Editor:
Minnesota hunters, farmers, and wildlife stakeholders are owed a direct answer to a straightforward question: why has the Minnesota DNR Big Game Program not published a deer survey report since 2019?
That responsibility belongs to Dr. Barb Keller, who has led the Big Game Program since February 2019 — the precise moment the publication record goes dark. The DNR’s own deer surveys webpage (https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ wildlife/research/surveys/deer/ index.html) tells the story plainly: the most recent deer hunter and landowner survey listed is dated 2019. Nothing since. For decades before Dr. Keller’s tenure, annual deer survey reports were a cornerstone of the DNR’s public accountability — population indices by permit area, harvest data, winter severity impacts, and the modeling assumptions behind permit recommendations. Hunters used them to evaluate whether deer populations warranted the tags they were being sold. Farmers used them to understand pressure on their land. Legislators used them to exercise oversight. That information has now been withheld from the public for nearly seven years.
