BWA Newsletter - Winter 2006

• Managing deer in the Midwest

• A message from BWA's president...

• Button buck or doe?

• Member profiles

• Pope & Young Club announces conservation grants

• BWA annual meeting held

• In the spotlight...Glenn Helgeland, President, Target Communications

• 2006 Minnesota deer and turkey expo

• Seminar schedule for 2006 expo

• Food plots—starting new

• Minnesota Quality Deer Management, Inc.

• Physical high grading

• Quiz: Common game regulations

• Who is The Nature Conservancy?

• Direct seeding of hardwoods

Managing deer in the Midwest

Marrett Grund, Ph.D.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Farmland Wildlife Populations & Research Group

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There is not a better quote to summarize the current situation we are in with managing deer populations throughout most of the eastern United States, including Minnesota and Wisconsin. I am employed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), so I will focus my discussion and talking points on Minnesota issues. I believe it is important for readers to understand that my role as a scientist is to conduct research studies and provide DNR wildlife managers and policy-makers with scientific information, not to provide my opinions or personal beliefs. My opinion counts as much as any other Minnesota deer hunter, so I will only focus on the science behind deer management.

Why new deer hunting regulations?

Like many other eastern states, Minnesota has very high deer densities in some parts of the state. Managing overabundant deer populations has quickly emerged as one of the greatest challenges for many state wildlife agencies. Also, like most other states, the foundation of many of our deer hunting regulations were designed 30+ years ago when the goal was to allow deer hunting to occur each year but also to enable the deer population to grow. Briefly, the basis of these regulations allowed for the harvest of one deer per year. Because adult bucks have little impact on the population growth of deer populations, all hunters were allowed to harvest an antlered deer anywhere within the hunting zone that the individual applied (for example, zone 1, zone 2, zone 3A, zone 3B, zone 4A, and zone 4B). Under this system, the DNR would provide a quota of antlerless hunting permits that would allow lottery winners to also hunt antlerless deer. This system worked well in that we could control the number of antlerless deer harvested and allow the population to grow. Under any measure, this program was designed perfectly. An unlimited number of hunters could hunt each year, yet the population could grow. This strategy made a lot of sense in the 1970s when deer densities were relatively low and the intent was to increase deer numbers.

Minnesota’s deer population is at, or near, an all-time high thanks to this management program and 10 consecutive years of relatively mild winters. High deer densities might be fun for hunting, but hunters (including myself) have to understand our role as conservation stewards. Like every other state in the country, recreational hunting is the primary means used by wildlife agencies to manage deer populations. In situations where hunting is not a viable option, often in urban situations, other management techniques such as sharpshooting are used to manage deer populations. This is not a scare tactic, but this does demonstrate that there are different ways to manage deer populations other than hunting. If hunters and hunting cannot successfully manage deer populations, society can, and will, find an alternative approach to manage deer populations. A good example is Iowa last winter. Due to perceived overabundant deer densities by the public-at-large, the Iowa legislature was under tremendous political pressure to force the Iowa DNR to drastically reduce deer densities. It is important for us to be cognizant that we live in a democracy and hunters only represent about 10 percent of the human population. It is also imperative to understand that this percentage is likely to drop as baby boomers in the hunting population retire from deer hunting.

So, we currently have a deer program that was very successful at allowing hunting to occur each year but also allow the population to grow. We are also in a situation where some deer permit areas have high deer densities, and it is extremely important for hunters to embrace the idea of harvesting more antlerless deer so that the population does not continue to grow. Many hunters will say something like, “If the deer population is so high, just allow hunters to harvest as many antlerless deer as possible.” Over the past few years, the DNR has tweaked the deer program by allowing hunters to purchase up to five antlerless licenses in areas where deer densities were high so that antlerless harvests would increase. In some areas, this regulation change has worked and deer densities have been stabilized or have decreased. However, it has not been successful in many deer permit areas. What we have learned from the deer harvest data is that about 84 percent of hunters only harvest one deer, about 13 percent of hunters harvest two deer, and only 3 percent of hunters harvest three or more deer. This indicates that the vast majority of hunters are only harvesting one deer regardless of the number of antlerless licenses that could be purchased, which indicates that the traditional management program of allowing unlimited antlered harvests AND virtually unlimited antlerless harvests will not allow deer population reduction to occur in all instances. Again, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We could probably keep trying to tweak the program but considering alternative management strategies is a more appropriate management option.

