# Wisconsin tag sales off 1/3



## Liv4Huntin' (May 24, 2000)

TS: Your prediction about CWD hitting the LP could very well be what comes to pass. There are MANY 'game farms', private big-game hunting 'preserves', etc., all over. This should make us all very, VERY nervous. 

Is there a place where 'John Q. Public' can go and find out if/when there has been any CWD investigative testing done at these/ specific 'farms' ???????

I'm one that believes its better to know, to be informed.... even if the news isn't good news.

Thanks.

~ m ~


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## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

Much of that responsibility is also with the U.S. Forest Service. They've cut back on a lot of their cutting. Much of it due to pressure and law suits from the Sierra Club. IMHO, it is the Sierra Clubs effort not to only stop cutting, because they have this incorrect view that all of the U.S. was old growth before the 1700's, but if there is no new growth there will be very few game animals. It's their long term way of ending hunting. Low game numbers, no need or reason to hunt. It's my understanding that the USFS now cuts 60% less than they did in the late 1980's. Here's a couple of links that you should really check out...

http://www.northcountrytrail.org/news/aspen1.htm

http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/070202_aspen.htm

Sierra Club sues to stop logging 

Group wants aspen harvesting to
end in national forests






By JOHN FLESHER
Associated Press Writer
and RYAN OLSON
Gazette Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.  An environmentalist group has filed a lawsuit demanding a halt to logging of aspen trees in national forests in three Upper Midwestern states. 
By allowing clearcuts to promote aspen growth in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the U.S. Forest Service is preventing restoration of native species such as white pine and northern hardwoods lost during the lumber baron era a century ago, the Sierra Club lawsuit says. 
Forest Service timber management is drastically altering the forests of the Upper Great Lakes from their natural condition, spokesman Marvin Roberson said Thursday. 
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. It seeks an order that the Forest Service stop sales of aspen tracts for logging until it conducts a regional analysis of how its policy affects the environment. 
If the lawsuit is successful, it could drive up costs for Copper Country industries that rely on timber from the national forests. Lee Jackson, area woodlands manager for Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.s forest resources division in Ontonagon, said the company gets about 25 percent of its timber from Ottawa National Forest  down from about 40 percent about seven years ago. 
The mill uses paper pulp to produce corrugated cardboard. He said if the forest service is prevented from selling timber, costs might increase. 
Costs certainly affect us, Jackson said. Will it shut us down? I certainly hope not.
He said Ontonagon has the third-highest wood costs in Smurfits brown paper industry. Despite the higher costs, Jackson said the mill remains profitable. He said the aspen trees are good deer, grouse and migratory bird habitat.
The suit covers all the national forests in the three states: the Hiawatha, Huron-Manistee and Ottawa in Michigan; the Chippewa and Superior in Minnesota; and the Chequamegon-Nicolet in Wisconsin. 
Jane Cliff, spokeswoman for the Forest Services regional office in Milwaukee, said the agency already considers the environment before approving timber cuts. 
Each forest has a land management plan, developed with public involvement, Cliff said. Decisions about which tree species to encourage vary from place to place, depending on biological factors such as soil types and the desires of user groups. 
Our goal is to create a sustainable, healthy ecosystem, she said. 
The Sierra Club says the Forest Service is excessively influenced by the timber industrys preference for aspen, used for pulp and paper products, and on hunters desire for a large whitetail deer herd. 
Aspen thrives in open spaces, springing up where windstorms or fires remove hardwoods and other competitors for sunlight. Forest managers have encouraged its growth by clearcutting, or removing entire stands. 
Jackson said aspens grown in areas where the soil is marginal. He said northern hardwoods do not compete for the same space as aspens. He said forest service is working on growing white pine, but it is difficult because deer feed on them.
The Sierra Club says aspen forests are being maintained at 10 times their natural level on Forest Service land in the three states. 
One consequence is deer overpopulation, which contributes to the spread of bovine tuberculosis and causes damage to farm crops and rare plants, the Sierra Club says. Clearcut areas are ideal deer habitat.


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## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

Here's more...

http://www.ashlandwi.com/placed/index.php?story_id=95359


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

CWD was found in deer in Southern Saskatchewan. I would say they have some difficult winters as Wisc. and the UP. So this may not leave the deer in the UP with less risk.


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## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

It doesn't matter where the deer are from, CWD will infect them if present. What I meant by my U.P. winter comment was that I hope the U.P. looses 75% of their deer herd this winter. That will greatly reduce the chance of deer coming into contact with each other. I know it sounds harsh, but if Wisconsin gets a handle on CWD and it doesn't spread, the U.P. numbers will bounce back to reasonable numbers in three years. But were're at code red right now.


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## Eastern Yooper (Nov 12, 2000)

Come and look at a deer yard in the EUP some time. There's one on the St. Ignace road, Detour, Raber, Drummond/Neebish and Sugar Islands, Trout Lake, Hulbert, Cedarville/Hessel, Gogomain, Tone road.... and lots of other smaller ones. It doesn't matter if there's 3,000 or 300,000 deer: They're still gonna come into contact with each other.

Period.


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## tonyvan (Oct 4, 2002)

Back to the topic on the original post...

Just some feedback on the decrease in hunting licenses for 2002 because of the concerns with CWD. I think Wisconsin should reduce the license fees for out of state hunters to encourage more hunters from out of state to help reduce Wisconsin's record deer population.

I have family in central and northern Wisconsin and would happily come there to hunt if the license fees were not so high for out of state residents.


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