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Urban deer hunt begins

Waupaca opens managed archery harvest

By Angie Landsverk


The city of Waupaca started its managed archery harvest on Tuesday, March 20.

“It will go through April 30, or until the tags are used,” said City Administrator Henry Veleker.

The hunt is taking place on city-owned parcels and being overseen by Roger Hansen, the city’s street superintendent.

“Roger is a hunter and knows the best practices,” Veleker said. “It’s a really good fit. He wants it to be successful. It’s something new for the community. We want the hunters to have a good experience.”

The city has 20 deer tags for the program, and the hunters were drawn through a lottery.

They may only harvest does.

Veleker provided an update about the program during the Tuesday, March 20 common council meeting.

He said 99 people applied for the hunt.

Those interested in participating had until last Friday, March 16, to apply online for it.

“The police department did background checks and eliminated about 25 percent,” Veleker said of the 99 applicants.
The department checked for such things as hunting violations, infractions and warrants, he said.

Twenty hunters were then chosen through a lottery and invited to attend the Monday, March 19, informational meeting at city hall.

Veleker said 12 of the 20 attended the meeting.

Some were unable to attend due to work schedules and were to reach out to Hansen to learn the hunt’s rules and the specific areas they will be assigned to.

When the council voted 10-0 on March 6 in favor of the program, three city parcels had been identified for the harvest.

They were city property at the airport, recycling center and Washington Street sewer lift station.

Since then, Hansen identified a few other areas in the city for the program, Veleker said.

They are also owned by the city, with parcels by the wastewater treatment plant and city garage among them, he said.

Hansen wanted to be able to spread out the hunters, Veleker said.

The participants in Waupaca’s managed archery harvest must have a valid Wisconsin bow license and follow the rules of the normal bow hunting season.

They have to shoot down and are responsible for the cost of processing the deer they harvest.

The program is a scaled-down version of what the city initially hoped to see happen.

Last April, the common council approved an Urban Deer Management Plan for the city.

The city sought and received a deer nuisance permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for a managed archery harvest program.

The permit the city received from the DNR included 20 tags for a managed archery harvest season of Sept. 1 through March 31.

The council tasked the city’s Deer Management Ad Hoc Committee with setting up the program.

The committee sought a volunteer coordinator, but no one expressed interest.

With the tags set to expire on March 31, the city sought permission from the DNR to extend the season by 30 days, to manage the program itself and to narrow the hunt down to city property.

The DNR agreed to extend the permit through April 30.

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