Although there were still public commenters debating it during a Winona County Board meeting late last month, in a practical sense the deer culling issue is dead — at least for this year.
County officials said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) withdrew its request to cull deer on the county property known as Stone Point Park, a former landfill. The County Board had simply taken too long to decide whether to allow it. Having largely completed its deer culling program everywhere else in the state, the DNR’s time sensitive request to Winona County became moot, even as board members debated for months on the issue.