One reason WI has so many non-resident hunters is the relationship of the MSP/St Paul metro area to WI........
We are 47th worst of 50 states in this statistic Foggy. It rolls well past the MSP WI connection.
The economics of deer hunting in southeast Minnesota
On Aug. 3, Michael Sieve presented his case to the Houston County Board of Commissioners. "Deer hunting in southeast Minnesota," he told commissioners, "is not as good as it should be."
As an avid hunter, Sieve brought evidence from a wide variety of sources, including a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources handbook, to support his case that changes should be made in the structure of Minnesota's most popular hunt.
"I'm not suggesting any specific changes," Sieve said in a recent interview, "but we need to set up an independent committee to look at deer management in Minnesota. We need hunters, conservation people, the DNR, farmers, landowners, tourism, businesses... all interested parties, to come together."
The board agreed, passing a resolution Aug. 24 in favor of the formation of just such a committee.
Sieve said that he's debated with wildlife managers for years over the shortcomings of the current system, without a great deal of success. His current argument, which caught the attention of the county board, has to do with the economics of deer hunting.
"I think you can safely make the case that we're losing millions of dollars, many millions of dollars, per year," Sieve noted.
Minnesota is currently ranked 47th in the nation in the percentage of out-of-state deer tags sold.
"I'm not advocating more non-resident hunters," Sieve said last week, "I'm just using that as an indicator of the economic failure, and the economic failure is basically an indicator of the biological failure."
The problem, in a nutshell, is that few Minnesota bucks get to really grow up, Sieve said.
"Right now, Minnesota leads the country in the percentage of yearling bucks in its harvest. We're also the lowest in the percentage of mature bucks in the harvest... The value of our deer has been flushed down the drain, so to speak."
"People are going to other places, and it's affecting the economy," he noted.
Take Iowa, for example. Even though non-resident tags cost $550, there's a waiting line to get them. Tags are offered by drawing and the typical waiting time in some areas approaches three years.
"Preference points" to maintain a person's place in line to get a tag costs an extra $50 per year and out-of-state hunters are paying that readily, just for the chance to hunt Iowa deer.
Minnesota currently charges $140 for non-resident deer hunting. That's a bargain rate and the state should host a lot of hunters, but that's not the case, Sieve noted.
In fact, while Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas average 19 percent in non-resident licenses, Minnesota pulls in just 2.5 percent.
Without mature bucks, Sieve said, Minnesota loses out to its neighbors. In other words, hunters know which states are producing bucks for the record books and they're willing to pay for a crack at them.
Sieve pulled out a copy of a MnDNR publication called "The Whitetail Deer Handbook, 2000 edition." Some references from that tract, "The season framework emphasizes the taking of bucks. The opening dates are set during the time of peak breeding activity when bucks are most vulnerable."
Another quote from the same booklet... "This (system) has resulted in a shift in the age structure of antlered deer toward younger deer, reducing the number of older bucks."
Sieve says studies indicate 87 percent of bucks in Minnesota die at 2-1/2 years old or less.
For places like Houston County, the loss of potential income for local businesses is much greater than elsewhere, Sieve noted.
In a study published in Fair Chase magazine in 2009, Canadian author Greg Sanders broke the entire North American continent into 182 "eco-regions," then rated them as potential producers of trophy deer.
"The number one eco-region in all of North America is the 'drift-less zone,' which includes parts of Southwest Wisconsin, Northwest Illinois, Northeast Iowa and Southeast Minnesota. Houston County, in other words, ranks with best of the best in terms of trophy potential. If that were ever realized, the area would benefit from a lot of in-state, as well as out-of-state, tourism dollars," Sieve noted.
Current management plans have failed in four basic areas, Sieve argues:
• Fewer trophy deer are being produced than if we had a more balanced herd in terms of bucks/does and younger/older deer;
• Population control is failing, resulting in crop losses and higher rates of deer vs. car accidents;
• Concentration of the hunt is resulting in poor-quality hunting; and
• The economics brought on by the first three failures brings on a fourth, as our area is no longer a "hunting destination," costing local businesses a lot of money.
A few "band-aid" solutions are being tried, Sieve said, including "antler point restrictions" and the elimination of "cross tagging" in certain parts of the state.
While those are good ideas, an extended firearms season due this year may make it hard for bucks to survive. The only way to control deer populations is to include more does in the mix, Sieve noted.
"The thing to keep in mind is the value of whitetail deer," he concluded. "Right now whitetail deer are clearly the most valuable big game animal on earth, so we are truly blessed to be living right in the middle of the most valuable, most popular, big game animal area on earth.
"We're lucky to be living in the area that has the greatest potential for producing these deer, and what are we getting for it?"
