Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
PROD
Skip Navigation LinksHome > Deer Impacts > Agriculture Resources > Total # WDACP Deer Enrollments  
Choose your County
 
Enrollments/Permits/Harvest
 
 
   View trends in county and statewide enrollment, shooting permit, Ag Damage, and Nuisance harvest numbers over the years. For additional Information….
 
  
 
Background
According to the USDA -National Agriculture Statistics Service’s 2012 census, Wisconsin ranks 9th in the nation for the total value of agricultural crops sold. This statistic reinforces the importance of agriculture to Wisconsin’s economy. In areas of high deer abundance, negative impacts from deer browsing can have a significant economic impact on agriculture producers. It is important to consider these negative impacts when recommending decreasing, stabilizing, or increasing deer populations in each county.
 
Collection and analysis methods
The Wildlife Damage Abatement and Claims Program (WDACP) provides damage abatement assistance and partial compensation to agriculture producers experiencing damage to agriculture crops from deer. Currently 70 Wisconsin counties participate in the program, Menominee and Kenosha counties are the only counties that do not participate. The WDACP is a voluntary program allowing individual producers to determine what level of deer damage is tolerable to them before deciding to enroll in the program. Through this program information including the number of producers enrolled in the program for deer damage, the number of deer shooting permits issued and deer harvested, and appraised deer damages will be available to each County Deer Advisory Committee when making recommendations to change or maintain deer populations within the county.
 
Using the metric
Agriculture damage and deer shooting permit information can be used as an index to track impacts deer are having on agriculture producers within a county. This data would be useful in determining 3 year population objectives to increase, stabilize, or decrease deer populations within the county and for developing annual antlerless deer quota recommendations.
 
Limitations and precautions
The WDACP is a voluntary program and does not reflect the total amount of agriculture damage that is being done by deer within a county. Individual tolerances to deer damage vary and there are a variety of other social factors that impact a producer’s choice to enroll in the program. For example, there are very few WDACP enrollments in Buffalo County because of the program’s public hunting access requirement, even though some producers are experiencing significant damages from deer. To these producers, not having to allow public hunting access is more important than receiving compensation for the deer damages.

By Wisconsin Administrative Code participating counties do not need to submit wildlife damage claims to the department until March 1 following the calendar year in which damage occurred and the department has until June 1 to process the claim. Because of these deadlines there will be a 1-year lag in appraised deer damage information being available to the CDAC’s, i.e. 2014 appraised deer damages will not be available to the CDAC’s until June of 2015.
 
Future needs
Because the WDACP is a voluntary program there is a need to conduct social surveys to better gauge the level of deer damage that is occurring and what social factors influence a producer’s tolerance to deer damage. There it does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the deer damage that is occurring in each county and the need to identify the social factors within the that determine whether a producer enrolls in the WDACP.
 
Additional background materials related to this metric

 
Total Deer Damage & Nuisance Enrollments
Total Nuisance Enrollments: 34 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 51 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 48 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 73 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 76 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 79 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 79 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 72 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 62 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 60 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 64 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 69 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 43 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 47 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 59 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 61 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 60 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 6 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 8 Total Nuisance Enrollments: 3 Total Enrollments: 621 Total Enrollments: 648 Total Enrollments: 635 Total Enrollments: 565 Total Enrollments: 578 Total Enrollments: 620 Total Enrollments: 646 Total Enrollments: 643 Total Enrollments: 611 Total Enrollments: 650 Total Enrollments: 745 Total Enrollments: 754 Total Enrollments: 655 Total Enrollments: 644 Total Enrollments: 655 Total Enrollments: 765 Total Enrollments: 826 Total Enrollments: 422 Total Enrollments: 430 Total Enrollments: 517

Total Deer Damage & Nuisance Shooting Permits Issued
Total Nuisance Permits: 34 Total Nuisance Permits: 51 Total Nuisance Permits: 48 Total Nuisance Permits: 74 Total Nuisance Permits: 80 Total Nuisance Permits: 85 Total Nuisance Permits: 83 Total Nuisance Permits: 75 Total Nuisance Permits: 63 Total Nuisance Permits: 60 Total Nuisance Permits: 65 Total Nuisance Permits: 71 Total Nuisance Permits: 45 Total Nuisance Permits: 52 Total Nuisance Permits: 65 Total Nuisance Permits: 63 Total Nuisance Permits: 60 Total Nuisance Permits: 7 Total Nuisance Permits: 8 Total Nuisance Permits: 3 Total Permits: 555 Total Permits: 586 Total Permits: 576 Total Permits: 504 Total Permits: 522 Total Permits: 565 Total Permits: 560 Total Permits: 531 Total Permits: 506 Total Permits: 541 Total Permits: 617 Total Permits: 616 Total Permits: 518 Total Permits: 487 Total Permits: 498 Total Permits: 605 Total Permits: 676 Total Permits: 338 Total Permits: 326 Total Permits: 436

Total Deer Harvested under Deer Damage & Nuisance Permits
Total Nuisance Harvest: 66 Total Nuisance Harvest: 219 Total Nuisance Harvest: 323 Total Nuisance Harvest: 759 Total Nuisance Harvest: 786 Total Nuisance Harvest: 967 Total Nuisance Harvest: 1074 Total Nuisance Harvest: 792 Total Nuisance Harvest: 641 Total Nuisance Harvest: 828 Total Nuisance Harvest: 830 Total Nuisance Harvest: 455 Total Nuisance Harvest: 278 Total Nuisance Harvest: 310 Total Nuisance Harvest: 311 Total Nuisance Harvest: 523 Total Nuisance Harvest: 630 Total Nuisance Harvest: 45 Total Nuisance Harvest: 52 Total Nuisance Harvest: 27 Total Harvest: 2009 Total Harvest: 3682 Total Harvest: 3970 Total Harvest: 3229 Total Harvest: 3620 Total Harvest: 3492 Total Harvest: 3910 Total Harvest: 3226 Total Harvest: 3132 Total Harvest: 3198 Total Harvest: 3669 Total Harvest: 3740 Total Harvest: 3088 Total Harvest: 2980 Total Harvest: 2861 Total Harvest: 3797 Total Harvest: 5057 Total Harvest: 3347 Total Harvest: 3441 Total Harvest: 4214
For questions on this deer metric data contact:
Jeff Pritzl 920-366-3450 Jeffrey.Pritzl@wisconsin.gov