Seely on Science: UW professor disputes deer czar’s findings

With his Texas drawl, his TV title of ?Dr. Deer? and his disdain for some long-standing tenets of professional deer management, James Kroll was sure to stir things up when he was hired by Gov. Scott Walker to evaluate the state?s deer hunt strategy. Strangely, the controversy that surfaced was over comments Kroll made a decade ago in an interview with a Texas magazine. Kroll was quoted as equating public hunting grounds with socialism and calling national parks ?wildlife ghettos.? Overshadowed by that sideshow was a sobering, scientific look at Kroll?s preliminary findings by Tim Van Deelen, a respected associate professor in UW-Madison?s Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.