WAUSAU - There's little support for a new strategy for trimming Wisconsin's deer herd.

Hunters attending the annual statewide conservation hearings Monday night voted overwhelmingly against creating an antlerless-only season but allowing gun hunters to take bucks on the opening weekend of the nine-day gun season and archers to shoot bucks for two weeks during the breeding season.

The plan is an alternative to earn-a-buck, which requires hunters to shoot an antlerless deer to qualify to kill a buck in areas where there's too many deer.

The proposal failed 5,472 to 1,126 in the advisory vote, the state Department of Natural Resources reported. A separate question on whether to eliminate earn-a-buck entirely passed 5,513 votes to 1,321. It was also advisory.

The hearings held by the DNR and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a citizens advisory group to the state Natural Resources Board, drew 7,939 to 72 meetings (one in each of the state's 72 counties). The hearings included votes on 91 questions dealing with a variety of fishing and wildlife issues and proposed DNR regulations.

Fish and wildlife managers will analyze the results and develop recommendations to present to the Natural Resources Board in May.

Last week, the DNR recommended a one-year moratorium on the earn-a-buck program, except in chronic wasting disease zones in southern Wisconsin.

DNR Secretary Matt Frank said the move was designed to address hunters' concerns about how the DNR estimates the deer population, and their worries that a 19 percent drop in the deer kill during the nine-day gun season last fall was evidence of too many does being shot.

The third advisory question dealing with earn-a-buck Monday night asked whether there could be only two consecutive seasons of earn-a-buck in each deer management zone. That idea passed 5,112 votes to 1,325, the DNR said.

Earn-a-buck has never been popular with hunters because some don't want to shoot does, and it can force them to pass up a shot at a more coveted buck until they shoot a doe first. It has been used since 1996 as a key way for the DNR to try to reach its management goal of about 1 million deer heading into the fall hunt.

Last season, there were 31 earn-a-buck zones that covered about one-third of the state, from far western Wisconsin through several counties in the central region to the east side of the state. The DNR estimated up to 1.7 million deer roamed the fields and woods - a figure it has since revised.

Some other issues and results from the voting Monday night:

- Create a special antlerless-only deer hunt on private land to address concerns that public lands are being hunted too much in the so-called four-day T-Zone seasons. It failed 3,933 votes to 2,570.

- Clarify the definition of a firearm for hunting to guns that shoot with compressed air or gunpowder. The change addresses technology that uses electromagnetic fields to fire projectiles - the so-called railgun. It passed 3,956 votes to 2,156.

- Whether Wisconsin should establish a Youth Conservation Congress to help attract another generation of hunters, anglers, trappers and environmental stewards. It passed 4,377 votes to 1,637.

- Allow tree stands on public land overnight. It passed 4,624 votes to 2,103 votes.

Kurt Thiede, the DNR's spring hearing coordinator, said the 91 questions are believed to be the most ever in the 75 years of the hearings. Last year, the ballot had 71 questions, and more than 5,000 people participated.

On the Net:

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us

Conservation Congress: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/nrboard/congress