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https://www.outdoornews.com/2025/07/03/grant-county-escapes-wisconsins-holiday-deer-hunt-as-nrb-approves-framework-of-2025-season/#commentsThu, 03 Jul 2025 21:10:33 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363569In a show of support for recommendations by County Deer Advisory Councils (CDAC), the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (NRB) approved the 2025 deer season framework June 25 that includes a holiday hunt and extended January season in 44 Farmland Zone units.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had agreed with all CDAC recommendations except for not including the holiday hunt and extended archery hunt in Grant County.
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]]>Kenosha, Wis. — In a show of support for recommendations by County Deer Advisory Councils (CDAC), the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (NRB) approved the 2025 deer season framework June 25 that includes a holiday hunt and extended January season in 44 Farmland Zone units.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had agreed with all CDAC recommendations except for not including the holiday hunt and extended archery hunt in Grant County.
The DNR recommended to the NRB that Grant County offer the holiday hunt and extended bow season into January in order to be consistent with neighboring counties and to help increase the deer harvest in a region with increasing CWD prevalence.
However, the Grant County CDAC had decided earlier not to offer the holiday hunt nor the extended January bow season.
What may have helped NRB members make their decision to reject the DNR’s recommendation and accept the CDAC’s exemption of Grant County from the late hunts was Rob Bohmann’s comment that it was for just one year.
“We have to give CDACs the opportunity to learn. If you continue to override that they will never learn,” said Bohmann, Conservation Congress chair. “We have to trust those boots on the ground. They are not only our partners, but if we didn’t have hunters, we wouldn’t be able to manage our wildlife populations.”
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Bohmann said the congress supported the DNR’s proposed season structure, except in Grant County where the CDAC didn’t want the extended hunts.
Bohmann thanked those serving on CDACs saying, “The process would fail if it wasn’t for their willingness to serve the sportsmen and women in their county.”
NRB members wanted more information on the DNR and Grant County disparity.
Jeff Pritzl, DNR deer program specialist, said the DNR was not ignoring the CDAC recommendation, but said there was not a “clear path” to a decision since the Grant County vote was close: five-to-four in favor of no extended hunts. He said, in general, the holiday hunt could add a kill of 200 to 400 antlerless deer in a county, and provide more hunting opportunities.
“Everyone is on the same page of increasing the antlerless deer harvest,” Pritzl said. “How might we accomplish that?”
Bill Smith, NRB chair, heard from a few hunters who are very appreciative of the holiday hunt because it is an opportunity to hunt with friends or relatives who couldn’t get back to the state until the holiday season.
Smith said the holiday hunt has shown steady, positive growth. In the past when the NRB changed CDAC recommendations, it was due to an overwhelming social or natural resource reason.
In this case, he saw neither. He said he knows CDACs have difficulty recruiting members and sometimes feel they aren’t being heard.
Board members said they respect the CDACs and they also want to help reduce CWD, but in the end they wanted to keep a good relationship with CDACs and see what the data shows after the year. The board voted unanimously to approve the season, but to go along with Grant County’s recommendation to not participate in the holiday hunt and January bow hunt.
NRB members Douglas Cox and Jeff Hastings were not present and did not participate at the meeting.
The result is that 44 of the 58 deer units eligible for the holiday hunt will participate; 37 of 58 units will extend the bow season through January.
Unit changes
Pritzl said that a challenge coming up with an antlerless quota this year is that DNR was transitioning to new deer unit boundaries in the forest zones.
The changes included 19 Northern Forest Zone county units that became 24 habitat-based numbered units. In addition, some Northern Forest Zone units became five new small Central Farmland Zone units, seven Central Forest Zone units were reduced in size to six. Six southeastern metro subunits were expanded.
As a result, units in the Northern Forest Zone have been given numbers to differentiate them from the farmland units (still recognized by county).
DNR researchers developed a system to look at the average antlerless harvest, amount of private and public land, historic antlerless harvest, and permit success rate to help CDACs decide whether to increase or decrease antlerless harvests in the new units.
Pritzl said that for the 24 new Northern Forest Zone units, six recommendations were below recent averages, eight were at or near recent averages, and 10 were above recent averages.
“I can’t speak enough of the collaborative and cooperative approach that they (CDACs) took to this process this spring,” Pritzl said.
The result is that the DNR fully supported recommendations coming from northern CDACs.
The DNR also invited public comment on proposed quotas prior to the CDAC meetings; 6,383 people provided input.
The final desired antlerless harvest quota for 2025 is 291,385, compared to 272,837 in 2024 and 283,495 in 2023.
There will be 260,715 bonus “tags” available, compared to 248,120 in 2024, and 253,715 in 2023. Additional antlerless deer may be harvested using free Farmland Zone antlerless tags issued with each license in order to try to reach the goal of 291,385 antlerless deer harvested.
