Maybe you didn't get your trophy buck this year, but the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources still wants to know what you saw from your stand.
The DNR is asking hunters to take part in the Wisconsin Deer Hunter Wildlife Survey, which tracks deer trends in every county in the state.
"The more hunters that participate in that and we pool that information together, it helps paint the picture for the county as far as whether the trends are going up or down," explained Jeff Pritzl with the DNR.
The DNR started the deer hunter survey about six years ago. It asks hunters to report where they hunted, what they saw and how many hours they were out.
"With the online survey, it allows hunters who maybe didn't get a deer to also share their experience," Pritzl said.
Don't worry, the survey won't give away your secret hunting spot.
"The survey only kind of nails it down to the county of activity and whether they were on public or private land, but it doesn't get anymore specific than really what county they were hunting in," said Pritzl.
The data collected helps counties track deer trends, but the DNR needs more hunters to take part to take a more accurate picture.
"We get about 4,000 hunters a year that participate in that survey," said Pritzl. "That sounds like a pretty big number, but when you've got almost 600,000 hunters, that's not too many of them that are taking advantage of that."
The DNR has made it even easier to participate: You can fill out the survey on an app on your phone.
"So you could literally fill out that survey while you're in the vehicle before you even get home from your hunt, hoping that more and more people will participate in it," explained Pritzl.
To participate or see past results from the survey, visit the DNR website here.
