ALMA, Wis. - In Wisconsin, there is no animal that influences people more than the white-tailed deer. They are pursued, photographed, shot, shined, eaten, fed, mounted, measured, bragged over, fought over, managed, counted and debated from Nelson to Trempealeau to Arcadia to Mondovi.

That makes deer management a social science for Dave Linderud, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist in Alma.

"People are not seeing as many deer as they would like. And we tell them the population is above goal more than what we would like. It bothers them. They don't understand it," he said.

Last fall, hunters shot nearly 12,300 deer in management Unit 61, which encompasses much of Buffalo and Trempealeau counties. This was down 17 percent from the previous four years, mostly because warm weather kept deer inactive during daylight hours.

"We went from the year 2000 with a very high harvest and perfect hunting conditions to a year of pretty poor hunting conditions," Linderud said.

Unit 61 has 1,250 square miles of land, and about three-fourths is classified as deer range. The DNR's winter population goal is 14,370 deer, or 15 deer per square mile of range. But Linderud estimates there are about 25 deer per square mile of range now. Add the 75 percent annual increase expected from spring fawn births and Linderud forecasts 44 deer per square mile of range this fall.

To bring the herd back to goal, hunters would need to kill about 22 deer for every square mile in Unit 61, or about 18,000 does - an expectation Linderud calls "astronomical." But without decreasing the herd, woodland and crops would be damaged, more drivers would collide with deer, insurance premiums would climb and antler sizes would shrink, Linderud said. But adding special seasons brings another factor: "Now we have people that are fighting all over this deer hunting thing," he said.

In Unit 61, 96 percent of the land is in private hands, and this is perhaps the most influential factor affecting deer hunting. Barring trespassing, hunters are forced to find deer where they can.

"There are landowners that are taking deer management into their own hands," Linderud said. "Twenty years ago, most of landowners didn't have an interest in deer. Many of them hunted but it wasn't that big of a deal to them."

Jim Jilk, 24, of rural Fountain City, said deer seem to be clumped on private land closed to hunters.

"The accessibility is none. They have 300 acres and they let two guys in to bow hunt," he said.

There are fewer farmers today, but each property has grown larger.

"We see people all the time having difficult access to land. Some of them may give up hunting here and go elsewhere," Linderud said.

Lance Wilson is the 53-year-old owner of the Country Store between Fountain City and Cochrane, and sells a lot of deer licenses each fall. He doubts population estimates. He hunts on Belvidere Ridge, "and we didn't have any deer running over us." But he is quick to acknowledge changing land ownership.

"You don't dare step across the line. If you can't step across the line, you can't drive deer. And they won't drive them to you," he said. "The answer is to get on the land, but you can't get in."

Wayne Comero, 29, of Fountain City said his family sold off most of their farm and kept only a small parcel to hunt.

"It was a little slow where we were at because we're running out of woods to hunt," he said.

Buffalo County has gained a notoriety for trophy bucks. So many farmers lease land to affluent deer hunters.

"Most of them are good businessmen and they know what the bottom line is on their farm," he said.

Hunter behavior has changed with the landscape, Linderud said. There are more bow hunters, who typically shoot trophy bucks and are less supportive of doe seasons. People who shoot deer to put venison in the freezer are less critical of expanded seasons, Linderud said. But hunters can't be forced to behave a certain way, nor can private landowners be forced to let hunters on their land. But many landowners talk about deer on their land like a commodity they own, he said.

Deer hunters once took to the fields in cooperative bands across many properties, driving deer from their hiding places. They were happy to get one then, Linderud said. Today, more hunters operate alone, sitting in permanent deer stands.

"We're developing a generation of deer shooters, not deer hunters," he said.

The number of hunters has decreased, he said. In 1984, there were 24 hunters per square mile of Unit 61 deer range. In 1999, it was 15. To keep the deer herd down, each hunter must shoot more deer. Near urban centers, goals can be managed higher. But there's not enough employment in Buffalo and Trempealeau counties to fuel a rural housing boom, Linderud said. Lacking enough hunters to keep the deer herd down is a growing concern.

"The (human) population is not increasing in the county significantly," he said.

To return the growing deer herd to the goal means adding two extra four-day hunting periods called T-zones, from Oct. 24-27, and Dec. 12-15, before and after the regular hunt slated for Nov. 23 though Dec. 1. While the extra opportunities to shoot deer may seem favorable, many hunters react negatively.

Comero, who shot a doe and a buck last fall, said: "I don't really care for that early T-zone. That's too soon."

Rick Lorenz, 32, of Cochrane wants the T-zone abolished.

"And I'd like to see our deer hunting season about two weeks later than it is to make sure the deer are out of the rut and we get good weather," he said.

Much opposition to T-zones comes from bow hunters, who have to shoot does and wear blaze orange during T-zones.

"If they're going to keep the T-zone, bow hunters ought to be able to shoot a buck during that zone," Lorenz said.

Wilson believes the October T-zone hunt "spooks" deer into hiding by the time the regular season comes around.

"I think these deer are becoming a lot more nocturnal," he said.

But Linderud cannot ignore the effectiveness of T-zones in killing more does. The two highest kill seasons in the last 10 years came in the T-zone years of 1997 and 2000. In 1997 more than 16,000 deer were killed, of which three-fourths were antlerless deer. The low came in 1998, when 12,000 deer were killed. Buck kills remained steady over the last 10 years, hovering near 5,000.

Thirty years ago in Wisconsin, it required 10 years of hunting to kill a million deer in the state. Twenty years ago, it took five seasons. Today, hunters kill more than a million deer in two seasons. Linderud, who has managed Unit 61's deer for 23 years, said increasing kills wouldn't erase the controversy.

"For many people, deer hunting is the major activity they're involved in, the most important thing that they do in the course of a year," he said.

Contact reporter Jeff Dankert at jdankert@@winonadailynews.com, or 453-3513.