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Published: 22 February 2017

By Louie Stout

An Indiana deer hunting group is organizing a county-by-county pilot program aimed at gathering more public input for future deer management decisions.

The group – Indiana White-tailed Deer Herd Management (IWDHM) – is putting together county deer advisory councils, or CDACs, throughout Indiana.

The pilot program is modeled after one that has been highly successful in Wisconsin. In fact, the Wisconsin DNR routinely builds its deer quotas around each county council’s recommendations.

Unfortunately, there are no meetings planned for St. Joseph or nearby counties, but IWDHM President Matt Barton says they’d like to get one in every county of northern Indiana.

“We’re just getting started but it’s taking off fast,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to give counties’ hunters and stakeholders a voice in how the deer are managed in their county.”

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Published: 13 February 2017

By Louie Stout

You’ve heard my rants about how the Indiana DNR took away our district wildlife biologist position.

Well, the good news is the state has restructured its wildlife division to provide a little more help.

But does it really fill the void and serve sportsmen’s needs in St. Joseph and surrounding counties?

Here’s the deal:

The DNR will add a district wildlife biologist to cover north central Indiana counties, but none in our immediate area. Also added to northern Indiana are an “urban” biologist, a “landscape” biologist and two “farm bill” biologists.

The new district biologist, who hasn’t been named as yet, will cover central Indiana counties south of Starke and Marshall counties. That person will be located at the Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area at North Judson, Ind.

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