Leadership, Messaging, Views on News • December 4th, 2009

Blasting away at the DNR

by Chris Lato

Whoa. The wrath of the Men (and Women) in Orange is swift and fierce.

It was a dismal deer hunting season, not only anecdotally but also based on the raw numbers. Now, when one of the most powerful politicians in the state is calling for your head, the need to manage the environment versus the need to keep license/tourism revenue flowing in is coming to a head, politically speaking.

This is not some tiny corner-office government operation here. We’re talking a multi-billion dollar industry that impacts the economy at the local and state levels. With more than 638-thousand gun licenses sold this year, this is a loud constituency that will not be ignored.

(And just for the record: I have hunted in the past but did not go this year. Thanks to the lack of deer and my generally terrible aim, sounds like I didn’t miss much – literally.)

For years, some within the DNR have groused about the heavy hand with which the Doyle administration has imposed its will. This raises an interesting question: considering Doyle appoints the DNR secretary and his administration has actively asserted its power, is the administration therefore to blame for the cruddy hunting season – by Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker’s assessment, the second bad season in a row?

Was the administration asleep at the switch? Would having the DNR Secretary appointed by the Natural Resources Board be better or worse in addressing what some, including Decker, consider terrible mismanagement of a vital environmental and fiscal resource?

Presumably, even though he’s a lame duck, Doyle should care enough to use that influence of his to determine what has gone awry in the deer management sector and impose the changes he sees fit.

This is the chance for the politicos in charge to prove that having the DNR ‘politicized’ is the right thing to do. It will be interesting to see where they take the challenge.

There is also a PR issue here for the DNR, which would surely argue that calculating the size of the deer herd is scientific and nuanced. But hunters who are P.O’d about not seeing a single whitetail in the woods don’t give a rip about nuance. DNR bashing is its own sport in Wisconsin and after this season, it may well reach a new peak that the agency will have to figure out how to respond to.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Leadership, Messaging, Views on News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.