The Minnesota Department of Natural Resource (DNR) is introducing new regulations when it comes to deer hunting ahead of the upcoming season. Arguably the biggest change for the coming year involves the monitoring of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal condition to deer that has been spreading in recent years, with the state now moving to a four-year statewide rotational surveillance plan. The entirety of Minnesota is now divided into four quadrants, Hunters in each quadrant will be required to have all deer harvested during the firearms opening weekend that are older than one-year-old tested for CWD depending on the year. Hunters in southwest and parts of west-central Minnesota are required to do so this year. Hunters will have a variety of ways to get their deer tested, including at staffed or self-service sampling stations, ordering free mail-in sampling kits before opening weekend, or visiting taxidermists participating in the partner sampling program. Another new regulation involves changes to carcass disposal, as hunters will now be allowed to move deer carcasses harvested within a CWD management zone to outside of it. However, hunters are still required to dispose of the carcasses with their trash hauler, at a local landfill, or with a meat processor. In the past, hunters had to quarter their deer to take meat out of the zone or wait for a “not-detected” test result to take the whole deer out. As a result, the DNR dumpster program will be going away this fall. Minnesota’s 2026 firearms deer hunting season opens on November 7.