MADISON – Beginning August 1, Wisconsin citizens will have a new
opportunity to be part of managing white-tailed deer in Wisconsin.
Dubbed Operation Deer Watch, people are being asked to record and
report all deer they see between Aug 1 and Sept 30. Go to the
Department of Natural Resources website [dnr.wi.gov] and click on the
Operation Deer Watch button to get started.

“All deer seen including bucks, does and fawns should be reported
during this two month period,” said Jason Fleener, assistant DNR deer
specialist. “The observations will be entered into a database and will
be used to determine doe to fawn ratios, which are a part of the
population estimation equation.”

Summer deer observations have always been part of the population
estimation process, according to DNR biologists. The number of deer
seen and the number of fawns seen with each doe are indicators of
annual production in deer herds. In addition to deer seen, observers
are asked to note date and location. Only deer seen between sunrise
and sunset are to be counted.

In previous years, the observation period lasted three months and only
state and federal biologists, foresters, law enforcement and other
government staff participated.

“One of the recommendations of a panel of experts that that reviewed
our deer population estimation model a few years back was to increase
the number of observers and to shorten the summer deer observation
period to two months from three,” said Fleener “We hope to capitalize
on the intense public interest in Wisconsin’s whitetail deer
population. It’s a great chance for the public to help keep an
eye-on-the-herd and add a lot more observations to our database.”

Operation Deer Watch is yet one more way in which the deer enthusiasts
can help monitor the herd. In 2009, the department launched a hunter
observation website that asked hunters to record observations from
their trips in the woods. Valuable information on species
distribution, as well as, data the number of hunting days, hunting
hours and environmental conditions they experienced was gathered.
Nearly 20,000 hunting trips were logged into the online database. In
addition, similar new data questions were added to the deer
registration form that successful hunters complete and this provided
over 320,000 observations.

“We expect the value of these citizen-based monitoring efforts will
grow with each additional year. We will be able to look at
year-after-year changes that provide insights to our deer populations
across Wisconsin” added Fleener.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Bob Manwell – (608) 264-9248, Jason
Fleener - (608) 261-7589 or Jessica Rees - (608) 221-6360