Management options

In parts of Minnesota, I have major concerns about trying to use the traditional management program to manage high deer densities. Of course, the first question most hunters ask is “So, what are our options?” I have said this before, and I will always say this, there are a million different ways to manage deer populations and deer harvests. Take a look at any other state and you will find that we all do things slightly different. Some states allow more hunting opportunities and other states are more restrictive. The key is having a management goal. Once a goal is established, many management strategies fall by the wayside because the strategy is too conservative or too liberal. If the goal is population reduction, the goal will always be to increase the numerical antlerless harvest so that high harvest rates (the percent of females in a population that are harvested) allow the population to be reduced. One of the major components to our current management program is redefining deer population goals using a public input process. This may appear to be a simple, unimportant process to some people. However, it literally is the foundation of our deer management program.

Although we are in uncharted waters with regards to making sweeping changes to the Minnesota deer management program, some state wildlife agencies have made major regulatory changes to their deer programs. I evaluated and considered regulations used in some of these states to test how the regulations might work in Minnesota. I selected three regulations that may be the most effective at reducing high deer densities. This evaluation project is referred to by the DNR as the Alternative Deer Management Project. I will identify each regulation, describe some states that have used these regulations, and then describe the management rationale behind the regulation.

Early antlerless season

The Wisconsin DNR has allowed early and late antlerless-only seasons (T-Zones) in management units where deer densities were high. The idea behind this regulation is to provide an additional opportunity for hunters willing to hunt antlerless deer. In other words, hunters who may not support the regulation do not have to hunt during the additional season and the season does not impact those hunters. In Minnesota, the antlerless-only season occurs before the firearms season for two primary reasons: 1) based on Wisconsin’s harvest data, the vast majority of the harvest occurs during the early season rather than the late season, and more importantly 2) if 84 percent of hunters only harvest one deer, I would prefer that deer to be an antlerless deer in order to increase the antlerless deer harvest.

An additional benefit from the regulation is removing deer earlier in the year. The month of November is the peak month when deer-vehicle collisions occur. By removing deer prior to November, hunters may be able to reduce the number of antlerless deer crossing highways. Clearly, I am not saying that this will eliminate the deer-vehicle collision peak that occurs in November, but it may help reduce it. A similar case could be made about the impacts of deer browsing on trees and shrubs. If deer are going to be removed in November anyway, we might as well remove deer earlier in the year so that the number of deer browsing in our forests is reduced during the fall.

Also, some hunters and hunting organizations are concerned about buck-to-doe ratios during the rut. The theory relates to breeding ecology and suggests that skewed buck-to-doe ratios will reduce the intensity of the rut. Buck-to-doe ratios can be adjusted more toward 1 to 1 by reducing the harvest rate of bucks or increasing the harvest rate on does. For example, say we have a population of 100 adult deer on October 1st and 35 of these deer are adult males and 65 of them are adult females (a 1:1.9 buck-to-doe ratio). Now say we held an early antlerless season and the harvest resulted in a 20 percent harvest rate (we harvested 20 percent of the adult females), there would then be 35 adult males and 52 adult females in the population after the early antlerless season. Due to the early antlerless-only season, the November 1st ratio is now a 1:1.5 buck-to-doe ratio (down from 1:1.9 on October 1st).

Probably the number one complaint I have heard from hunters about the early antlerless-only season comes from bowhunters. Most of these complaints relate to bowhunters having to share one of their hunting weekends with firearms hunters in pursuit of antlerless deer. I have no doubt that some bowhunters did see firearms hunters and felt upset that they had to share their time with firearms hunters. However, the DNR attempted to minimize this conflict by choosing a weekend in October that typically has the lowest archery harvests.

Antler point restriction regulations

I have no idea why this is, but antler restrictions create a substantial amount of debate with individual hunters, politicians, deer managers, and wildlife managers. Quite frankly, I don’t care so much for the debate. I am really only interested in the biological effects on deer populations and the social science behind the regulation on human populations. However, I find some humor in these debates because every state that I am familiar with, including Minnesota and Wisconsin, already has an antler restriction regulation in effect. In Minnesota, a male deer that does not have 3-inch spikes is considered an antlerless deer. Yes, this IS an antler restriction because it regulates both antlered and antlerless harvests!

Arkansas, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania have used antler point restriction regulations (a buck can only be harvested if it has 3- or 4-points on one of its antlers) for the past 4-10 years. During the past two years, Missouri has used antler point restriction regulation in about half of the state. As a means to control deer population growth, the concept behind this regulation is to increase the antlerless harvest by reducing the antlered deer harvest. Remember, there are about 84 percent of hunters who will harvest only one deer. We may be able to increase the antlerless harvest by having that one deer be an antlerless deer rather than an antlered deer. An antler point restriction regulation makes it more difficult to harvest a buck because about half of the legal yearling bucks are “protected” from harvest. Because the overall buck harvest is reduced and 84 percent of hunters will only harvest one deer, hunters typically are more willing to harvest an antlerless deer thereby increasing the antlerless harvest.

