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Al Brown | Tracking the Seasons
Absent snowfall meant thin harvest in 2011
The tracks across the front lawn were made by the tires of a pickup truck, not by a team of reindeer pulling a laden sleigh across a snow-covered lawn.
The multiple sets of boot prints in the frosty grass were the trademarks of hard working fathers, hunters and football fanatics returning from last minute Christmas shopping.
With no measurable snow here in southeastern Wisconsin, there were few visible clues to give testament to the type of year 2011 has been.
Here in the CWD (chronic wasting disease) zone in southern Wisconsin, a light blanket of snow would have been more than welcome on Christmas Eve, which also was the opening day of the holiday gun deer hunt which runs through Jan. 8.
Without enough snow for tracking during the Holiday Hunt, many would-be deer hunters just put their deer guns away as they wait for safe ice to form so they can go fishing.
Starting in October, we've had a two-day youth only gun hunt and also a four-day anterless deer hunt. Then we had a break for almost a month before the regular nine-day gun season, which was followed immediately by a 10-day muzzleloader season and then followed by a second four-day anterless hunt. After another break, we now have a two-week Holiday Hunt.
After the first couple of shots following a snowless opening weekend of the regular nine-day gun deer hunt, the question "Where have all the deer gone?" was heard echoing through nearly every woodlot.
Without snow, there were no deer tracks to follow. Without snow, it can be difficult to spot a lone standing deer in a leafless dark gray woods.
If you can't see a deer to shoot, a pocket full of unused carcass tags won't take up much space in an empty freezer. Unfortunately, those tags don't fry up very well, either.
Without so much as a dusting of tracking snow, few of these multiple little gun deer seasons in southern Wisconsin are able to meet the hopes of the Department of Natural Resources.
Health wise, the lack of snow and cold can be beneficial to the deer, but that doesn't help the hunters to thin the herd.
Some hunters have reported finding dropped antlers already, which indicates harder hunting for late-season trophy hunters. Normally the antlers are dropped from late January through March.
With 64 years of deer hunting experience to reflect back on and more than 100 Wisconsin Whitetails harvested using both bow and gun, I've come to the conclusion that the secret to thinning our state's herd to a manageable size is not a handful of little seasons spread over four-plus months, but rather a single four-week season for both bow and gun hunting running from mid-November to mid-December.
Today is Jan. 1, 2012. Hopefully it marks the beginning of a happier, healthier and more prosperous new year.
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