I know it's hard to explain and seems very foreign Brooks, but the new method we are using in WI doesn't necessarily use those hard set numbers to set the actual antlerless quotas any longer. They are now just one of many metrics used to determine antlerless quotas. It is very strange to me as well and I have been following this from the onset. It is a work in progress and may turn out to be a miserable failure in the end, no one knows right now. WI still gathers and compiles all the same data that they always have(and even more now), and they put it together at the county(DMU) level for use by everyone, as it is posted on their website. This includes the County Deer Advisory Committees, who each receive a packet of info to use for decision making at the upcoming meeting sessions. Do we still have 25 or 30 or 40 DPSM data numbers, sure, but it is not a number that they try to hold for the sake of harvest goals. Instead they look at the overall package of deer herd health, habitat health, hunting satisfaction rates, non-hunting stakeholder issues, and a whole bunch of other data, and they come up with a recommendation on whether they should issue enough antlerless tags to either Increase/Stabilize/Decrease the current herd(whatever it might be at the time) above or below whatever that current number happens to be, notice they DO NOT use a % number like they do in MN. The DNR of course has the option to deny the recommendation if the data shows that the recommendation is not in the best interest of herd health or stakeholder issues, the Natural Resources Board has the ability to "adjust" the goals outside of the recommendation if they have compelling reasons to do so, such as disease breakouts. If we use 25 DPSM as a starting example, and we(the public and the CDAC's) recommend to stabilize the herd numbers, in 3 years when we reevaluate the "goals", we should still have very near to 25 DPSM. Say the DNR over those 3 years missed the mark on their antlerless tag sales and the herd dropped to 18 DPSM, the public and the CDAC for that area could then recommend to Increase the herd, so less tags would be issued for the next 3 year period. The opposite would hold true if the number of tags issued by the DNR failed to control the deer numbers and we went from 25 to 35 and the non-hunting stakeholders started having issues with the increased population, due to say an increase in ag or browse damages in their area. The CDAC could then issue a 3 year recommendation of Decrease, so that the DNR could issue more antlerless tags to reduce numbers to again get the herd to a level that is healthy for the deer and the surrounding habitat and acceptable to the majority of the stakeholder groups. I know it seems like it could be a smoke and mirrors thing with an agenda, but I assure you that this process is and will always continue to be monitored heavily by the hunters of WI.