There are many, and I mean MANY, perceived problems with antler point restriction regulations. One of the most common reasons from deer managers is that antler point restrictions did not work in some western states on mule deer. One of the most common responses to that problem is that they worked well in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania and are working well in Missouri. In most instances, however, these states do not have empirical data using a scientific study to demonstrate that these regulations do or do not work.

The effect this regulation has on the gene pool of deer is a common concern shared by some hunters and wildlife managers. The concern is that by harvesting bucks that have a certain number of points on their antlers, we will remove the most genetically superior bucks in the population and their genes would no longer be passed down to the next generation. I have not seen any published studies that show that this happens however. There was a study conducted in Mississippi that concluded that antler point restriction regulations “may negatively impact cohort antler size in subsequent years.” If you just read those nine words, you may go away with the idea that antler point restriction regulations do have a direct impact on genetics. However, antler characteristic data used to evaluate the antler point restriction regulation in Mississippi was collected in 1992, 1993, and 1994 (pre-antler point restriction regulations) and 1996, 1997, and 1998 (post-antler point restriction regulations). The problem with this experiment is that the effect “high-grading” bucks (harvesting only genetically superior bucks) would have on the population would not be apparent during 1996, 1997, or 1998.

In Mississippi, the hunting season occurs after the rut, so females that were bred in 1995 (the initial year of antler point restrictions) by males were not affected by the antler point restriction regulation. However, the high-grading effect would have had an effect on which bucks were doing the breeding in 1996. So let’s say that the genetically inferior bucks did the breeding in 1996. The fawn bucks born from these genetically inferior bucks would not have been born until the summer of 1997. During the hunting season of 1997, these inferior bucks would have been button bucks and considered antlerless deer. During the fall of 1998, the fawn bucks born in the summer of 1997 by the genetically inferior bucks would have been yearling bucks and could have bred with does. The fawns produced by these genetically inferior bucks would not have had antlers on their heads until 2000 (they would have been button bucks in 1999). So the effects antler point restriction regulations would have had on negatively impacting antler size would not have been apparent until the year 2000—three years after the authors quit collecting data. As a side note, like baldness in humans, females also pass genes responsible for antler development.

Probably the most common problem perceived by hunters is that antler point restriction regulations become a “shoot-and-sort regulation.” I’m not sure why this is, but many hunters believe that other hunters are “crooked” and will not abide by hunting rules and regulations. OK, this is not my opinion; this is an ethical standard that I hope all other deer hunters share with me. If a hunter is not sure an animal (deer, pheasants, etc.) is legal under any regulation, do NOT pull the trigger. For a number of Minnesota deer hunting seasons, I hunted with no antlerless license because I was not a lottery winner. I could not hunt antlerless deer during these years. During this time, I saw several deer with small spikes and I was not sure if the antlers were 3 inches in length, so I did not pull the trigger. The same holds true with antler point restrictions. If a hunter sees an antlered deer running across the field and cannot determine the number of points it has, do not pull the trigger. It IS that simple. I hope all ethical hunters agree with me. If not, I personally hope that you do not continue hunting because the message you send to society is that hunters are sloppy humans who cannot abide by the law.

I was part of a research project conducted in Pennsylvania to evaluate antler point restriction regulations. We tagged almost 500 bucks with small ear-transmitters that hunters could not see. These little transmitters allowed us to determine whether the buck was alive or dead and where the deer was living. We heard a lot of stories about antler point restriction regulations and that they simply did not work in Colorado and other western states, mostly because hunters were killing bucks and letting them lay in the woods. But nobody could tell us how many bucks were actually laying dead in the woods. We also heard from other biologists that the small bucks being protected from the restriction simply did not show up as larger bucks in the following years. So we wanted to find out what actually happened to the bucks when antler point restriction regulations were adopted. We found that the vast majority of bucks were legally harvested and only a small percentage of the bucks were illegally killed due to not having the minimum number of points. We also learned that protected bucks occasionally dispersed, but did show up in the harvests in subsequent years as older-aged animals. We concluded that, in terms of a deer management strategy, antler point restriction regulations could be used as part of a deer management program. Clearly, Pennsylvania deer hunters did an excellent job at determining whether the buck was legal before pulling the trigger. Today, hunters are only harvesting about two-thirds of the bucks that were harvested prior to antler point restriction regulations, but the bucks are larger and are older-aged animals. I am not saying that antler point restriction regulations did or did not work in Colorado, but if the goal is to protect small bucks, they clearly worked in Pennsylvania.

