalo, Columbia, Crawford, Lafayette, Manitowoc, Marquette, Milwaukee, Pepin, Richland, Rock, Sauk and Waukesha.

The only other deer-control option the Department of Natural Resources could offer the CDACs was to flood hunters with free antlerless tags. Although the Waupaca CDAC also voted to give each hunter three such tags, history suggests relatively few hunters use free antlerless tags unless forced to do so.

The CDACs cannot impose earn-a-buck restrictions, which require hunters to shoot an antlerless deer before killing an antlered buck. In 2011, state Sens. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls, led efforts to eliminate EAB, and Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill after it passed the Senate and Assembly. DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp stayed silent throughout the debate, despite strong EAB support among agency wildlife biologists.

On the other end of the spectrum, CDACs in nine counties — Ashland, Douglas, Florence, Forest, Iron, Jackson, Oneida, Sawyer and Vilas — voted for buck-only hunts this fall. Deer numbers in many forested and Northwoods regions remain low, prompting opposition to antlerless hunting.

Therefore, despite a 32-page questionnaire featuring 45 topics to review during the annual spring hearings next Monday, it’s possible many of the 72 meetings will devote extensive time to the CDAC update, which is No. 4 on the hearings’ agendas.

Although the spring hearings aren’t set up to take public comment on CDAC recommendations, it might prove difficult to prevent people from trying. In fact, WCC vice chairman Larry Bonde, Manitowoc, said he would allow a hand count if attendees request it.

“A lot of people now wish we had earn-a-buck, so why not let them discuss it?” Bonde said. “This process is showing people that managing deer isn’t as easy as everyone thought it would be.”

Still, Bonde encourages people to visit the CDAC’s page on the DNR website, http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/cdac.html, to provide feedback during the April 4-17 public-comment period. The site includes deer data and hunting-season recommendations for all 72 counties.

The spring hearings are a joint effort of the DNR and Wisconsin Conservation Congress, the 360-member delegation that’s legislatively sanctioned to advise the seven-citizen DNR Board, which sets agency policy.

The DNR and WCC convene the statewide public hearings annually on the second Monday of April at 7 p.m. Unlike other public hearings, attendees mark ballots to support or reject proposed changes to DNR fish and wildlife rules. Of this year’s 45 questions, four are proposed rule changes, none of which involve fishing.

The other 41 items are “advisory questions” from the DNR, WCC and DNR Board, meaning just that: for advice only. If approved, advisory questions usually must be brought back to the spring hearings the following April for consideration as formal rules.

Of this year’s four formal rule proposals, three involve whether hunters should be allowed to leave portable blinds and treestands overnight on state-owed lands north of State 64. The fourth question merely asks whether the state should define legal hours for shooting game as “shooting hours” instead of the current term, “hunting hours.”

Once attendees get past those four nonissues, they’ll consider some interesting advisory questions. For instance, should the DNR …

» Keep issuing antlerless permits on a first-come, first-served basis, or through a random drawing or preference system?

» Shorten the trapping season for beaver and otter by two to four weeks on non-trout waters in northern Wisconsin?

» Create a local public notice and input process separate from the spring hearings to quickly change regulations for specific fish species, or to change fish-consumption advisories?

Attendees also will be asked if they would …

» Favor repealing Act 1, the iron-mining law from 2013.

» Favor a moratorium on new permits for frac-sand mining and processing until completing and implementing new rules from the Strategic Analysis of Industrial Sand Mining.

» Support requiring nontoxic shot on all state-managed lands.

» Support requiring nontoxic fishing tackle under a half-ounce.

» Support legislation to return the appointment of the DNR secretary to the DNR Board.

» Favor legislation to exempt fish and wildlife rules from Act 21, which has lengthened the process to at least 18 months.

» Favor a statutory change to allow bear hunters to apply for preference points up to six years at a time.

» Support allowing CDACs to divide counties into multiple deer-management units.

» Support allowing CDACs in the Southern Farmland Zone to extend the archery and crossbow season to Jan. 31 when holding antlerless-only holiday hunts.

» Favor creating a $75 Senior Citizen Conservation Patron License, which is $90 less than a regular patron license.

» Support establishing a fee-based registration system for nonmotorized watercraft such as canoes and kayaks.

» Support requiring waterfowl blinds to be removed daily.

» Support creating a “wildlife conservation stamp” to generate money for DNR conservation efforts for all wildlife.

» Favor allowing unsuccessful turkey permit holders from time periods 1, 2, 3 and 4 to use their unfilled permits during the fifth and sixth time periods in their zone.

» Favor raising the minimum size limit for muskies on Trout Lake from 45 to 50 inches, and from 40 to 50 inches on North and South Twin Lakes. All three lakes are in Vilas County.

» Favor a rule prohibiting the storing of live game fish for commercial purposes on any water beyond the day it was caught.

Patrick Durkin is a freelance writer who covers outdoors in Wisconsin. Email him at patrickdurkin56@gmailcom.