Deer czar: It's time for a change

There's lot at stake when it comes to deer hunting in Wisconsin. After all, it's a tradition that adds more than a billion dollars to the state's economy every year.

In response to the growing discontent among hunters over things like earn-a-buck, chronic wasting disease and other issues, the state is moving in a new direction. Instead of the often faceless and bureaucratic Department of Natural Resources reviewing the state's deer herd, the job will be done by this man:

"It's time for a change, a new way to look at deer management," said James Kroll, also known as "Dr. Deer." He is now Wisconsin's deer czar.

"I don't like the term deer czar because look at what happened to all of the czars," he said. "I'm not a czar, I'm a trustee and I take that very seriously."

• Click here to watch more from the interview with James Kroll.

Last month, the 65-year-old deer researcher from Texas was named as Wisconsin's Whitetail Deer Trustee. He calls it the biggest honor of his career.

"I'm a maverick and I enjoy that position and that's what we need right now," he said. Kroll is not your average deer biologist. He has his own TV show. Kroll can be seen fielding questions on North American Whitetail Television and the Sportsmen's Channel. He's written hundreds of magazine articles. But he does have an academic side.

Kroll is a professor of forest wildlife and the director of the Institute for White-Tailed Deer Management and Research at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He has spent decades studying deer biology, wildlife management and habitat.

His job in Wisconsin is four-fold: Review the way the DNR estimates the size of the deer herd; review the programs used the control the size of the herd; review how the department is battling CWD; and review how it is handling the impact of wolves.

Above all, Kroll says he wants to make sure hunters and landowners feel like they're part of the process.

"Over the last two decades across the nation, agencies have kind of come to a point where they've excluded the public," Kroll said. "We want to reconnect the people with the process because that's what we're here for is the people."

To help do that, Kroll has teamed up with two prominent researchers, who he calls the "a-team." His team includes Gary Alt, a former deer manager who spent 27 years with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and Dave Guynn, a retired professor from Clemson University and a member of the National Board of Directors for the Quality Deer Management Association.

"Wisconsin is the birthplace of wildlife management. This is where it all started," Kroll said. "My goal is to make it the birthplace of 21st Century deer management."

So what will this cost? It's a one-time cost of about $120,000. $50,000 of that will go to Kroll for "professional services." Another $50,000 will be split by his team; $10,000 is set aside for travel expenses; another $10,000 will be used for clerical support and other labor.

Tom Hague, the director of wildlife management for the DNR, says Kroll is just the latest outsider to review the way the agency works. The last one was a 2006 study. A group of leading scientists concluded, "Wisconsin has the most comprehensive and transparent deer management program..." in the country.

Hague says he's not concerned with the latest review.

"If this would have been the very first review that our deer management program had gone through yeah, I would anticipate that our nerves would be a little more on edge but the fact of the matter is we've been through this quite a few times," Hague said. "With each iteration we learn some things that will help us improve our management delivery and that's what we hope will be the outcome for this one."

But according to Patrick Durkin, a freelance writer who covers the outdoors, this review is different.

"I can't believe that the DNR people feel good about this. This is a tremendous slap to the Wisconsin DNR," he said.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker created the deer czar position.

When asked if Kroll's appointment is a sign that the DNR was not properly managing the herd Walker replied, "No, I think what it is more than anything is there is a lot of concern about some things that the DNR could control potentially and some things, like the wolf population, that are more at the federal level and really wanting to have fundamentally independent review of what's at stake here and recommendations on what we do to improve that."

Hunters give the whole idea mixed reviews.

"The DNR has brought this upon themselves by being locked in to their own ideas. Bringing an outside person in is well warranted and a long time coming," said Andy Pantzlaff from United Sportsmen of Wisconsin.

"It's a no-win situation for the DNR. They would have been better off hiring a public relations person than a deer biologist," added Steve Gevaert from the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association. He questions Kroll's experience saying it's too focused on private lands and not public