Earn-a-buck regulations

Earn-a-buck regulations have been used in areas of Wisconsin where deer densities have been well above goal. If the goal is to increase the antlerless harvest and decrease the antlered harvest (one of the basic premises of quality deer management), this regulation will be the most effective at achieving that goal. This regulation has to be the most effective because all hunters do not have an option of shooting a buck or a doe. If a hunter wants to shoot a buck, the hunter has to first shoot an antlerless deer. Earn-a-buck regulations have been very effective at increasing the antlerless harvest but have also been very controversial in Wisconsin. In fact, despite having deer densities above prescribed management goals, the Wisconsin DNR is no longer using the regulation to reduce deer densities. Now Wisconsin must try to manage a high density deer population with traditional hunting regulations.

What’s next?

My next series of articles will focus on alternative deer management regulations and what we are learning from the alternative deer management project being conducted in Minnesota. I will also discuss other regulations such as changing season timing and season length. There is much more to come!

A message from BWA's president...

Another hunting season has passed with just memories remaining of our successes and perhaps a few unsuccessful events. Hunting experiences make great memories. It seems like these memories and hunting stories get better with the passing of time. We all remember our first hunting experience; including when, where and who we were sharing it with. Next comes the first deer harvest, and the memories and stories continue to grow and prosper. Looking back, one quickly realizes the camaraderie of sharing the experiences with family and friends is the basic core of our memories; not whether we were successful in our “hunt!”

In a few weeks BWA will be working with Target Communications sponsoring a three-day “Deer & Turkey” expo at the Four Seasons Centre located at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna, Minnesota. The details can be found later in this newsletter. I know I’m going to attend the free seminars by famous local outdoor writer, Gary Clancy, and nationally-known deer hunting expert, Gordon Whittington.

Late in the fall, a detailed deer hunter’s survey was mailed out to several hundred hunters in southeast Minnesota. DNR Big Game Coordinator, Lou Cornicelli, wrote this survey. The results will be available late winter. It will be interesting to take these survey results and combine them with the work being done by Farmland Research Biologist, Marrett Grund (see cover article), to look at the future plans and goals for southeast Minnesota deer hunting. When you consider how many different interest groups (landowners, hunters, general public, etc.) are involved in these future plans, it is easy to see how complicated it becomes to design future hunting regulations. Fortunately, we have two great, insightful people working on this project; Mr.Grund and Mr. Cornicelli.

BWA member Jack Peck has put forth a lot of effort the past two years putting together a program for hunters to donate harvested deer and have the meat processed free and donated to charity. This past hunting season, Jack implemented a small, but very successful, program. We all owe him a big “Thank You” for all of his efforts. Jack (new director) and the board of directors are working towards making this program much better and larger in the future!

Five new board directors were elected at the annual BWA meeting. I am looking forward to working with them in the near future when they share their new ideas and enthusiasm.

If you have any questions or comments regarding BWA, please email me at info@blufflandwhitetails.org or call me at 507-772-4422.

—Jim Vagts, president

Button buck or doe?

“A quick, easy way to minimize button buck harvest.”

by Scot Bjornson

The number of hunters passing on small bucks these days continues to slowly rise with each passing season. True, most are probably doing this so they can have better bucks to hunt, but each year more people are also learning about the other benefits of passing small bucks and taking an antlerless deer instead. Things like population control and controlling the number of deer per acre of habitat in order to keep the habitat healthy. This growing trend is good news for all hunters, and the deer herd.

For many hunters, especially 3A hunters who are used to taking bucks only, shooting at antlerless deer can be “new” territory so to speak. And anyone who is inclined to pass up small bucks probably does not want to shoot an antlerless deer in the name of good deer management... and then find out later that it is a button buck. But with more and more buck hunters now shooting at antlerless deer, there are bound to be more button bucks taken. And for those trying to grow better bucks this can be disappointing. I have several friends to which this very thing has happened this year. What to do?

Many reading this probably already know this, but I would like to share what I think is a “darn near” foolproof method of avoiding button buck harvest. It’s quick, easy and involves looking at the part of the deer that we already are conditioned to look at first—the head.

Young deer, like our own children, do not have fully developed noses. And, with very little practice, a person can determine if an antlerless deer is an adult, or a fawn, simply by looking at the length and shape of that deer’s nose. Put in the simplest manner, if the head on an antlerless deer looks “short and blocky,” you are looking at a fawn which could be male or female. If the head on an antlerless deer has a long, slender-looking nose, you are looking at an adult doe.

It can be difficult at times, depending on how close you are, etc., to determine male fawns from female fawns using this method. But I haven’t worried about that too much because I want meat from antlerless deer and the more the better. Adult doe deer provide a lot more meat than fawns do. So, using this method, I have always taken only adult does and no fawns, male or female. This method gives me the most “bang for my ...‘Doe’ ” so to speak, which helps put more meat in the freezer. By using this quick, simple method I have always managed to avoid tagging a button buck. I should also add that keeping your shots a close range affair is obviously a big help as well. And so is observing that antlerless deer’s behavior. For example, if you see a single antlerless deer just “casually” roaming around during early November, it’s very likely he’s a button buck. Conversely, antlerless deer which display cautious, snappy, alert head movements are likely mature does. But for me, the quickest simplest way has been to look at the shape of the head and the length of the nose. I hope it works as well for anyone reading this. A few pictures have been included as examples of “nose length.” As they say, “seeing is believing.”

