CWD epidemic in Wisconsin

[Chad.frank]

Op-ed from a hunter: Wisconsin is failing badly at CWD management

This piece from Jeff Guerard, a hunter who lives in Colgate, Wis., expresses his opinions on the failures of many parties, including elected representatives, to produce meaningful management policies for chronic wasting disease.

www.jsonline.com

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[backstrapsaregood]

Wow! That’s some scary stuff... what’s the best thing to do if you don’t live in Wisconsin? Anyone know of any conversation groups to join/contact to help stop this? I am a member of bha already and sounds like they are doing what they can. but anybody know of some other groups who can help with this? Or other actions to take? I am pretty new to this conservation activism stuff.

 

[Chad.frank]

Wow! That’s some scary stuff... what’s the best thing to do if you don’t live in Wisconsin? Anyone know of any conversation groups to join/contact to help stop this? I am a member of bha already and sounds like they are doing what they can. but anybody know of some other groups who can help with this? Or other actions to take? I am pretty new to this conservation activism stuff.

No matter where you live you can contact any organizations you are a member of and ask that they start doing more about CWD. The state of Wisconsin has a fish and game fund of about 24 million. They were planning to budget 1.2 million to the surveillance of cwd in the state. That was until the politicians decided it was a good idea to do what they did.


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[260madman]

It’s at the southern edge of my county and has been for a while. We can’t bait (not that I do) but every Tom Dick and Harry with 5 acres has corn on it. Same thing as baiting so the deer will be in close proximity. Not sure what the answer is for stopping or slowing it. I’m pretty sure the biologists don’t have an answer either.

100k going to deer farms? Nope. Don’t agree with that at all.

 

[freebird134]

Things were going well until Scott walker gutted all the biologists from DNR then put people like Cathy Steppe, who have zero natural resource experience, in charge.




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[Chad.frank]

Contact your representatives and let them know how you feel about this. Also contact any of the conservation organizations that you belong to and tell them that they need to get involved in the CWD talk at the state level. BHA has been the only one doing anything in Wisconsin.


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[Jmitch1488]

I live and hunt right square in the heart of cwd country and have had deer test positive. I 100% do not agree with the 100k going to deer farmers and am not a fan of Gov Evers but I also dont know what else to do. Besides monitoring and testing which in my opinion was already fairly convenient, free, and pretty fast(I've had negatives in less than a week and positives take longertho). And research which more could be done on this front I'm sure I don't know what people want the state to do. Hire sharpshooters to kill 1000s of deer over bait again? Put a bounty system in place? We tried those things 15 years ago and the herd was decimated in the core areas but here we are 15 yrs later still at 50%ish percent infection of mature bucks in the hot spots. At this point what else do we do?

I hunt square in the middle of one of the hot areas. Our land is a small part of a large ridge system with 5 or 6 owners and we have a ton of deer and likely a ton of cwd. In winter it is common to see 50+ deer feeding in a single field in our area. From all the other groups I've talked to nobody seems overly worried about it. Some test some don't. a few groups talk about going aggressive after does to get the numbers down but never seem to do anything. I view our area as a microcosm of the whole cwd "epidemic". It's mostly on private land and from what I understand the majority of hunters/landowners aren't overly concerned at this point so what can the state do? Force people to kill or other action on land they own? Kill from helicopters if they don't? Lis before I have no idea what I would even support or suggest and I'm sure the state has to be in the same spot. Remember they went all scorched earth when it was first found and that went horribly for them

 

[Chad.frank]

I live and hunt right square in the heart of cwd country and have had deer test positive. I 100% do not agree with the 100k going to deer farmers and am not a fan of Gov Evers but I also dont know what else to do. Besides monitoring and testing which in my opinion was already fairly convenient, free, and pretty fast(I've had negatives in less than a week and positives take longertho). And research which more could be done on this front I'm sure I don't know what people want the state to do. Hire sharpshooters to kill 1000s of deer over bait again? Put a bounty system in place? We tried those things 15 years ago and the herd was decimated in the core areas but here we are 15 yrs later still at 50%ish percent infection of mature bucks in the hot spots. At this point what else do we do?

