Buck kill drops
over 20% here

By Kurt Krueger
News-Review Editor

The buck harvest held steady in Forest County but plummeted for a third straight year in Vilas and Oneida counties, which were down 28% and 22%, respectively, for the nine-day season that ended Sunday.

Game managers with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Tuesday morning that the buck kill went as expected in Forest, down just 3% after dropping 40% a year ago.

But Ron Eckstein, a biologist who oversees the two-county area, said the buck kill didn’t hold up. Vilas hunters registered just 669 bucks compared to 928 a year ago, and Oneida hunters registered 1,159 bucks compared to 1,490 last year.

Eckstein said it is obvious that the No. 1 reason for the drop is a lack of deer, due mostly to an overharvest of antlerless deer in 2008 and a severe winter.

“We found out after the 2008 season that the antlerless quotas were too high, but that is the nature of a system where you learn the most about the deer herd after the registrations are way down,” he said.

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