Button buck

Doe

Member profiles

Bob Borowiak
Houston, MN
Wife: Barb
Children: Jamie, Karla and Lisa
Occupation: City of Houston Main Supervisor - 27 years

I started squirrel hunting with my dad when I was 10 years old and deer hunted with my cousin when I was 14.  I took my first deer the first year I hunted, a huge button buck.  After that first button buck, I was hooked on Whitetail hunting for life. Through the years, I have pursued a wide variety of small and big game.   Now my main passion is bowhunting mature whitetails.

Some time, years ago, Mike Sieve and I talked about the low number of mature bucks in southeastern Minnesota compared to other states we had hunted.  We thought we had habitat as good as or better than other Midwestern states but weren’t achieving the same results. At that point, we met with the DNR representative and discussed our ideas of changing whitetail deer hunting management strategies.  The DNR agreed with some of our ideas; however, changes would not be made without a ground swell of support by southern Minnesota deer hunters.

The next step was to try and organize local hunters and hunting groups to gauge the attitudes of the hunters.  We discovered the vast majority of deer hunters wanted changes made in deer management.  Shortly thereafter a meeting was set up in Houston to explore the possibility of starting a new organization of hunters whose mission was to educate the public and work together with the DNR to improve Whitetail management.

The Houston meeting was actually the beginning of BWA.  As most of us know, getting this up and running has been a long hard struggle.  Thanks to thousands of volunteer hours, many meetings with the DNR, many banquets, and much discussion, the efforts are starting to pay off.

I scout whitetail deer year round, and I have seen a change.  I do not have my own land to hunt, and all the places I hunt are hunted by other hunters.  I have seen an improvement in the age structure of the bucks in the last several years. A lot has been accomplished, but much more needs to be done.

I support the efforts of BWA and will continue my support.  I especially appreciate the programs such as the youth hunts, the FHFH venison donating, the solid relationship with the DNR and the progress that has been made with educating the public. I would like to see BWA sponsor a special hunt for the disabled in our area. 

In closing, I would like to say to all hunters, remember you are a guest on private land and without the landowner many of us would not have a place to hunt.  

Marlow Mielke
St. Charles, MN
Age: 51
Wife: Deb
Children: Jodi and Chas
Grandchildren: Nathan and Sophi
Occupation: Winona County SWCD

I have lived all my life on a farm north of St. Charles. I graduated in 1972 and got my interest for deer hunting from my two older brothers, but what really got me hooked was when I was 16. A friend of mine and I got a 13-point buck, which is still the biggest buck I have shot.

I’ve enjoyed not only hunting whitetail deer, but sitting on a tree stand watching Mother Nature. This fascination has gotten even more fun when two years ago I took my grandson, Nathan, out before the season and we sat together in a tree stand. He was amazed by what we saw; not only deer, but coyotes and other wildlife.

Last year, he went with me during the buck shotgun season and was standing next to me when I shot an eight-pointer. Nathan turned 12 this June, so after taking gun safety training he was able to hunt this fall, not only the gun season but with a bow as well. Nathan had a great hunt this year; he shot two does, one with the gun and one with his bow. Needless to say, he is hooked. If he had his way, there would be a tree stand in every tree of the farm.

One of the biggest reasons I became a member of BWA is the involvement with the youth hunt in the Whitewater Sanctuary. In my life I have enjoyed being involved in several sports such as softball, football and basketball, but hunting is something you can enjoy your entire life and share the experience with those people you are closest to.

Pope & Young announces conservation grants

CHATFIELD, MN — The Pope and Young Club has announced its Conservation Program Grants for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Pope and Young Club Conservation Program Grants, totaling almost $85,000.00, were awarded to the following projects and programs in areas of education, pro-wildlife management, pro-bowhunting, research and partnerships:

• National Archery in Schools Program
• Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance
• Boone & Crockett Club’s Hunt Fair Chase Program
• The American Wildlife Conservation Partners
• United States Sportsmen’s Alliance - Bowhunting Rights Coalition
• National Shooting Sports Foundations - Heritage Trust
• South Dakota State University - pronghorn antelope research project
• Nevada Dept. of Wildlife - deer and elk workshop
• Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
• National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses Program
• International Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies
• Ballot Issues Coalition
• Arizona Game & Fish Dept. / Purdue University - deer DNA research project
• Utah State University - mule deer winter range research project
• Judy Kovar’s Hunting Heritage Program
• Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program
• Farmers & Hunters Feeding the Hungry
• The Wildlands Center
• National Shooting Sports Foundation - public schools conservation videos
• Orion-The Hunters’ Institute
• The Archery Hall of Fame
• Hunting for Tomorrow Foundation
• Alaska Fish & Game Dept. - wood bison restoration project
• Jack Creek Preserve Foundation - youth conservation & bowhunting education
• The North American Bowhunting Coalition

BWA annual meeting held

Bluffland Whitetails Association held its annual meeting on December 14, 2005, at the Holiday Inn South in Rochester, MN.

