The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources awarded two hunters from central Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Hunter Ethics Award for their actions in 2020.
Troy DeLaet of Rosholt and Steven Kahan from Wausau received their awards during a May ceremony at Vortex Optics, the Barneveld-based corporate sponsor of the DNR award.
Kahan, 30, assisted two women who were inexperienced with outdoor opportunities along the Ice Age Trail in Taylor County. The women met Kahan, and his father, Ray, in a public parking area as they prepared to grouse hunt the Chequamegon National Forest. He took time to explain some of the other hunting seasons to the ladies and assured them that there is space for hikers and hunters in the national forest.
And DeLaet, 39, was nominated by a neighbor with adjoining land in Portage County. Both neighbors had hunting groups on their land during the 2020 opening day of the gun deer season. When DeLaet shot a buck, which dropped near his property line, he sent his neighbor, Ed Hildebrand, a text and photograph of the deer, asking if anyone in their party had shot a buck. After a short time, the neighbors from the other party came to where DeLaet shot the deer. DeLaet's neighbor identified the deer as the one she shot. The rule of first blood that DeLaet referred to gives a hunter who first wounded an animal claim to the harvest no matter if another hunter deals a fatal shot afterward.
Any Wisconsin hunter is eligible to be nominated by another individual, regardless if they are a hunter or not.
Categories: Wisconsin, Rural Lifestyle