Hundreds of white-tailed deer have died across three counties in southeastern Wisconsin this summer, and state wildlife officials still don't fully understand why the outbreak has hit some areas so hard. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has confirmed the deaths are linked to epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a virus spread by biting insects called midges that causes internal bleeding and organ failure in deer. What started as scattered reports of about 100 dead deer in mid-August had grown to more than 600 by the end of the month, spreading from Washington County into Ozaukee and Waukesha counties.

Local residents are watching the impact firsthand. "We've never experienced anything like this and I'm not seeing any deer in our area now, zero," said Dave Strupp, a longtime hunter and landowner in the Town of Hartford, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. He says his trail cameras have stopped picking up any deer activity at all, and fallen fruit that deer would normally eat sits untouched.

DNR officials acknowledge they don't fully know why this outbreak is proving so intense in specific local areas, even though EHD has been documented in Wisconsin since at least 2002. Without a clearer picture of why some regions are being hit this hard, the state can't predict where the next outbreak will strike or how to respond faster when it does.

The Wisconsin DNR should commit dedicated funding and staff time to studying why this year's EHD outbreak is so severe, and to building better tools to track and respond to future outbreaks before deer populations take another hit.

Sign this petition to ask the Wisconsin DNR to invest in real answers about this deer disease outbreak — before another summer passes without them.