Several board members’ terms expired, and we sincerely thank them for the time, energy, and talent they have given our organization. Their contributions would be hard to overstate, and we hope they will all remain actively involved.  Stepping down from the board are Chris Kolbert, Todd Grimes, Marty Stubstad, Jeff Therring, and Scot Bjornson.

Jack Peck, Collin Johnson, Colin Williams, Allen Iverson, and Francis White have come on board as their replacements. To them we extend a hearty welcome.

The meeting consisted of a long and in-depth discussion of this year’s accomplishments, as well as a look at the goals and plans for the coming year.

Member input is important, so please consider attending one of our monthly board of director meetings. Meeting times, dates, and locations are listed on the back page of this newsletter.

In the spotlight...

Glenn Helgeland
Mequon, WI
Wife: Judy
Occupation: President, Target Communications

I grew up on a Holsteins and hogs farm near Barron, Wisconsin, with a trout creek and squirrel and grouse hunting woods right on the farm, and a father who hunted and fished as often as he could. So you might say the tone was set for a lifetime personal interest in natural resource management and conservation that also became a significant part of my education and has been part of nearly all my professional life.

It took me exactly two weeks of my first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to decide I was NOT going back to 365 days per year of those cows, and the remainder of the semester to switch my major to agricultural journalism and the biological aspects of conservation.

I was pretty good at putting words together and storytelling, and someone had said to me, “You know, you can get paid for that. Not much, but still paid.”

I have three kids and one wife, and as nearly as I can tell that’s about the right number of each.

I have been fortunate enough to have held a “job” for only 1-1/2 years. That was the year and a half I worked in Chicago for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

All the other years, I’ve worked hard doing things I thoroughly enjoyed—newspaper reporter (Winona, MN, Daily News, 1965-66), associate editor on National Wildlife magazine in the late 1960s, and editorial director/associate publisher in the 1970s for Archery World (now Bowhunting World) and Archery Retailer, (now Archery Business).

Along the way, there were three books edited and produced—the 2nd Edition of the Pope & Young Club Record Book, “Archery World’s Complete Guide to Bowhunting,” and “Complete Bowhunting” for the North American Hunting Club. Bowhunting columns for Fins & Feathers, North American Hunter, American Hunter and Bowhunting World were part of the mix then, too.

My wife Judy and I started our company in 1980 and since then have wandered through the hunting/shooting industry as book authors/editors/publishers (16 titles).

One of our first titles was “Taking Trophy Whitetails,” co-authored with Bob Fratzke of Winona, whom I didn’t meet until years after I’d moved from Winona.

We have published four archery books written by Larry Wise (the “Tuning...” series); “Become the Arrow,” with Byron Ferguson; “To Heck With Gravy” and “The Wild Pantry” cook books; “Understanding Winning Archery,” by 1976 Olympic Archery Coach Al Henderson, and others.

Our company got into the production of deer & turkey expos in the mid-1980s. The roster today has an Upper Midwest identity and encompasses nearly 45 percent of the U.S. hunting/shooting marketplace:

• Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo, Madison (22nd year)
• Michigan Deer & Turkey Spectacular, Lansing (20th year)
• Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic, Bloomington (16th year)
• Ohio Deer & Turkey Expo, Columbus (14th year)
• Minnesota Deer & Turkey Expo, Owatonna (1st year)

Our staff of eight people works hard to produce top quality shows with information and a bit of entertainment for every member of the family. We like to tell people that a weekend at one of our expos is the best cure for cabin fever.

The Minnesota Deer & Turkey Expo will hit the ground running. Owatonna is an excellent location, easily accessible to a ton of Upper Midwest deer and turkey hunters.

In addition to several seminar speakers (full details can be found in a related article in this newsletter on pages 10 and 11), there’s also a wild game cooking seminar stage, right on the main exhibit floor. To find it, just follow your nose.

Other features include several hands-on shooting ranges (NASP Archery, airgun, laser firearms, laser archery), a bow tryout area to check out something you might want to buy; a Minnesota big-game trophy contest and display (scoring done by members of Measurers of Minnesota); complete deer and turkey skeletons with illustrations identifying every bone in each skeleton, a flint knapping demonstration booth, display of Minnesota fur-bearers, new products special display area, and more things to keep everyone in your family occupied.

