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Dead Deer Remain DNR’s Responsibility

Legislator Nix Walker Plan Zero Out Cleanup Funding

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Deer crossing sign
Tau Zero (CC-NC-ND-SA)

State lawmakers have voted to preserve funding for the Department of Natural Resources to pick up dead deer from Wisconsin highways.

Gov. Scott Walker’s budget would have deleted funding for DNR’s Car-Killed Deer program, and to hear the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau describe it, the consequences could have been ugly.

The program removed nearly 24,000 deer from Wisconsin highways last year. Without the funding, that responsibility would have fallen to highway workers. Or the deer could have gone uncollected. In a memo to lawmakers, the Fiscal Bureau wrote “Dead and decaying deer on the roadside are unsightly and can dampen Wisconsin’s reputation as a tourist destination.”

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Lawmakers decided to keep the program around after all, budgeting roughly $1.5 million from the state’s forestry fund to pay for dead deer removal. They also made it easier for drivers to remove the carcasses themselves if they want to.

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