MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Outdoors enthusiasts gave an emphatic thumbs-down to a proposal to more than double the length of Wisconsin’s gun deer season.
A record number of nearly 65,000 people weighed in on this year’s Wisconsin Conservation Congress questionnaire. Spring hearings, which are typically held in each of the state’s 72 counties, were canceled last month, with input taken online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The final vote for extending the nine-day gun deer hunt to 19 days was 42,208 against and 14,820 for. “No” votes prevailed in 71 of the state’s 72 counties, with the remaining county’s vote ending in a tie.
The state’s Natural Resources Board proposed the change in an effort to rekindle waning interest in hunting.
The question was one of 55 that outdoors enthusiasts were asked to weigh in on. The Conservation Congress vote is advisory only.