“This is in line with the fact that we are coming off two mild winters and we had an increase in harvest last year,” Pritzl said.
This year one Farmland Zone unit (Door County) will issue five antlerless permits with each license; three units will issue four; 19 will issue three; 27 will issue two; and 10 units will issue one antlerless permit.
The season
The 2025 deer season will include the usual buck-plus-antlerless permit during the archery seasons, and nine-day gun and muzzleloader seasons.
The four-day December statewide season will continue to be antlerless-only.
An additional nine days of antlerless-only gun hunting in 44 Farmland Zone counties will run Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, 2026.
Additional hunting opportunities with an either-sex January bow and crossbow season will be offered in 37 counties.
The regulations pamphlet was going to the printer in late June.
2025 season dates
Archery/crossbow: Sept. 13 – Jan. 4, 2026 (Jan. 31 closure in metro subunits and select units).
Youth deer hunt: Oct. 11-12.
Gun deer hunt for hunters with disabilities: Oct 4-12.
Gun deer season: Nov. 22-30.
Muzzleloader: Dec. 1-10.
Antlerless hunt: Dec. 11-14.
Holiday hunt: Dec. 24 – Jan. 1, 2026 (not all counties).
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 20:47:27 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363567Fish still shifting around due to storms, water temps. Here’s a look at the Wisconsin fishing report across the state on July 3, 2025.
The post Wisconsin’s statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>Fish still shifting around due to storms, water temps. Here’s a look at the Wisconsin fishing report across the state on July 3, 2025.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 20:35:42 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363565Here’s a look at the Iowa fishing report from across the state on July 3, 2025.
The post Iowa’s statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>Here’s a look at the Iowa fishing report from across the state on July 3, 2025.
The post Iowa’s statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:31:20 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363548A southern Illinois hunting club that described itself as the top waterfowl harvesting commercial club over a 15-year stretch and claimed to hold the state record for Canada goose harvests has been ordered to close its doors for two years after admitting to a federal charge of baiting.
Burns Hunting Club, which for decades hosted duck and goose hunters in pits on the south side of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, was given the order by a district judge after club owner Hugh Thomas “Tom” Burns, Jr. admitted to the baiting charges.
The post Top duck hunting club in southern Illinois closed after baiting case appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>A southern Illinois hunting club that described itself as the top waterfowl harvesting commercial club over a 15-year stretch and claimed to hold the state record for Canada goose harvests has been ordered to close its doors for two years after admitting to a federal charge of baiting.
Burns Hunting Club, which for decades hosted duck and goose hunters in pits on the south side of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, was given the order by a district judge after club owner Hugh Thomas “Tom” Burns, Jr. admitted to the baiting charges.
The post Top duck hunting club in southern Illinois closed after baiting case appeared first on Outdoor News.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:05:58 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363540Crappie bite hanging on into summer, bass slower. Here’s a look at the Illinois fishing report on July 3, 2025.
The post Illinois’ statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>Crappie bite hanging on into summer, bass slower. Here’s a look at the Illinois fishing report on July 3, 2025.
The post Illinois’ statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:39:36 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363521While bowhunting enthusiasts wait to see if Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign new legislation that would significantly expand the legal use of crossbows for hunting in New York, archery retailers across the state are anticipating a surge in demand for the sometimes-controversial weapon.
After years of political maneuvering, and opposition from groups that believe crossbows give hunters an advantage other archers don’t have, both houses of the state legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill this session that would redefine crossbows as longbows, and regulate their use in similar fashion to longbows, recurve bows and compound bows.
The post Retailers eye crossbow sales with expanded use for hunters on the horizon in New York appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>While bowhunting enthusiasts wait to see if Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign new legislation that would significantly expand the legal use of crossbows for hunting in New York, archery retailers across the state are anticipating a surge in demand for the sometimes-controversial weapon.
After years of political maneuvering, and opposition from groups that believe crossbows give hunters an advantage other archers don’t have, both houses of the state legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill this session that would redefine crossbows as longbows, and regulate their use in similar fashion to longbows, recurve bows and compound bows.
The post Retailers eye crossbow sales with expanded use for hunters on the horizon in New York appeared first on Outdoor News.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:19:23 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363512Anglers faced with hot conditions. Here’s a look at the New York fishing report from across the state on July 3, 2025.
The post New York’s statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
]]>Anglers faced with hot conditions. Here’s a look at the New York fishing report from across the state on July 3, 2025.
