How to find a deer management unit

For the 2025 deer season, hunters in Wisconsin, will notice changes to the state’s deer management units (DMUs). The DNR reviews the state’s DMUs every few years, and most recent review, focused on the two forest zones. Changes were made to the boundaries of the DMUs in the forest zones, to better manage the units, based on habitat type. Minor changes were also made to metropolitan subunit boundaries. The farmland zone units were not reviewed, but a few boundaries were modified, because of the changes made to the forest zones. DMUs in both forest zones, are now labelled with a number (as opposed to a county name), while the DMUs in both farmland zones will still be denoted by their county names. The DNR encourages hunters to check the 2025 Deer Management Unit Map, to verify which DMU they plan to hunt in, even if they hunt in the farmland zones, because the counties that border the forest zones, may have new boundaries and may overlap multiple DMUs. All hunters should be familiar with these changes, because a management zone and DMU number/county are required, when purchasing an authorization/license or registering their deer. When registering harvests in Go Wild, hunters will also be offered a zone map prompt, to help them choose the correct DMU.