What Deer? What Moose?
Your “DEAR DNR” article about how Minnesota deer hunters want “GREATER DEER DENSITY” was both misleading and an example of a “dog whistle”.
I thought at first the Minnesota map shaded across the N half of the state was an identification of Minnesota wolf country where protected wolf densities have attained all-time highs, but then I noticed they were big game hunting UNITS and assumed they were areas where moose hunting was formerly allowed for decades until closed in 2014 probably forever because of a lack of moose. Then I saw where the UNITS were the Minnesota deer hunting UNITS where 60 to 80% of the deer hunters want “Greater Deer Densities” (i.e. “more” deer as was the case for decades before wolf protection).
You report that, “The deer harvest statewide hit 291 thousand in 2003 before tumbling to a low of 140 thousand in 2014”. As a retired federal wildlife biologist, I have no doubt that the burgeoning wolf population has (as they did in the Upper Rockies, on Isle Royale and do continually in Alaska) killed the moose from adults to fetuses and now are zeroing in on the deer. What else is there for them to eat? What happens when wolf numbers are reduced dramatically (Isle Royale and Alaska are prime examples)? Moose increase and in the current Minnesota case, the deer would increase as well.
But your paper and the DNR purposely keep this matter muddled up as Minnesota’s renewable natural resources are disappearing. When you wonder about where the moose went; you blame global warming, ticks, unspecified disease and the need for more DNR funding. Is that the problem with deer? Your article never mentions the “W”-word but it does assure all your anti-hunter/environmentalist/animal rights’ readers that the DNR will “balance non-hunting interests too” and will “integrate ‘human dimensions’ with ‘biological decisions’”. Translation: wolves (the dreaded ”W”- word never mentioned in the article) won’t be blamed and won’t be disturbed in any way as they destroy Minnesota deer hunting just as they did Minnesota moose hunting; oh and remember us (your servants at the DNR and this paper) when there are no more license dollars and Excise Taxes to pay our salaries or outdoorsmen to read this paper.
You see, a “dog whistle” can only be heard by the dog or dogs and only they and the whistle blower know that a signal has been given.
Jim Beers
6 April 2016
