The Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Deer Association (NDA) invite landowners and others interested in managing deer on their properties to join a free, live webinar via Zoom. The webinar, focused on using data to inform deer management, will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 6 p.m.
MDC and NDA staff will discuss how landowners can use data collected on their properties, as well as research findings, to make informed deer management decisions and improve hunting success.
The free webinar is part of MDC’s Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP). Everyone is welcome to participate in the Zoom webinar, even if they are not enrolled in DMAP.
To join the free, live webinar on Sept. 12 at 6 p.m., save this link and click on it.
MDC and NDA have previously presented Zoom webinars on topics such as deer survey techniques, wildlife cooperatives, and deer aging techniques. You can watch the recordings online at this link.
MDC’s free Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) helps landowners manage deer on their properties by allowing them and the hunters they designate to purchase additional firearms permits. These permits enable the taking of antlerless deer on the properties, above and beyond regular-season harvest limits. DMAP also provides landowners with science-based methods and information to address a range of other local deer-management goals, including Quality Deer Management (QDM) objectives.
“For some landowners, deer cause crop damage and other problems, even with deer removals through regular hunting seasons and damage authorizations,” said MDC Deer Biologist Kevyn Wiskirchen, who coordinates DMAP. “Some landowners need additional tools to achieve their deer-management goals. The program’s main objective is to maintain healthy deer populations while balancing landowner needs.”
Wiskirchen added that any private property of at least 500 acres located outside of municipal boundaries is eligible for the program. For properties within the boundaries of a city or town, at least 40 acres are required. Individual parcels of land may be combined to meet the acreage requirements, as long as no parcel is more than a half-mile (by air) from the boundary of another parcel being combined to form an enrolled DMAP property.
To learn more about DMAP, visit MDC online at this link, or contact your local MDC private land conservationist or conservation agent.
