How can you tell that the news of Dr. Kroll’s War on Hunting is starting to hurt the Walker campaign? They and their media allies — especially the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which endorsed Walker — are pulling out all the stops to deny it:

To be clear, neither Gov. Walker, the governor’s spokesman nor Kroll has ever said he intends to “privatize” deer hunting in Wisconsin.

And it’s not the direction Kroll and his fellow reviewers – Gary Alt and David Guynn – appear to be going

Oh, really? Then why did Walker’s DNR chief, Cathy Stepp, say she wants to sell off Wisconsin’s public lands?

As one commenter on the MJS article said:

Walker and Kroll say they aren’t going to privatize the deer hunt. How can we trust Walker? He surrounded himself with felons as County Executive. He lied to Congress about Diane Hendricks and he lied to Wisconsin about making Wisconsin a “Red State.” I have no idea what Scott Walker really believes but I do know that I don’t trust him.

And as another commenter said:

I take great exception with the headline. Your characterization of the opposition to the Kroll/Walker deer management as from the “left” is incorrect. I am far from being on the left,but find this a waste of money that could be better spent by a state that is “broke”. This politicized management scheme is opposed by smart deer hunters of all political stripes.

Wisconsin is turning into a “deer shooting” state as opposed to a deer hunting state. Few hunters actually hunt, but park their butts in a tree stand (often including the same amenities as home), throw out massive amounts of bait, and wait till the big guy walks by. They complain about not seeing any deer, but are too lazy to make an attempt to find any.

Here is my question to you and Kroll/Walker: The “hunters” complain that there are no deer, yet we have been shooting (gun and bow) 300,000 or more for years. How can this be possible?

When I started hunting in the early 1960′s we were shooting less than 100,000 a year, and pretty happy about what we had.

WDNR has been one of the leaders in deer management for years. Now a few greedy hunters have convinced the politicians that DNR doesn’t know anything about deer. I find that another disgusting result of the DNR secretary being appointed by the governor.

As a deer hunting website states:

What does this all mean? My initial reaction, which is one that I predicted when Kroll was named to the state’s deer trustee position, is that his team’s final recommendations — if implemented — will be heavily skewed toward the state’s larger landowners (500+ acres) and folks who own small parcels in areas comprised mostly of private land.

It is also my prediction that the final recommendations (again, if implemented) will do little, if anything, to improve deer herds and deer hunting on Wisconsin’s 5.7 million acres of public land.

Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”

All of this is likely why six Democratic members of the Wisconsin State Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee are trying to get Dr. Kroll and other Walker hires on the record — before the recall election — about any planned pay-to-play schemes for Wisconsin deer hunting. (On the record, and preferably under oath.)

Interested in helping send Scott Walker packing? Go here.