Brainstorm

1.)    Introduction/Thesis: 

a.      Brief history of CWD dating to the 1960’s

b.      The Impact the DNR has made on CWD in Wisconsin

2.)    Argument-Pros:

a.       Estimated number of infected deer in 2002 and now.

b.      What efforts they have made to protect our deer.

c.      What advancements in the understanding of the disease since first introduced.

3.)    Argument-Cons:

a.      Impact the media had on persuading hunters. Scared to eat the meat.

b.      Impact of eradication zones.  Too many tags. Over kill?

c.      Effects on the hunter.  License sales up or down year to year.

4.)    Conclusion:

a.      Restate thesis

b.      Site sources

Cause and Effect of Wisconsin DNR and CWD

     Chronic wasting disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found primarily in the deer family.  It is infectious and spread through saliva. It was first recognized in the mule deer of Colorado in 1967.  It was scientifically identified as a TSE in 1978.  In 2002 the first case was finally diagnosed in central Wisconsin in Mt. Horeb.  Since this date the DNR has exhausted resources and put in place numerous changes in the hunting regulations allowing hunters to harvest far more deer then necessary.  Chronic Wasting Disease hit the news stations at a rapid pace scaring hunters from the sport.  Depending on how close you where to ground zero you could be subject to what they call the eradication zone or the herd reduction zone.  My land fell right on the outskirts of the herd reduction zone and we felt the effects in a very negative way.

               There has never to this date been a confirmed case of CWD in a deer in the county I hunt in yet for ten years strait I was encouraged to shoot as many deer as I could to try to wipe out the herd.  The DNR treated the problem like it was a zombie apocalypse.  Before CWD, every hunter was given a buck tag and had to pay twelve dollars extra for a chance at a bonus tag, which meant I could shoot a doe.  That was it!  The result of this was a good balance of the deer herd.  As soon as this mysterious and scary disease was recognized in one small town of the state, the tags where basically limitless.   Soon, nearly state wide, hunters were forced into “earn a buck”  where you need to tag and register a doe before you are allowed to shoot a buck.  This in turn forces you to shoot more deer.  Why you ask?  The DNR doesn’t know how to cure this disease.  More so, they were sloppy with their appointed responsibilities to the state of Wisconsin and allowed a deer farmer to bring in out of state deer that carried the disease that eventually hopped a fence to spread it to our wild deer population.  So what do we do with that which we do not understand?  Wipe it out and start fresh!  That was their only plan. Kill. Kill. Kill.             

               Our land was littered with deer in my early childhood.  It was nothing for me to go onto our eighty acre chunk in the Reedsburg area and see twelve deer in just a morning stand in the woods.  Everyone saw deer, everyone shot deer, the herd was appropriately reduced, everyone had fun!  Now, with that many deer in our area and unlimited tags what do you think human nature led everyone to do?  The deer herd was dramatically decreased in just a few years.  Deer trail that used to be wore down to the dirt like cow paths are grown over and unused.    The DNR then pulls a stunt and reports statewide that according to their horribly inaccurate manipulative surveys, the deer numbers have actually increased.  This was not true.  The woods was dead.   The herds in CWD zones were down as they planned but the zones outside of CWD the herds stayed the same or grew because a lot of hunters were scared off by the disease and those that weren’t still only had a select amount of tags to fill.  So what do they do next?  Now for every deer you shoot they reward you with four more doe tags daily!  That means with earn a buck, you have to shoot a doe, register it, be awarded four more free doe tags and the ability to shoot your buck then go out a shoot five more deer in that same day.  Also, for every one of those deer I’m allowed to get four additional doe tags as well!  Needless to say, there is no need for anyone to poach in the near future.  Soon there are no deer.  Then they report surveys that the purchase of licenses is down and they use that as their justification for allowing hunters to kill so many deer.  It was a vicious circle that slaughtered the deer herd and justified their actions in doing so.

               The DNR warned people against eating deer in earlier years of this pandemic.  Many hunter hung up their guns because of the DNR’s over embellishment.  There was no proof leading to believe you could get sick from, or contract this disease from deer.  Where my family hunts many of the locals are on the poorer side of the economy.  These family’s hunt deer for meat.  They used to poach deer for meat to survive, which I am ok with, but now have no need to anymore.  With no fear of being caught or  the need to poach in general, these families certainly took advantage of the situation shooting as many deer as they needed to fill their freezers for their families of four  five to last the winter.  When their freezers are full they would shoot a deer to help out their neighbors half empty freezer.  With no regulation and a seemingly bottomless bowl of nearly free meat why would any human stop grabbing.  Some even bought into the disease as if it was their duty to help eradicate the deer.  Some shot to kill and leave.  I have heard of numerous cases where people will shoot a deer out of spite and left it lay where it died. 

