TOMAHAWK - Tomahawk man, Kevin Grenzer is the creator of a campaign called "Save Wisconsin's Deer Hunt."
Grenzer says through this movement he'll take hunters letters and comments to DNR headquarters in Madison.
Kevin Grenzer has been hunting in the Northwoods for more than 20 years, but he says the 2009 gun deer hunt was not pretty, "I saw one doe on Monday and I hunted every day all day long."
Grenzer says he's not the only one who had bad luck, many hunters report seeing few deer this season and Ron Eckstein, a wildlife biologist for the DNR in Rhinelander says there's a reason for this, "Overall the population is down."
Grenzer says hunters need to work with the DNR to get the deer numbers back up. So he started the "Save Wisconsin's Deer Hunt" campaign in hopes of voicing the concerns of hunters up north, "The back tags and letters I do accumulate I will take down to Madison personally and hand over to the DNR."
Ron Eckstein says the DNR is always welcome to feedback from hunters, "They can get petitions and this has happened through the years, people want more deer, less deer, so, yes, that's the way to do it."
Eckstein says, the DNR is already working with hunters. He says during local hearings, hunters persuaded the agency to issue fewer 2009 antlerless tags to help rebuild the herd, "Many units here in Northeastern Wisconsin had very low or zero, so we went even lower than we normally would, because we listened to hunters this spring."
Grenzer and Eckstein agree hunters and the DNR need to work together to ensure the deer population stays healthy in order to keep this much-loved Northwoods tradition alive for future generations
Ron Eckstein says with the work the DNR and hunters are currently doing to rebuild the local deer herd, numbers should start to grow by next year, if the winter isn't too harsh, with the population almost back to normal by 2011.
If you'd like to participate in Kevin Grenzer's campaign you can send you letters or unused tags to the address listed below:
Save Wisconsin Deer Hunt
PO Box 1
Tomahawk WI 54487
Story By: Alex Ronallo
