The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board unanimously passed changes to deer advisory councils at its meeting last week.
The change will allow deer management units to be based on habitat rather than county lines in Northern Wisconsin and other parts of the state.
Under the emergency and permanent rules approved by the Natural Resources Board, the County Deer Advisory Councils or CDACs will be renamed Citizen Deer Advisory Councils.
CDACs make deer harvest quota recommendations each year.
Changing the maps to reflect habitat types rather than county lines does have strong support, according to DNR public comment it collected during this process.
Dick Wolkowski told the Board he’s hunting deer in Bayfield County for 56 years and has seen decline in deer herds.
He supports the change.
“We’ve only harvested four bucks since 2010. Things have gone downhill. We’re not unique,” said Wolkowski.
Northern Wisconsin State Representative Chanz Green also told the board that he thinks the map change is something necessary for the region, though he and others raised concerns that the process was being rushed.
“I would like to see this vetted and properly gone through the channels and everybody get a chance to see it and learn about it, understand it better,” said Green.
One of the concerns was being able to provide CDACs with enough data within the new units to make recommendations.
DNR Deer Program Specialist Jeff Pritzl said it doesn’t matter if it’s this year or next, they’d be starting from scratch.
“This is also in anticipation of us coming out of another mild winter. It’s probably a good year where there will not be as much concern and anxiousness about antlerless permit allocation as there might be a year from now if we were to have a severe winter, it would make it more challenging,” said Pritzl. “The window of opportunity is there, and I encourage us to go through it.”
Pritzl says they do have a transition plan to help navigate what they know will be the challenges this year.
The board unanimously approved the emergency and permanent rules. The changes still need to be approved by the Governor and Legislature.
The CDACs will meet this spring to set quotas for the 2025 deer season.