               Present day, it is nothing for me to go out into the woods and not see a deer.  We plant corn, soybeans, clover, and manage our land the best we can to try and reverse what the DNR has done.  I asked a member of the DNR about seven years into this massacre how many deer that they have tested from my county tested positive for CWD.  His answer was, “As of today….zero.”  I looked him square in the eyes and asked why in the hell are we still in the herd reduction zone.  He broke eye contact from me, shrugged his shoulders and went on the next hunter in line to have their deer tested.  My deer were never infected and there was no reason for this attempted state wide annihilation.  Ask any old timer and he will have at least one story of a time he came across a sickly looking deer.  This disease has been around for a long time and did not need this drastic of measures to remedy the problem.  I just hope that there are enough hunters left to continue this tradition and learn better for next time not to let the DNR pull their strings.  Despite my completely one sided bashing I just gave to the DNR, I’m actually not entirely against them but it was their “lack there of” that put us in this mess to begin with and their ill conceived attempts to fix the problem has lead me to a bitter taste in my mouth and a lack of good hunting memories to share with my brothers and sisters of the sport.

 

Web 2.0 Comment

       Had I not chose to write my blog about hunting, a close second would have been the topic of music.  I am a guitar player/amateur recording artist by hobby.  Andrew Keen talks about his friends idea to force out the "big media" because they are the enemy that exploits the music industry.  I couldn't agree with his friend more!  Web 2.0 would allow any "Joe Shmoe" to publish their own work and slowly remove big record labels from the industry.  The author of this blog states in paragraphs 12,13,14 that a consequence of this would be narcissism, meaning the music will be too personalized and only reflect ourselves rather than the worlds around us therefore eliminating the chances for people comparable to Mozart, Van Gogh, and Hitchcock to be recognized.  I don't find any truth to this at all.  I feel that you will need to filter through alot more crap to find real talent but it will not enable talent to be found.  Over 90% of the music industry is a joke.  Like what you want from the top ten lists you hear on the radio whether its country, pop, or rock but the artists and their songs are pre-fabricated garbage.  Well over half of the music industries leading artists to not deserve to be called artists.  I encourage you all to look at the pages within the album.  My girlfriend is a big fan of Carrie Underwood.  Miss Underwood hasn't written more then 2 or 3 songs on any one of her albums.  She is just another pretty face with a great voice who was easy to exploit and make millions off of.  In that case, my cousin and at least 12 other women in the La Crosse area are just as, if not more talented then her.  I see and hear great band and artists all over the state.  I fill my cd case with their music twice as fast as I would with mainstream artists. If only their cd's were of better quality.  I think if more people supported live music and brought the appeal of music to a more local level, we would all have better music that meant more to us and for a fraction of the money.  You could pay 10 dollars to see a band near by versus paying those thieves at Ticketmaster 75 dollars then having to drive to a big city.  There isn't a single song I wish to hear off of 95.7 the Rocks radio station.  Every song is personalized to young men and women who can relate love, hate, sex, breaking up, my daddy hit me, so on and so fourth.  The worse kind of song to me is one that I can predict what is gonna happen next.  Whether its melodic or listening to the story and knowing what they are gonna sing about next.  This writer went on to talk about how Elite Hollywood studios have a knack for finding elite talent.  This world has more undiscovered talent then Hollywood or Nashville will ever care to know.  The music industry isn't about music at all.  Its about what will sell the most.  Music without sex appeal and an interesting background story behind the front man or woman of the band will not sell records.  I say let Hollywood continue their exploitation according to Marxism.  It will take a long time for Web 2.0 to catch on and when it does the "bourgeoisie" will find a way to get their dirty hands on that too.  I don't have the time to filter out all the crappy bands just to find the winners so I think for this movement to happen, a worldwide democracy in a grading system will need to rank what is published.

               

Process Analysis Final Draft

How To Shoot A Bow

                There are many steps and concepts involved in being a crack shot with your bow.  First and foremost would be to find a bow that fits your body size accordingly.  Draw Length is important to be able to properly pull back, find your anchor point and steady your arms for a shot.  If you have a draw length that is too long, the string will end up anchored behind your jaw bone, or heaven forbid your ear and surely rake the string right across your face.  Another idea to consider would be the weight of the bow in general.  If the bow feels too heavy for you then you will feel fatigue much sooner and find it hard to hold the bow steady.  Also, don’t try to act like a tough guy and wrench the poundage of the bow too high.  With a bow, pounds are rated as the weight in resistance to pull the string back.  Start off at a lower, more comfortable pound setting and raise it over time as your muscles build.