The post New York’s statewide fishing report on July 3, 2025 appeared first on Outdoor News.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:35:24 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363499Deb Brosen, of Feather Art Studios, in New York’s Hudson Valley, talks about her career as a wildlife artist. Deb is also the current president of the NYS Outdoor Writers Association, a member of the NYS Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame, and a volunteer for Becoming An Outdoors-Woman. She’s able to juggle her artistic work, which […]
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Deb Brosen, of Feather Art Studios, in New York’s Hudson Valley, talks about her career as a wildlife artist. Deb is also the current president of the NYS Outdoor Writers Association, a member of the NYS Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame, and a volunteer for Becoming An Outdoors-Woman. She’s able to juggle her artistic work, which includes paintings for groups like Ducks Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with her philanthropy and even finding time to spend in the woods and on the water.
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Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:26:18 +0000https://www.outdoornews.com/?p=363491The 2025-2026 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp – commonly known as the Duck Stamp – went on sale recently. The new Federal Duck Stamp and its younger sibling, the Junior Duck Stamp, debuted at a special event hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Mack’s Prairie Wings in Stuttgart, Arkansas.
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]]>The 2025-2026 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp – commonly known as the Duck Stamp – went on sale recently. The new Federal Duck Stamp and its younger sibling, the Junior Duck Stamp, debuted at a special event hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Mack’s Prairie Wings in Stuttgart, Arkansas.
“It’s exciting to be one of the first people to buy the 2025-2026 Federal and Junior Duck Stamps,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “Over the past century, waterfowl hunters have helped conserve millions of acres of wetland habitat that provide places for a wide diversity of wildlife to thrive, help in flood control and create significant economic stimulus for rural communities.”
Painted by Adam Grimm of Wallace, South Dakota, the new Federal Duck Stamp will raise millions of dollars for habitat conservation, which benefits wildlife and the American people. The pair of spectacled eiders featured on the new stamp is Grimm’s third Federal Duck Stamp designed for the U.S. Department of the Interior. His artwork was chosen in September 2024 from 239 entries in the country’s only federally regulated art contest.
The 2025-2026 Junior Duck Stamp, which also went on sale today, raises funds to support youth conservation education. This year’s stamp features a northern shoveler painted by 18-year-old Catheryn Liang from Texas.
The Federal Duck Stamp plays a critically important role in wildlife conservation. Since 1934, sales of this stamp have raised more than $1.2 billion to conserve over 6 million acres of wetlands habitat on national wildlife refuges around the nation.
“Hunters are true conservationists, and the Duck Stamp is one of the many ways they contribute to conserving America’s waterfowl and wetlands throughout the country,” said Service Assistant Director, Migratory Bird Program, Jerome Ford. “Your purchase directly helps preserve millions of acres of beautiful American wetlands that are critical for waterfowl and other wildlife. Duck Stamps ensure future generations enjoy healthy bird populations.”
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Here’s how to keep your duck dog sharp during the offseason
Minnesota DNR’s electronic license system launch date still to be determined
A current Federal Duck Stamp is good for free admission to any national wildlife refuge that charges an entry fee. Of the 573 refuges, most offer unparalleled outdoor recreational opportunities, including hunting, fishing, bird watching and photography.
Waterfowl are not the only species that benefit from wetland habitat conservation. Thousands upon thousands of shorebirds, herons, raptors and songbirds, as well as mammals, fish, native plants, reptiles and amphibians rely on these landscapes as well.
In addition, migratory bird species such as Birds of Conservation Concern like the reddish egret and long-billed curlew, use wetland and connected upland habitat to feed, breed, migrate, winter and rest.
The new duck stamps will be sold at sporting goods and retail stores, some post offices and national wildlife refuges, and are available for purchase online. The Service is also offering the 2025-2026 Federal Electronic Duck Stamp (E-Duck Stamp) for purchase through previously enrolled states as well as through Amplex.
Funds raised from the sale of Federal Duck Stamps go toward the acquisition and lease of habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Duck Stamps – while required for waterfowl hunters as part of their annual license – are also voluntarily purchased by birders, outdoor enthusiasts and fans of national wildlife refuges who understand the value of conserving some of the most diverse and important wildlife habitats in our nation. Stamp and wildlife art collectors also value these miniature pieces of art and American history and contribute to conservation through their purchases of duck stamps.
The Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest is the culmination of a year-long educational program that encourages students to learn about wetlands and waterfowl conservation, explore their natural world and create a painting or drawing of a duck, goose or swan as their “visual term paper” to demonstrate what they learned. Approximately 25,000 students in K-12th grades annually participate in the art contest.
The winning artwork at the Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest is made into a stamp the Service sells for $5 to conservationists, educators, students, collectors and the public. Proceeds support conservation education at the state and local level.
Since the first Junior Duck Stamps went on sale in 1993, well over $1.4 million has been raised, which is re-invested in this unique conservation arts and science education program across the country.
The 2025 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest to select the 2026-2027 Federal Duck Stamp will be held Sept. 18-19, 2025, at Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland.
Learn more about the Federal and Junior Duck Stamps.
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