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Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > Tips, Toys, Tires, Ads, Misc > Outdoors > Deer hunting today: Not so simple |
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Deer hunting today: Not so simple RON SEELY rseely@madison.com November 19, 2005 Deer hunting used to be pretty simple. About all the hunter needed years ago was a dependable rifle, a good pair of boots, a warm jacket and a stump in the woods to sit on. But the hunters who take to the woods today for the opening day of deer season are likely to bear little resemblance to hunters of old. That beat-up old rifle has been replaced by a powerful weapon with a synthetic stock and a digital scope. The red and black checked wool jacket has given way to fleece and blaze-orange Gore-tex. The trusty compass has been jettisoned in favor of a computerized Global Positioning System unit. Instead of walking to your hunting spot, you hop on your ATV. And, when you get there, the last thing you'd think of doing is sitting on a stump. Instead you climb up into your $200 tree stand with the cushy seat. Nope, it's not your grandpa's deer hunt anymore. Hunters today spend a lot of money to get their deer. Last year in Wisconsin, hunting accounted for about $960 million in retail sales. In fact, though it is still possible to enjoy a day afield for a relatively modest amount of money, there are those who wonder if some are getting priced out of the sport. Of special concern to natural resource managers are disturbing trends in land ownership and use that may in the long run even make the cost of finding a piece of land to hunt on prohibitive. Geoff Crandall, 57, of Middleton, is a long-time hunter and angler who freely admits he is hopelessly addicted to outdoor gear. He first went deer hunting as a high school senior in Michigan, where he grew up. It was indeed a simpler time, he said. He remembers having a basic Winchester rifle, a red flannel coat, and a pair of pack boots. "If a guy took a pair of binoculars, that was high tech," Crandall recalled. Now, Crandall said, he plots where he's going to place his deer stand by using satellite photos from the Internet and motion sensing cameras that take pictures of the deer that are wandering around the woods where his party is going to hunt. Sporting goods retailers love hunters such as Crandall. And today through the rest of the week so do the state's gas stations, restaurants and motels. A 2001 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed hunters in Wisconsin spend an average $1,086 per person each year to hunt in the state. A partial accounting of those expenditures includes an average $135 for food and lodging, $91 for transportation, $278 for hunting equipment, $81 for camping equipment and special clothing, and $440 for other expenses such as land leasing or ownership and licenses. In a news conference earlier this week, DNR Secretary Scott Hassett said hunting has a $1.7 billion economic impact in Wisconsin, supports 19,000 jobs and yields $52 million in tax revenues every year. So big bucks mean big bucks. But is the average person on a modest income being forced out of the sport? That's not likely, said Keith Warnke, a big game ecologist with the DNR who pays close attention to hunting trends. At a cost of $24, a resident hunting license remains one of the best bargains in sport, he added. "That's as good or better a deal, relative to the cost of living, as 30 or 40 years ago," Warnke said of the cost of a hunting license. "I think hunting is still an everyman's sport. If you look at hunting compared to the cost of going to a football game, it's a real bargain." Even Crandall, whose garage is pretty much like a sporting goods store, admits that it is not necessary to spend a fortune to enjoy a day deer hunting. "You can get a good used gun for $100 to $150," Crandall said. "In fact you can probably put together your whole outfit for $200 or so. And the gun, if you take care of it, will last you a lifetime. You don't have to spend a lot of money. I don't think it is ever going to be just a rich man's sport. I think it will remain a sport that everybody can enjoy." But if you are like Crandall and can't resist the latest gadget, you can spend a bundle. Crandall said it's possible, for example, to spend as much as $2,000 for a digital scope. A hunter can max out a credit card on everything from scent-free clothing to two-way radios and elaborate tree stands. Although the hunters in his group stick to basic tree stands, he said some hunters go all out when it comes to their perch in the tree, hammering together elaborate treehouse-like shacks. "I mean some guys basically build ice-fishing shanties and raise them into the tree," said Crandall. "They've got the Packers on up there and brats on the grill." One growing expense, however, is more worrisome to hunters and natural resource managers than all the others combined. Finding a place to hunt, Warnke and others said, is bound to become harder and more expensive if land use and ownership trends continue. About 80 percent of the land in Wisconsin is in private hands, according to Randy Stark, the DNR's chief warden. That leaves about 16 percent of the land in the state or roughly 5.7 million acres open for hunting. This means, Stark said, that most hunters have to either own or lease land on which to hunt or make arrangements with friends or family to hunt on private land. Increasingly, there are fewer private lands open for hunting, Stark added. In northern Wisconsin, for example, many hunters have hunted for years on forested land owned by the big paper companies. But much of that land is now on the auction block and is being bought up and subdivided into 40-acre parcels, which are sold for development or to private individuals who build hunting cabins and put up "No Trespassing" signs. Crandall worries about this very thing. For years, he said, he and his hunting partners have hunted on land formerly owned by a paper company. That land was recently sold and the new owners have informed the hunters that the land may not be open to them in the future. With such trends, Stark said, it is going to become harder and harder to find a place to hunt if you don't own or lease land. And not everybody can afford to buy land. So while Stark doesn't worry that hunters are being deterred by the cost of ammunition or even the price of gasoline, he does worry about them eventually not being able to afford a piece of land on which to hunt. "You're really setting up a situation," Stark said, "where having a place to hunt is an issue on the horizon that might make it difficult to hunt for ordinary people."
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