The WI NRB voted to close the Northern Zone grouse season one month early. A truly symbolic measure which accomplishes nothing measurable. Calling this a “cautionary approach” one must somehow twist the definition of caution to mean restricting harvest and protecting the resource as little as possible. A true cautionary approach would have included reduced daily harvest and possession limits. Why did WI reduce the Woodcock harvest from five to three more than decade ago?
That late season hunter harvest is compensatory (birds harvested are otherwise going to die before breeding anyways, so we might as well harvest them) may hold some validity when the populations are robust. To suggest late season hunter harvest is equally compensatory at low points in the cycle is utterly illogical. At some point the population’s ability to recover will be affected, less the compensatory harvest fan boys try to prove their point after shooting the last bird in the county. Unfortunately, scientific information comes slowly. When the data finally comes in, it may not explain what IS happening, but rather what DID happen.
This is not a cautionary approach to wildlife management, it’s appeasement. The same appeasement based, too-little too-late management approach that drove Northern WI deer populations to a 25 year low and has CWD spiraling out of control here.
Kaz has this one right. JS Online