DNR Board Should Worry More About Helping Deer than Hurting Feelings

   When the Natural Resources Board tried mopping up Wisconsin’s 2026 deer-management plans during its June meeting, they merely rearranged the dust and debris while wishing for better things next year.

   Such futility isn’t new. That’s been the script each June since Wisconsin hatched its “new age” of deer hunting in 2014, a do-nothing system crafted by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and then acquiesced by Gov. Tony Evers’ “I see nothing” regime the past eight years.

   This system is driven by eight- to 10-member Citizen Deer Advisory Councils in each county or management unit. Their mission is assessing their area’s herd and habitats, and setting kill quotas for antlerless deer during autumn’s hunts. And then, after reviewing post-hunt data the next spring, the councils stew in frustration because hunters seldom shoot enough female deer to shrink the herd, reduce overbrowsing and crop damage, and slow the spread of chronic wasting disease.

   The CDACs' efforts are typically fruitless, but never small. They require roughly 700 citizens working in about 90 committees statewide to craft plans that will neither affect their deer herd’s size nor reduce its disease risks and damage to forestry, agriculture and motor vehicles. Their plans fail because lawmakers led by Tom Tiffany, then an assemblyman, got Walker to sign laws in January 2011 eliminating two proven methods for controlling deer: October antlerless-only gun seasons, and earn-a-buck rules that forced archers and gun-hunters to shoot a doe or fawn before killing a buck.

   Logical, responsible lawmakers don’t eliminate effective methods without suitable replacements, but here we are, 12 hunting seasons later, watching yet another Natural Resources Board resign itself to a toothless deer plan because they lack viable options.

This Richland County yearling buck tested positive for chronic wasting disease after getting shot during the 2021 muzzleloading deer season.   — Patrick Durkin photo

This current Board seems especially timid about riling a subset of hunters whose chief interests are big bucks and bigger herds. Maybe the Board members fret because the state Senate has confirmed only one of their seven-person panel, Bill Smith of Shell Lake, and that was in 2019. Senate Republicans have ignored their review duties since 2024 in hopes Tiffany wins November’s governor election and replaces Evers’ other six Board appointees, thwarting the state’s 60-year system of staggered six-year NRB terms.

   Whatever their worries, the five NRB members at June’s meeting meandered for two hours before approving this fall’s deer plan. Their biggest hurdle was deciding whether to forgo the antlerless-only gun season (Dec. 24 through Jan. 1) and January archery season in Iowa and Buffalo counties.

   Both counties’ CDAC panels opposed the winter hunts, and the DNR caved to their wishes. But the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, local conservation clubs, forestry experts, agricultural groups and private citizens urged the Board to overrule the DNR and the CDACs. They argued that the winter seasons reduce deer numbers while providing more opportunities for Wisconsin’s dwindling hunting population.

   The Board quickly agreed to let Iowa County cancel those winter seasons, even though it remains Wisconsin’s most CWD-infected county (4,720 confirmed cases), and is surrounded by six counties that will hold holiday gun seasons and January archery seasons.

   The Board, however, bogged down over Buffalo County, with Smith and Board Chair Robin Schmidt politely arguing to “follow the science” and hold the hunts, while members Jeff Hastings, Deb Dassow and Rachel Bouressa argued just as politely to show “good faith” and “good will” by supporting the county's CDAC.

   The Board finally and apologetically voted 3-2 to let Buffalo County (and neighboring Pepin County) abstain from the late-season hunts, even though its CWD cases have grown from four in 2022 and 2023 to 17 in 2025, and even though neighboring and nearby counties of Trempealeau, Eau Claire, Dunn and Pierce will hold winter hunts.

   Amazingly, not one NRB member criticized the impotent deer program lawmakers dumped on them and the DNR in 2014. By law, the DNR must manage Wisconsin’s deer herd for the public good. But the current deer program prevents that. Further, some members of this citizens Board, which sets DNR policy, don’t follow a principled decision-making process to meet that public trust.

   They should start by determining what they can do to benefit deer and their habitats. Buffalo County’s estimated deer herd this past winter numbered 30,338, its highest mark since 31,401 in 2012. In 2008, that post-hunt population estimate was 18,900 after aggressive herd-reduction efforts through earn-a-buck and October gun-hunts. In other words, Buffalo County’s current deer herd is 60% larger than when the DNR had viable management tools.

   In recent years, the county’s antlerless kill varied from 8,168 in 2008 to 2,847 in 2023, but hasn’t reached 4,000 since 2018. Further, in 2025, the county’s buck kill was 2,497 and its antlerless kill was 3,309. But when accounting for the roughly 25% buck fawns in the antlerless kill, the actual buck kill was 3,325 (57%) and doe kill 2,481 (43%), which helps explain the county’s 12% deer-herd increase this winter. It didn’t help that after receiving 33,663 free antlerless tags in 2025, Buffalo County hunters filled only 3,032 of them, a 9.5% kill rate.

   Meanwhile, despite Wisconsin’s voluntary CWD monitoring efforts, Buffalo County’s CWD rate hit 4.3% in 2025 (17 positives from 397 tests) after detecting only four cases in 238 tests (1.7%) when the always-fatal disease was first found in 2022. Given that 74% of Buffalo County is deer range and overloaded with whitetails, we shouldn’t be surprised if the county’s CWD rate surpasses 10% by 2029, and 20% by 2032.

   That’s been CWD’s growth rate in counties with similar percentages of deer range, such as Sauk and Richland counties, which had 33% and 36% infection rates, respectively, in 2025.

   Here’s something else to consider for southwestern Wisconsin: Of the state’s top 10 counties for Boone & Crockett record-book bucks since 1999, nine are in the Driftless Area. Four of those nine — Richland, No. 2; Sauk, No. 3; Grant, No. 6; and Vernon, No. 7 — also make the state’s top 10 list for most CWD cases.

   What about Buffalo County, the world leader in B&C bucks with 165 entries, 31 more than Texas’ Maverick County? Given its fertile soils and near-record size deer herd, we shouldn’t be surprised when it one day joins Wisconsin’s CWD leader board.

   To slow such results, the Natural Resources Board must put science ahead of niceties when setting the state’s deer policies.