New toll-free CWD information line also available

MADISON – Beginning Sept. 1, hunters and landowners may apply for free deer hunting permits for the Chronic Wasting Disease – Disease Eradication Zone at any license vendor and get answers to CWD-related questions on a new toll-free CWD information line 1-877-WISC CWD (1-877-947-2293).

The deer hunting season for hunting under the authority of a landowner permit in the Disease Eradication Zone (DEZ) is Sept. 18, 2004 through March 31, 2005. The permits, which allow the permit holder to hunt in the DEZ without buying a regular archery or gun deer hunting license, may be used for both archery (Sept 18 – March 31) and firearms hunting (Oct 28 – Mar 31). The Eradication Zone includes parts of Iowa, Dane, Richland, Green, Sauk, Columbia, Rock Lafayette and Walworth Counties.

Earn-a-Buck rules apply in the DEZ Sept 18 – Jan 3. From Jan 4 until March 31 the Earn-a-Buck rule is suspended when hunting with a landowner permit allowing the harvest of either antlerless or buck deer.

Additional information and details on landowner permits (Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® is needed to view and print this portable document format (PDF) file. To download Adobe Acrobat for free, please see the DNR Download Page.) are available on the DNR Web site.

These permits are only available from a license vendor and are not available online or by telephone.

The free landowner permits are available to persons owning 5 acres or more within the Disease Eradication Zone. There is a $2 permit application fee and all applicants must meet requirements pertaining to hunter safety education and age.

Hunters may also hunt deer in the CWD-Disease Eradication Zone without buying a license if given permission to do so by a landowner who has been issued a landowner’s permit and they first obtain a special CWD hunters permit.

There is a $2 application fee for the hunter’s permit and the permits will be available from any license vendor. Two hunter permits are issued initially, allowing a hunter to hunt on lands owned by two separate landowners. Additional hunter permits are available free of charge. The hunter’s permit/backtag must be signed by the landowner and include the landowner’s permit/backtag number.

All applicants (landowners and hunters) must comply with hunter safety, age, legal hunting hours and blaze orange clothing requirements as described in the 2004 Wisconsin Deer Hunting Regulations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Kurt Thiede – (608) 267-2452 or Brad Koele (608) 261-7589

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