 

                Next you must decide what type of hardware you wish to add to your bow.  This hardware may include a release, release hoops, peep sight, kisser button, stabilizers, various styles of rests and pin sights.  Some shooters still prefer to pull back a bow with their fingers but the modern day hunter/archer prefers a release and a small nylon hoop to clip into. Peep sights and kisser buttons are devises that assist you in maintaining the same anchor point when aiming with your pin sights at a target on every shot.  Stabilizers promote good balance of the bow and most have shock absorbers on the ends to reduce recoil when the string is propelled forward.  Another tool I have found useful is a wrist strap.  This allows you to keep your wrist steady. 

                Every archer defines himself by his equipment and one specific way to do this is with his or her arrows.  For a compound bow you can use either aluminum or carbon arrow shafts.  Nine out of ten people use carbon because it is stronger and lighter.  Most archers I know use one hundred grain tips as well.  This is simply the weight of the field point or broad head that you screw into the tip of the arrow.  The most important thing is that all your tips are the same grain value for consistent shooting.  Last and most importantly is the fletching.  This is where you will find the most versatile selection ranging from size, shape, color, material.  Fletching can be as short as one inch all the way up to five inches.  Some archers still prefer feathers over the rubber veins.  Some archers prefer there fletching glued on at a slight angle to the shaft to promote controlled spinning of the arrow.  This in turn is said to help the arrows all fly as true and consistent as possible.  One step further, archer often add a helix to the fletching on top of the offset angle to the shaft.  To put a helix on your fletching means to glue it on the shaft not strait but to put a half moon shaped curve on the fletching.   With the fletching applied in a spiral shape, some claim this will help especially with the consistent flight of broad heads at greater distances.  Broad heads tend to fly differently then field points.  All these concepts are personal preference and as long as all your arrows are the exact same, it shouldn’t hold you back from becoming a consistent shooter.

                Now that we have the equipment under control it’s time to put you in the shoes of an archer.  For the beginner, I would recommend setting a target at 15 yards.  It’s time to break the ice and lob some arrows at the target to get your 15 yard pin sighted in.  For this exercise we will be shooting a compound bow with a release, peep sight, pin sights and a drop away rest.  First you will stand on the 15 yard line.  If you are right handed, put your left foot on the 15 yard line and point your left shoulder at the target.  Hold the bow in your left hand.  Click your arrow into the string in the designated knocking area.  This should be right between the two ends of the hoop that are tied to the string.  Make sure your arrow is located in the right place on top of the arrow rest.  Next you will clip in your release, which is already strapped to your hand, to the hoop which is attached to your bow string.  Raise the bow and point it in the direction of the target.  Keep a good shoulder width stance.  Slowly ease back the string until the bow has been full drawn back.  In a compound bow you will be able to feel the cams on the bow roll back and a great deal of tension will be let off of the string making it much easier to hold the bow back when fully drawn. 

            Now that the bow is drawn back, try to find a comfortable grip on the bows handle.  Be sure not to grip the stock too tight or twist it in your palms.  This would cause the arrow to travel in an undesirable path and direction.

                 When shooting broad heads any movement made by you will be over embellished on your shot in a negative way!  The key to a good grip is to focus any force the stock has on your hand in the direction of the target.  Some professional archers make the “ok” symbol with their hand, only gripping the handle with their thumb and pointer finger which in turn, allows the bow to tip forward upon release of the string.  The other key factor in good shooting is a consistent anchor point.  This is where the peep sight comes in handy.  The peep sight is a small plastic ring stuck inside the string as a focal point for you.  Bring the string close enough to your face so you can look through this ring and find your pin sights at the other end of your bow.  This is similar to looking into the scope of a gun.  When you have matched the pin in the center of this peep sight hole and the pin dot is on the desired area of the target, you are ready to shoot!  When you squeeze the trigger on the release, try not to flinch.  Follow through with your shot.  This means keeping your stance and the bow upright as if you were still holding back the string.  Do not break your initial pose until the arrow has connected with your target.

                  Repeat this process many times until you see a good grouping pattern with all of your shots.  There is an old saying that goes, “Move a group not an arrow!”  This means don’t adjust your sights after one shot.  Shoot multiple arrows and try to discover a pattern.  If you shoot 4 arrows at the target and all 4 arrows are shooting high and to the right, then you probably need to adjust your sights.  If this is the case, move your pin sight up and to the right to adjust the sight accordingly.  This easy process of adjusting your bow sights is called, “Following your arrow.”  Try adjusting in very small increments at a time.  Using this process and possibly having a friend critique your shooting will slowly but surely turn you into a crack shot with a bow!