DNR board adopts 2025 bear-harvest recommendations, keeps Zone D reduction target

Randy Johnson, the DNR’s large-carnivore specialist, told the Natural Resources Board the department recommends a zone-by-zone harvest approach for the 2025 season that keeps the management focus on trends rather than single-year variation. Johnson said state-licensed hunters took about 4,301 bears last year — roughly 12% above the department’s total harvest target — driven largely by higher hunter success where natural food was scarce. "We're trying to watch the trends," he said, "and make adjustments annually to make sure the trends are going the direction we want to go."

Why it matters: the board’s recommendations translate scientific monitoring, harvest data and conflict reports into license and tag allocations that directly affect hunting access and local agricultural conflict mitigation. Johnson said the department uses a bear advisory committee made up of staff, federal partners and stakeholders to set harvest targets within the 2019 bear-management plan’s adaptive-management framework.

Key details: the department proposed no major change to Zone A’s objective of maintaining the population, a modest harvest increase in Zone B (to 900 bears), a raise in Zone C (to 750), a continued high harvest target in Zone D (1,100 bears to sustain downward pressure), a modest increase in Zone E (to 200), and a small Zone F allocation (50 bears, about 500 tags) to allow local opportunity. Overall the draft represented about a 6% increase in the total harvest target year over year and a roughly 14% increase in licenses recommended.

Public comment and board discussion: Rob Bowman, chair of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, told the board the Congress supported the quotas based on available science and success-rate analysis. The board also received written comments in support from the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association and opposition from the Wisconsin Animal Protection Society. Board members emphasized adaptive management, concerns about technological changes and crowding in some zones, and asked staff to monitor hunter methods and success rates closely. Johnson acknowledged that about two-thirds of bear harvest is taken over bait and about one-third with dogs, and described the loss of a former Class B permitting category about a decade ago that removed a separate tracking of assisting hunters.

Next steps: after discussion and public testimony the board moved and adopted the 2025 recommendations by voice vote. The department said it will continue annual monitoring, adjust in future seasons if trends change, and provide information to advisory committees and hunters ahead of permit sales.