We are pleased to be working with the Bluffland Whitetails Association and its individual members. After a couple of planning meetings with their board of directors, I assure you that not only are they working hard to keep the BWA strong and forward-thinking; their hunting stories often contained noticeable grains of truth.

We’re going to keep on keeping on in the expo production business. Today, I work, hunt a bit, fish a bit, serve on the board of directors of two national expo producers’ organizations, and try like the devil to find the time to get food plots established on our little piece of God’s Country up north of LaCrosse.

It’s impossible to spend too much time thinking about, scouting for, talking about and hunting for whitetail deer and wild turkeys. And then reliving the times, year after year.

As my wife once commented after an intense social session, “Your large group of overgrown boys had a whole pile of fun without even stomping in puddles, didn’t you.” It was a statement, not a question; and I agreed.

2006 Minnesota deer and turkey expo

Dates:	March 10-11-12 (Fr-Sa-Su)
Location:	Four Seasons Centre, Steele County Fairgrounds, Owatonna, MN
Hours:	Friday, March 10  2 PM - 9 PM Saturday, March 11  9 AM - 7 PM Sunday, March 12  9 AM - 5 PM
Tickets:	Adult One-Day  $9.00 Adult Two-Day  $16.00 Hunter Ed Grads Age 12-18  $9.00/$7.00* (*$2.00 discount to Hunter Education graduates ages 12-18 who show proof of course completion at ticket window. Otherwise pay adult price.) Youth (6-11 years)  $3.00 Five & Under   FREE (when accompanied by an adult)
Friday Family Night:	All youth ages 11 and under admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
Parking:	Plenty of parking, and it’s FREE!

Highlights:

* NEW — Cooking Demonstration Area where you can learn to prepare tasty meals of venison and other wild game
* NEW — Optics Hands-On Stage — take a look through some of the finest new hunting & wildlife watching products
* NEW — Wildlife Identification Contest — try new field optics to test your skill at identifying wildlife
* NEW — More than 170 exhibit booths — highlighting new products for 2006
* NEW — National Archery in Schools Program — gives children an early opportunity to try a shooting sport

Featured speakers:

Gary Clancy

Gary Clancy has been a full-time outdoor writer for 25 years. He has written over 1,000 feature articles, many of them on deer hunting, for nearly all of the major outdoor magazines and an equal number of columns, many of them for Outdoor News, which is read each week by at least 60,000 of Minnesota’s outdoor enthusiasts. Since deer hunting is his favorite outdoor activity, it is not surprising that seven of Clancy’s eight books, all of which he will have available at the new Minnesota Deer & Turkey Expo in Owatonna, are on the subject of deer hunting.  

Clancy spends at least 50 days each season hunting whitetail deer with both bow and arrow and firearms. Although Clancy has hunted deer in 20 different states and Canadian provinces, the midwest remains his favorite region to hunt and the rut, his favorite time to hunt. A BWA member since its inception, Clancy will be doing his seminar on one of his favorite topics, “Hunting The Whitetail Rut.”  

Clancy and his wife of 32 years, Nancy Clancy, have three daughters and live with their young Brittany, Casey along the Root River west of Stewartville.

Gordon Whittington

Gordon Whittington has hunted whitetails for 44 years, and for nearly half of that time he has worked for North American Whitetail (NAW) magazine. He served as editor of the magazine for 18 years before being promoted to his current position of editor in chief in 2004.

In addition to writing and photographing for NAW, Gordon appears regularly on North American Whitetail Television, an award-winning half-hour program that airs on The Outdoor Channel. He also has written, edited and/or contributed to several of the most popular whitetail books ever published, including World Record Whitetails and Legendary Whitetails (volumes 1 and 2).

Gordon also is a popular seminar speaker and serves as a staff instructor at North American Whitetail University, a unique three-day short course on deer management and hunting.

When he’s not hunting whitetails or writing about them, Gordon spends time with his wife, Catherine, at their home in Marietta, Georgia.

Seminar schedule for 2006 expo

FRIDAY, MARCH 10

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

SUNDAY, MARCH 12

Food plots—starting new

by Colin Williams

When BWA member, Allen Iverson, began planting food plots on his Olmsted County farm some six years ago, his vision was to create the type of habitat essential for holding deer year-round. By implementing a food plot strategy utilizing a variety of different food sources, which provide optimum forage sources through each season of the year, Allen was able to achieve his goal. “In order for your food plots to achieve their top potential,” Allen said, “you simply need to treat them like a crop. Tilling up a little ground and tossing some clover seed around just won’t cut it; more often than not you’ll be disappointed with the results.” The key to Allen’s success is he doesn’t put all his eggs in one basket. He doesn’t rely on clover, corn, soybeans, rapeseed and turnips alone, he uses them all as part of his annual planting plan. “In order to hold deer all year, they simply need the food,” Allen said. “From spring fawning, through summer and especially throughout the winter months, you can begin enjoying deer on a year-round basis.”

