RIVER FALLS – For a fifth year, the River Falls Sportsman's Club, the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources and City of River Falls are offering deer hunters a safe, local solution for disposal of butchered animal remains during this year's bow- and gun deer hunting season.

And ahead of the gun opener, the local club also offers to help you shoot straight.

Effective Tuesday, Oct. 20, hunters can dispose of deer remains at a roll-off container near the River Falls Wastewater Treatment Facility gate, at the south end of Apollo Road. The 24/7 collection site will remain open throughout the November deer gun season.

Users are asked to only discard animal offal -- no junk please. The area is under camera surveillance.

Proper disposal can help minimize the spread of chronic wasting disease; a fatal, infectious nervous system disease found in the deer family. The disease has been found in 51 of Wisconsin's 72 counties.

The first case of CWD in Pierce County was discovered in a deer near Spring Valley in 2024. Two positive cases were confirmed among 140 samples submitted for testing. The WDNR also found two positive cases among 123 deer sampled last year. This prompted an extension of a three-year ban on baiting in Pierce, St. Croix, and Dunn counties.

A free CWD sampling station is available at the WDNR Service Center at Baldwin.

Members and guests looking for help in zeroing in that deer rifle are invited to visit the range on three Saturdays -- Oct. 31, Nov. 7 and 14 -- and Friday, Nov. 20, for the Club's annual Sight-In offering.

Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. those four days, non-members can pay $10 per gun for a target and help from a volunteer to assure accuracy on Wisconsin's gun deer season opener, Nov. 21.

The range is located on 15 wooded acres, two miles northeast of River Falls at 1130 Rifle Range Rd. The facility has two trap ranges, an archery range, and 25-, 50-,100- and 200-yard pistol and rifle ranges.

Submitted by River Falls Sportsman’s Club