Walker is not a hunter. A guy he appointed to the Natural Resources Board this past year was among those who got him into hunting (or should I say license buying) a few years back to play to the hunting vote. It worked. He claimed to sit on stand all day and not see a deer and promised a deer trustee to take the politics out of the woods and put the deer back in. That's a joke; Wisconsin is a leader in both world-class whitetails and overall harvest. Earn-a-buck was overused but dropped the past two years; that and two decent winters has allowed the herd to bounce back strong this year and it'll be even better next provided the winter isn't unusually bad. Walker appointed one of the DNR's worst all-time critics to the NRB (the aforementioned "hunt mentor"). He appointed another longtime DNR critic as DNR secretary (see the irony there?), another as executive assistant of the DNR (more irony). His administration will try to weaken environmental rules to aid some of his biggest campaign contributors in the name of "jobs." Kroll had better come up with something sensible, not "a Dr. Deer signature gravity feeder and food plot behind every tree." That $ figure is absurd considering this is at least the third or fourth use of sportsmen's dollars to fund a review of the state's deer management program, which has been judged as good as it gets in the nation with a few tweaks recommended in the last review, most of which are being implemented now.

I've read literally every article he's written in the last 12 years and I think this can only be a good thing for WI. I own land in northern WI and we've seen the deer herd plummet for the last 11 years. He is very knowledgable and will do a better job than what was going on before.

I suspect some of the negative Walker comments are either DNR or Union supporters or both. A couple of years ago folks were so upset with the DNR management of the deer herd even State Politicians that are hunters cried for change on how the DNR manages the deer herd in WI. They do not listen this year they made a lot of herd control units with UNLIMITED doe tags at a two dollars price tag. THIS IS NOT any of the areas that are within the Chronic Wasting Disease area. I hunt in some of these herd control areas in Northern WI and I both bow and rifle hunt. There is NOT the deer there to support unlimited doe tags. Others I know also have stated there is not the deer in them areas to support this. Who ever set up this frame work should be fired.It is a good reason why they need to bring in some one else who is not an employee of the WI DNR.

From what I know of the situation, Walker was only a "hunter" prior to election time as is so often the case with politicians in areas of high hunter existence.

This Kroll thing is nothing but a dog and pony show. They will be attempting to cut the herd back and are trying to appear as if that isnt the "goal" to make it easier on some to swallow.

Just ask GARY ALT. Who has been appointed to Krolls team. He was used as frontman here in Pa to totally screw up deer hunting and got the environmentalists agenda into place since they were in control at the pgc.

A group from Wisconsin (coincidence Im sure lol) was assigned to audit our deer plan. But come to find out the outfit was run by former pgc dedputy executive director and pgc exec. directors.

Now WIsconsin seeks a review, by pgc's ex front man Alt who is the single most hated man in Pennsylvania for his antideer views?

Nothing at all good will come of this. Nothing but deciet and less deer. Count on it. We have lived it here in Pa for over a decade now.

Walker is a hunter himself, which is why I'm not surprised that he went out and got "one of the best." As a fellow WI hunter, I hope the "Doctor" has the same demeanor that Walker has had thus far.

I find it hilarious this governor can cry poor out of one side of his mouth, yet pay a celebrity $125k to do what he's already paying an entire department to do? I smell pork cooking...

I hope you folks in Wisconsin don't have any public lands. Because if the Governor does like he did to the utilities he'll sell the public lands to a Texas company so they can sell high priced licenses to private party oil tycoons and y'all will be left with rabbit hunting.

Makes me happy to live in Michigan!!

Dave,

You asked for our opinions, but there's not a lot of info to know whether this might work or not.

Every state needs to have a clear long-term goal for their herd(s) in the different regions of that state.

This whole set-up as described, leaves a lot of questions. Who sets the long term objective/goal for the deer herd...the gov? the Czar? or the F&G Dept.?

Or is the czar simply there to consult to the dept on ways to improve their practices to achieve whatever goals they've already set? And are those goals correct for WI?....finally, how do they know that?

So my opinion would be that it's better to have the Gov sit with the Dept heads and review all the past data, review the goals and practices to achieve those goals and jointly make the decisions needed. Forget the "white knight expert (Czar)" . If the Gov can't do that with the current dept. heads, get new ones.

This is great! What is with all you conspiracy freaks out there? Good grief. You don't like the plan? Then stay out of WI.

To those who think this article has nothing to do with politics you are lying to yourself. It has everything to do with it. Who appoints a real estate developer (Cathy Stepp) as head of the WI DNR (Walker)? What is she going to do? Only thing she knows how, build houses on it and sell it or some combination there of. That isn't going to help this state's hunting, it will just make some rich people richer and plunder a natural resources our grandfathers managed to preserve for decades. How long will that profit the state? Not as long as having prime public hunting land for the last 3 decades. Of course Walker, Stepp or Dr. deer wont tell you that.

If this Dr. Deer guy does what he's supposed to, he'll come up with a new way to count and issue licensing so people can stop getting upset about the Rambo's out their killing everything. but that's not what is written on his website. Dr. Deer has only been at the job since Walker (not long) and he already has clearly indicated that he believes deer management is best left to private development. Ironically that's anti-DNR as far as I'm concerned anti-deer hunting for those who can't own their own private land. Who is signing his check? That's right, Wisconsin tax payers, people like me that don't want to pay some land owner, corporation or private interest just to go hunting on Wisconsin land. Not to mention the DNR has done audits and made publicly aware the findings "the Wisconsin DNR has the most transparent and efficient system for managing it's whitetail herds" - Ecologists etc.. the herd goes in cycles, as well as other factors like warm temperatures, crops not harvested, fog, lazy hunters has just as much to do with it.

The conspiracy buffs are trying to make this into a political issue. When in actuality, it is about Wisconsin's deer herd. The area that I hunt in and the folks I hunt with have had a decrease in harvest and deer seen. Based on Dr Kroll's background and experience, this can only be a plus for we Wisconsin hunters.