The National Deer Association is pleased to name Jeremy Brown, Deer Management Assistance Program Coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, as its 2024 NDA Professional Deer Manager of the Year Award winner. This award is presented to a person with significant on-the-ground experience, and one who has made a significant, identifiable impact to deer and deer hunting through education, research, or management on public or private lands.
“Jeremy is an avid hunter and an outstanding deer manager,” said Kip Adams, NDA’s Chief Conservation Officer. “He runs one of the best DMAP programs and Deer Donation Programs in the country. As such, we are honored to acknowledge him with this award.”
Jeremy is a certified wildlife biologist and a member of his agency’s Deer Team and CWD Response Team. He serves on the board for the Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, Southeast Deer Study Group Deer Committee, and the Southeast Deer Technical Committee. He oversees Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP). According to AGFC, nearly 90% of Arkansas is privately owned, and people who hunt and maintain these properties have a large influence on the state’s deer quality and quantity. The AGFC’s DMAP program assists landowners and hunting clubs with the management of their local deer herds. Participants collect and submit biological data from the deer harvested on their property. In return, participants are provided a customized, property-specific report with future harvest recommendations based on the club’s management goals.
Jeremy implemented a cost-share agreement that brought in five NDA DMAP biologists and restructured the DMAP program to be more efficient. In 2024, they had 1.4 million acres enrolled that included 712 DMAP clubs. They hosted 12 DMAP workshops, 2 field days, 4 recruitment workshops, 2 timber industry workshops, a deer necropsy and herd health seminar, and a deer processing workshop. He also helped collect 10,000 statewide biodata records, and the DMAP program collected 8,086 biodata records, over 21,000 hours of hunter observation data. All of these numbers are the highest reports in the last 10 years in Arkansas.
Jeremy also oversees the DMAP Deer Donation Program that allows you to donate $1, $5, or $10 when purchasing your hunting/fishing license. Every dollar provides four servings of high-protein, low-fat meat to needy Arkansans. In 2024, 37 DMAP clubs and 10 non-DMAP clubs donated 556 deer which were all tested for CWD and provided nearly 20,000 pounds of deboned meat. That meat was turned into over 125,000 packages of snack sticks that went to over 50 Arkansas schools and over 15,000 servings of ground burger that went to Arkansas food pantries. Additionally, the Deer Donation Program is allowing more DMAP clubs to meet their doe harvest quota than ever before.