MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported sales for deer hunting licenses for 2019 is roughly the same as last year.

The department has sold a total of 538,643 licenses between gun, bow, crossbow, sport and patron. Which is within 500 of 2018's total. That slows a multi-year trend of declining hunter numbers in the state.

“Just from a deer management standpoint we have increasing numbers of deer and fewer hunters to help manage the population, so that's always going to be a concern as we see that gap grow,” said Kevin Wallenfang, a DNR big game ecologist.

Wallenfang said the department saw this coming for more than two decades. As the baby boomer generation phased out of hunting they knew license sales would go down. Though Wallenfang said the slow has “held it's own” in Wisconsin compared to the rest of the country.

While declining hunters can make things more difficult from a deer herd management perspective, the license purchases also impact other DNR programs.

“That money is not just earmarked for deer management, so you know your state parks and a variety of other programs that are out there that benefit everybody in Wisconsin are impacted by that loss of hunters,” Wallenfang said.

The DNR said hunting is still a roughly $2 billion dollar industry in the state. Retailers like Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City.

“We have been really busy for the last two weeks or so,” said Wally Banfi, assistant manager of the store.

It's exciting for Banfi, he gets to spend time at work talking with customers and friends about their hunting experiences and where they'll go this year.

“It's such a fun time of year, I mean it's like a holiday,” he said.

Banfi encourages people to help get other people involved in hunting to help keep the numbers in the state up. Especially children or people who haven't been in a while.

“It's our job to get young people out in the woods and hunting and also maintain older people who have hunted and maybe quit, to get them back again out in the woods. Getting and maintaining hunters is of the utmost importance for the future of the sport,” Banfi said.

It's also important to him and many other hunters because of what the sport means culturally in Wisconsin.

“That's one of the biggest things, the camaraderie, the annual coming together and see who's going to get the big buck,” he said.

The DNR sees the same thing as they talk with hunters around the state.

“We kind of tongue and cheek say Wisconsin has two religions, the green bay packers and deer hunting,” Wallenfang said.

Wallenfang said the people who go out over the next week and a half could see good results.

Deer populations are higher than they've been in years, especially in the northern part of the state. Harsh winters in Northern Wisconsin kept deer populations down for a while, but they've rebounded in the past few years.

“Deer are abundant in a lot of Wisconsin and there are opportunities out there with multiple tags and things like that to take extra deer home,” Wallenfang said.

Bow and crossbow hunters have been having success so far hunting.

Though Wallenfang said the fields of corn that still haven't been harvested could make things more difficult.

“As of last week we had about 2 million acres of corn still standing in Wisconsin and that's 2 million acres of places for deer to hide,” Wallenfang said.

Wallenfang also urged people to go check their spots before they go out for the hunt. He said a wet year could make some places tough or impossible to access.

Both the DNR and places like Wilderness Fish and Game encourage people to be safe in the coming weeks. Take precautions like charging phones and bringing food out.

Banfi has another tip for hunters too.

“Enjoy your time out there, if you don't get a deer well that's not the end of the world, you're not working and you're out having fun.”