The Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) is a comprehensive management program consisting of data collection and cooperator education to help deer hunters on private lands (owned or leased) manage for a healthy deer herd while maintaining habitat integrity. Mississippi was the first state in the country to create a deer management assistance program to pair deer hunters and wildlife biologists together to help manage the state's deer herds, and continues to lead the way in innovative deer management efforts.
"You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure"
The starting point of DMAP is for cooperators to set their own deer management goals, and collect information such as harvested deer (e.g., weights, antler measurements, whether does have been lactating or not, and a jawbone pulled to determine the age of each deer harvested), observation data, or camera survey estimates. After wildlife biologists from the MDWFP, or other DMAP-approved biologists, analyze the data (and in many cases, habitat evaluation), the biologist will often provide an annual report with recommendations and meet with the landowner/cooperator to discuss harvest strategies that are designed to meet their specific goals within the limitations of maintaining a healthy habitat.
Data from the program is also used in research projects to help better understand deer biology, and help inform statewide deer regulations.
Sign Up for DMAP
To meet with a wildlife biologist and sign up for DMAP, request a site visit using the button below.
DMAP's Success in Mississippi
MDWFP's Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), as the country's first deer management assistance program, has been one of the most successful ventures affecting deer management in Mississippi. The DMAP's widespread success has been credited to program design that directly involves the sportsman in the collection of harvest data and ultimately in the management of the deer herd.
DMAP's implementation started as a deer research project by Mississippi State University in Kemper and Noxubee counties in the 1977-1978 season.
The DMAP became available as a statewide program in approximately 1980. About 430 cooperators who hunted on approximately 1.3 million acres were active participants in the DMAP at that time by 1985. From 1985, total cooperators and their corresponding acreage grew exponentially until peaking in 1994 at close to 1,200 cooperators on 2.8 million acres. Since 1994, total cooperators have stabilized at approximately 650 properties on 1.7 million acres.
Explanations for the rapid growth of DMAP until 1994, and the ensuing decline thereafter, seem to be related to antlerless hunting opportunity. During the late-1980s and into the early-1990s, liberal statewide antlerless opportunity was only available if a property was enrolled in DMAP. This changed in the mid-1990s.
An aggressive effort to provide statewide antlerless hunting opportunity during the entire deer season was initiated in the mid-1990s. This effort began with opportunity in the still hunting season, added the first gun season in the second year, and was fully implemented in a majority of the state at the end of year three. No requirements were placed on landowners or hunting clubs to harvest antlerless deer during these periods. As a result, fewer properties needed to enroll in DMAP just to get management doe tags.
New Age of DMAP in Mississippi
Today, DMAP functions as it was intended. The cooperators who remain on DMAP are, as a rule, genuinely interested in deer management, and those that still need management doe tags, or management buck tags, can receive them. Currently, biologists are able to devote the necessary time to provide quality management information to DMAP cooperators. Additional innovations in the DMAP data system continue to evolve as more types of data, such as observation data and camera survey results, can be included in the data management system to provide a more comprehensive analysis of a properties deer herd.
For more information about DMAP, please contact a Private Lands Biologist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the qualifications for DMAP?
What are the qualifications for DMAP?
For a property to be considered for DMAP, the landowner/lease holder must be interested in deer management and have the ability to perform the necessary activities to reach their goals. The property must collect and submit certain data to the assigned biologist, such as harvest data and jawbones, camera survey data, observation data, and/or harvest numbers.
What does DMAP cost?
What does DMAP cost?
The cost of DMAP is essentially free, except for the collection of data for the MDWFP. This data includes harvest numbers, sex, weights, antler measurements on bucks, lactation data on does, jawbones, observation data, and/or camera survey estimates for deer from the property. Without proper data collection from the cooperator, the biologist cannot give proper harvest recommendations.