Beyond moves toward its completion later this year. Time is critical for people interested in expressing their views on a deer management program. They will have one last chance at county meetings June 15-30 before the plan is drafted by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Committee. The plan is to be presented to the Natural Resources Board in August. The NRB can accept the plan or can ask for further work to be done on it.
Time is critical for Wisconsin's deer herd, too, because the numbers keep increasing.
A few months ago, projections were for 1.6 million deer this fall. The latest projection a few weeks ago by Kevin Wallenfang, the DNR liaison to the Deer 2000 committee, was 1.7 million deer. The herd goal for Wisconsin is one million deer. Game managers have established that number as being the best for a healthy herd and a total acceptable to the general population. Last year, hunters harvested just more than 400,000 deer.