SPOONER, Wis. -- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staffers have a big task ahead this gun-deer season.

They must check at least 100 adult bucks and 100 does for aging data from every deer management unit in the state.

According to WDNR wildlife manager Nancy Christel, the DNR requires "statistically significant aging data."

"In the Washburn County area, we have not been able to age this minimum number of deer for DMUs 8, 17 and sometimes 11," Christel said.

DNR staff members must be strategically placed at locations around the units. By relying on businesses to register deer, more DNR aging staffers are freed up to target locations specifically to collect aging data for the needed units.

Two years ago, the DNR shifted opening weekend gun registration and aging from the Spooner DNR Service Center to Spooner Holiday South (next to Economart). The gas station registered 895 deer in 2007 on opening weekend alone, the wildlife manager said.

In the past, DNR would have had to staff five to seven individuals to accommodate this magnitude of deer registering and aging, but in 2007 only two DNR staffers aged 743 of the 895 deer. With the shift in manpower, aging staff was able to go to other locations and gather information needed.

Christel added that budgets are tight and it is the DNR Wildlife Management's responsibility to find ways to gather this sound science as efficiently as possible. "By relying on willing businesses to help register deer, we can gather what is needed," she said.

Christel said it has been six years since the northern 18 counties have comprehensively "tested" the health of the deer herd. While the primary health monitoring is for chronic wasting disease and Bovine tuberculosis, the DNR will look for any health concerns and issues in Wisconsin's deer herd.