Report: Wisconsin DNR should drop local deer goals

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin wildlife officials should scrap local deer population goals, let landowners hold hunts on their property and establish better connections with the public, a consultant hired by the governor concluded in a report released Tuesday.

Texas researcher James Kroll’s study focuses largely on the Department of Natural Resources’ shortcomings but takes hunters to task, too, saying they expect the agency to maintain a herd so large the landscape can’t support it. His plan offers the two sides a chance to compromise and save Wisconsin’s hunting traditions from disappearing, he said.