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Where to hunt american woodcock in Wisconsin

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from WDNR data · 2026 season year

In Wisconsin, american woodcock is a stronghold. Breeds across the north and centre in the same alder bottoms that hold grouse, which is why the two are so often hunted on one walk. Wisconsin's huntable public estate is 4,969,547 acres across 507 units, not filtered by species because WDNR does not publish a per-parcel list. The best-supported of them is Chequamegon National Forest: 779,652 of its 863,436 acres lie in cells where the bird is recorded. Units here are ordered by how much of each one lies in subbasins where american woodcock is recorded at regular strength or better, not by how big the unit is.

Where the bird is

a stronghold An editorial summary of the bird's status in this state — not a population estimate and not a survey.

Breeds across the north and centre in the same alder bottoms that hold grouse, which is why the two are so often hunted on one walk.

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Stronghold Regular Present Occasional No records The 10 units in the table below

The public units with the most recorded ground

Wisconsin's huntable public units. WDNR does not publish a per-parcel species list, so this is not filtered to american woodcock.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where american woodcock is recorded at regular strength or better — rather than by how big the unit is. The biggest block in a state is often not in the half of it the bird is in. PAD-US splits a forest into many parcels, so acreage is summed over the unit's name, and the share is measured against the unit's drawn boundary rather than a centroid: a national forest can be two polygons across half a peninsula.

WDNR names no geographic restriction on this season, so no unit is excluded for being outside one.
Season geography here is read off a dates table rather than the rule itself, and a dates table carries no boundary.

The whole public estate, by land class

Every huntable unit in Wisconsin, not the ranked ten above and not narrowed to where american woodcock is recorded or where the season is open. It is here as the denominator the table above was drawn from.

PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its boundary runs on the ground and not whether a unit carries a local closure. Context, not permission — check the unit with WDNR before you park.

Within a drive of a town

The same ground read from where a reader starts rather than from the state line: the public units within forty miles of one town, ordered the same way. A town is on this list only where at least three units reach that far and hold ten thousand recorded acres between them.

• American woodcock hunting near Green Bay
• American woodcock hunting near Appleton
• American woodcock hunting near Eau Claire
• American woodcock hunting near La Crosse
• American woodcock hunting near Fond du Lac
• American woodcock hunting near Wausau
• American woodcock hunting near Superior
• American woodcock hunting near Stevens Point
• American woodcock hunting near Marshfield
• American woodcock hunting near Baraboo
• American woodcock hunting near Marinette
• American woodcock hunting near Tomah
• American woodcock hunting near Shawano
• American woodcock hunting near Rice Lake
• American woodcock hunting near Rhinelander
• American woodcock hunting near Antigo
• American woodcock hunting near Ashland
• American woodcock hunting near Waupaca
• American woodcock hunting near Berlin
• American woodcock hunting near Medford
• American woodcock hunting near Stanley
• American woodcock hunting near Arcadia
• American woodcock hunting near Black River Falls
• American woodcock hunting near Algoma
• American woodcock hunting near Ladysmith
• American woodcock hunting near Amery
• American woodcock hunting near Hayward

The other questions

• How to hunt american woodcock in Wisconsin
• When does Wisconsin's 2026 american woodcock season open?
• Wisconsin american woodcock regulations, 2026
• Wisconsin american woodcock hunting report
• American woodcock hunting in Wisconsin — the whole picture
• American woodcock — biology, range and how it is hunted

By region

• American woodcock hunting in the Wisconsin Northwoods
• American woodcock hunting in the Wisconsin Driftless

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