Missouri landowners invited to deer management webinar

JEFFERSON CITY—The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites landowners and others interested in managing deer on their properties to join a live webinar via Zoom from 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, July 28 to learn about its Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP). MDC staff and staff from the National Deer Association will explain the program, answer questions, and offer testimonials from landowners who have used the program.

Save this link and click on it at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 28 to join the live DMAP webinar. 

DMAP can help landowners manage deer on their properties by allowing them and hunters they designate to buy additional firearms permits to take antlerless deer on the properties above and beyond regular-season harvest limits.

“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. “And some landowners need additional tools for achieving their deer-management goals for their properties. The program’s main goal 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, regardless of the owner’s legal residence, is eligible for the program. For properties inside the boundaries of a city or town, at least 40 acres are required. Individual parcels of land, regardless of ownership, may be combined to satisfy the acreage requirements as long as no parcel of land is more than a half-mile (by air) from the boundary of another parcel being combined to form an enrolled DMAP property.

DMAP also provides landowners with science-based methods and information to address a spectrum of other local deer-management goals, including Quality Deer Management objectives.

To learn more about DMAP, including enrollment, attend the live Zoom webinar on July 28, visit MDC online at mdc.mo.gov/dmap, or contact your local MDC private land conservationist or conservation agent.