With all the topics you can discuss when it comes to a good food plot strategy, it would take a lengthy book, much less a series of articles, to cover everything so, for this article, let’s start from the beginning; starting a new food plot from scratch. For this article, let’s assume the area you intend on converting into food plot is an existing grass field. The first thing you should do; commit this first spring and early summer for site preparation and weed control. Your best bet is to plan on seeding in late July or early August with an annual forage choice. OK, to get started, let the grass grow three or four inches this spring and spray the field with Roundup. “If there is one thing I’ve learned about spraying,” Allen said, “is don’t skimp on the application rate. You really want to get a good kill, so follow label directions and apply at recommended rates.”

After burndown, till the field; you will put some work into this folks, but without it your results may likely be marginal at best. Let the weeds and grass come back in again. You can count on having some re-growth, so it will likely need a second spraying after three or four inches of new growth. Continuing with only tillage can keep the field clean, but it won’t get rid of all the weed competition. Each time you do any tillage, you expose more weed seed for growth. Two sprayings should do a pretty good job of weed control; if it takes three, then so be it.

This dedication to weed control will be critical if you plan on seeding clover in the field down the road. During this weed control timeframe, you should get a soils test done in order to determine any lime or fertilizer needs. Lime and fertilizer will very much improve your food plot results and should be done every three years or so, at a minimum. The other option here, if you have the equipment to do it, is Roundup-ready corn or soybeans. I don’t have the equipment for this type of planting, but if you do, it can be a great way to get your food plot underway.

By the time these weed control measures are completed, it will likely be July. The last week of July through the first week of August is the timeframe you should be looking at for a late summer planting. Weather will always dictate how good the planting will be, but you should get weed-free growth for a fall or winter food plot. What to plant? Opinions vary greatly here, but the first thing you need to determine, and you should already know, do deer already winter on the farm? If so, rapeseed would be a great choice. Rapeseed comes up quick, which will provide for an almost weed-free crop. Deer typically don’t use this forage until it has frozen hard a couple times, but for late-season bowhunting; phenomenal.

During mid-December this year, while it was really cold, my rapeseed paddock was just getting hammered – as my rapeseed paddock is each year. If deer do not yet “yard” on the farm, chickory may be a good choice. This annual planting gives you the first part of next spring for another weed control tillage pass and spraying application for a clover planting.

If you are serious about implementing and managing an actual food plot program, one of the best things you can do is consult with a DNR wildlife specialist. These specialists, like southeastern Minnesota’s Don Ramsden, can give you some real insight into how much you should plant, what food choices would be good for your area and a more in-depth look into how your farm should best be managed to optimize food plot productivity and the balance of your deer herd.

While my dad, Al Williams, and I debate what should be done with our food plots each year, we both have seen how it has not only improved our hunting but the overall enjoyment of our farm. My young daughters help each spring, and it has been a great way to help educate them on giving something back to the farm. I can recall one July evening, as my daughters and I sat in a ground blind near a clover planting they had helped me with, a doe cautiously stepped into the food plot with her two young fawns in tow. My youngest daughter, Alex, looked up at me and said, “Look Daddy, those baby deer are eating the grass I planted.” Some think food plots are nothing more than glorified bating stations – I think not!

The author seeding down a new rapeseed paddock last August.

Minnesota Quality Deer Management, Inc.

Clyde Stephens
President, Minnesota QDMI

After working hard to educate hunters about the value of sound deer and habitat management for just over a year as QDMA, we have realized the need to restructure. At a recent board meeting, it was unanimously decided for multiple reasons that a more local concept was needed. From this meeting dawned Minnesota Quality Deer Management, Inc.

What does Minnesota QDM stand for?

• Education of hunters, landowners and non-hunters regarding the latest in deer and habitat management that is biologically sound.
• Protection of young bucks
• Adequate harvest of adult does
• Habitat improvements that maximizes potential
• Safe and ethical hunting
• Increase hunting opportunities for our youth

• A deer herd that is balanced within itself as well as with the environment. This means more older-age bucks and often fewer does
• More exciting hunting (now try grunting and rattling)
• Less risk of disease
• Safer hunts and safer hunters
• Less damage to crops, gardens, and vehicles
• Better relationships with your neighbors
• A much better understanding of deer management. You will be a manager instead of just a customer.

The concept of QDM has not changed at all, just the way we function as a club. We are completely separated from the National QDMA. The benefits are huge!