Forest Management_Content Page_Regen Monitoring Reports

Effects and Extent of Deer Browse on Forest Regeneration

Forest Regeneration Monitoring

The following reports summarize the overall risk deer currently pose to forest regeneration. Forestry staff completed them as part of the Forest Regeneration Monitoring (FRM) Program, specifically to provide County Deer Advisory Councils (CDACs) and wildlife resource managers with county-level data on the effects and extent of deer browse on forest regeneration. 

Please note the FRM Program is designed to visit sites every three years to provide time series observations of forest change. Since resampling did not begin until 2021, these reports represent snapshots of current risk and don’t yet analyze re-measurement data to assess stand progression. Results will be refined and updated as sites are revisited and sufficient new data is collected and analyzed to be statistically sound.

These reports are the first attempt to summarize and communicate these data in a manner that is useful to CDAC members. Send an email to DNRFRRegenerationMonitoring@wisconsin.gov with any feedback or suggestions on how to improve future reports.

Introductory Video

In the video below, Wisconsin DNR forest ecologist and silviculturist Brad Hutnik walks you through the parts of the report.

Reports

View a white paper [PDF] outlining the Forest Regeneration Monitoring program, initial results, its use as a deer metric for CDACs, its key limitations and future goals.

The year of the report below indicates the last year of data collection for that report. The 2021 report includes data from the 2021 sampling season, and is presented for use for 2022 CDAC planning meetings.

2021
2020