Mending Fences

Green Bay -

As hunters continue to take aim during this year's gun-deer season,DNR efforts continue to mend fences with them.

Just three years ago, hunters were united and up in arms over what they felt was a dwindling deer population due to rules requiring hunters to shoot a doe before bagging a buck.

DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp worked in the private sector at the time, but followed the controversy and knew a storm was brewing when landowners vowed to close down their property and not hunt.

"They are the customer, and if they're not buying what we're selling any more, which is licenses, and if we don't have them as partners in conservation any more in managing the herd, we're in a world of trouble at DNR," says Stepp.

In his first year as governor, Scott Walker appointed Stepp to lead the DNR and brought in national deer expert James Kroll to study the state's deer management practices, along with the tension with hunters.

"I think the over-arching message from the Kroll report is communication and connection," says Stepp. "Things like getting our deer biologists out from under fluorescent lights and out into the field and interacting with people who own property, who want to manage their property. Maybe they don't know how to do that. Getting our expertise to them face-to-face is really important."

Stepp says DNR employees are now focused on listening to what hunters see in the field and trusting them.

The DNR also launched a massive social media outreach to hunters seeking input on their outdoor experience.

"We've never asked those questions before, so now we're asking hunters and they're responding with their answers. And then our job obviously is to manage biologically, but we can't forget the sociology aspect of that. There's two sciences in deer hunting, and I think for too long sociology, the people side, got left at the hangar and the plane took off with just the biology, and when that happens people feel disenfranchised, they don't feel like they're part of the system," says Stepp.

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Mending Fences