THE WISCONSIN NATURAL Resources Board has approved regulations to allow deer management to be based on habitat rather than county lines in the forests of central and northern Wisconsin. (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources image)

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and County Deer Advisory Councils encourage the public to attend their local advisory council meeting to provide feedback on local deer management ahead of the 2025 deer season.

Each county in Wisconsin has a County Deer Advisory Council that meets annually to provide input and recommendations to the DNR on local deer management based on deer herd metrics, county management goals and the public feedback they receive. These recommendations are reviewed and set annually to allow for adjustments in response to the previous year’s deer harvest, winter severity and other factors.

This year’s County Deer Advisory Council meetings will take place across the state from Monday through May 1. More details, including meeting locations, are available in the 2025 County Deer Advisory Committee Meeting Schedule, https://widnr.widen.net/s/mx5dbjvftq/cdac_meetingschedule.

Wisconsin counties in the region will meet:

— Florence County: 6 p.m. Tuesday in the lower conference room of the Florence Nature Resource Center, 5638 Forestry Drive, Florence.

— Marinette County: 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Crivitz Village Hall, 800 Henriette Ave., Crivitz.

— Forest County: 7 p.m. Thursday in the Crandon Public Library, 110 W. Polk St., Crandon.

New for this year, County Deer Advisory Councils in the Northern and Central Forest deer management zones will make recommendations on numbered deer management units. Boundaries in the Northern Forest Zone were changed from county lines to create habitat-based deer management units. Some County Deer Advisory Councils will make multiple recommendations based on the number of units within a county’s borders.

Modifications have also occurred to metro subunits in the southeastern portion of the state. A map of the 2025 deer management units is available on the DNR’s Deer Management webpage, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/deermanagement.

After the County Deer Advisory Council process, the DNR will bring its recommendations for the 2025 season to the Natural Resources Board for review in June.

Any questions about the County Deer Advisory Council process may be submitted to DNRCDACWebMail@wisconsin.gov.

More information is available on the DNR’s County Deer Advisory Councils webpage, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Hunt/cdac.