I hunt square in the middle of one of the hot areas. Our land is a small part of a large ridge system with 5 or 6 owners and we have a ton of deer and likely a ton of cwd. In winter it is common to see 50+ deer feeding in a single field in our area. From all the other groups I've talked to nobody seems overly worried about it. Some test some don't. a few groups talk about going aggressive after does to get the numbers down but never seem to do anything. I view our area as a microcosm of the whole cwd "epidemic". It's mostly on private land and from what I understand the majority of hunters/landowners aren't overly concerned at this point so what can the state do? Force people to kill or other action on land they own? Kill from helicopters if they don't? Lis before I have no idea what I would even support or suggest and I'm sure the state has to be in the same spot. Remember they went all scorched earth when it was first found and that went horribly for them

That’s an excellent question, one that the answer has been fraught with complex social and political battles in an ever changing science landscape.
The most simplest management strategy that we can afford to do here in WI is to “buy time for science”. When CWD was first discovered in WI, the initial management strategy was eradication. It became apparent later how difficult the CWD prions are to get off the landscape, and with pressure from landowners and hunters alike, legislators stepped in and took away some management tools and tactics from the WI DNR toolbox.
Southern WI has excellent habitat for WTD, and they thrive if numbers are not kept at recommended management levels. Over the past decade, as we have seen the rise in deer numbers, there is statistically significant evidence that CWD prevalence is rising at an exponential rate, and new CWD foci are occurring. In states where CWD prevalence reaches high enough, the deer numbers and herd health decline. This is in the future of WI, it’s just hasn’t reached that tipping point yet.
When it comes to management strategy, there are things we as humans can do to lower prevalence of CWD in deer herds in endemic areas and lower the chance of new areas becoming infected:
1. Lower deer densities via incentives to harvest does. Create hunting season structure that is acceptable by county based on prevalence.
2. Reduce human assisted movement of CWD prions by limiting transportation of carcasses and creating an end reservoir by placing those carcasses in dumpsters that end up in clay lined landfills.
3. Stop using hunting tactics that encourage nose to nose contact.
4. Captive cervid industries in WI need to secure against breakouts and all facilities should be required to follow guidelines set forth by USDA APHIS (currently it is voluntary)
5. Increase funding for DNR to test deer for CWD.

All of these strategies are supported by evidence based research. It’s just that WI has been blocked by legislators to use these strategies. Other states have looked to what has been happening here, and have learned from us and are more aggressive with their management and are seeing better containment of the disease and lower prevalence.

It’s not “game over” for WI wild deer herds. We can stop the spread and prevent the rest of the state, and our neighbors form getting new CWD foci. It will take money and work and cooperation.

The bottom line is the deer herd health and human health, and both are worth fighting for.



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[Chad.frank]

I live and hunt right square in the heart of cwd country and have had deer test positive. I 100% do not agree with the 100k going to deer farmers and am not a fan of Gov Evers but I also dont know what else to do. Besides monitoring and testing which in my opinion was already fairly convenient, free, and pretty fast(I've had negatives in less than a week and positives take longertho). And research which more could be done on this front I'm sure I don't know what people want the state to do. Hire sharpshooters to kill 1000s of deer over bait again? Put a bounty system in place? We tried those things 15 years ago and the herd was decimated in the core areas but here we are 15 yrs later still at 50%ish percent infection of mature bucks in the hot spots. At this point what else do we do?

I hunt square in the middle of one of the hot areas. Our land is a small part of a large ridge system with 5 or 6 owners and we have a ton of deer and likely a ton of cwd. In winter it is common to see 50+ deer feeding in a single field in our area. From all the other groups I've talked to nobody seems overly worried about it. Some test some don't. a few groups talk about going aggressive after does to get the numbers down but never seem to do anything. I view our area as a microcosm of the whole cwd "epidemic". It's mostly on private land and from what I understand the majority of hunters/landowners aren't overly concerned at this point so what can the state do? Force people to kill or other action on land they own? Kill from helicopters if they don't? Lis before I have no idea what I would even support or suggest and I'm sure the state has to be in the same spot. Remember they went all scorched earth when it was first found and that went horribly for them

And to the point of neighbors not caring about this or not testing their deer and not knowing if it’s CWD positive, that is entirely their right. However, it’s the same disease as scrapie or BSE, and I wouldn’t feed scrapie infected meat or BSE infected meat to my family or anyone. The prions are susceptible to mutation as well, and we don’t know what will happen down the line. But it is unconscionable to allow CWD to affect herd dynamics like it is doing in some counties in WI with high prevalence rates and let it just continue to spread.


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[260madman]

Getting people to shoot doe is hard to do. They’re too concerned with antlers. A lot don’t even eat the meat they just give it away. There’s 4 of us that hunt 200 acres and we took 3 doe and 2 guys took 2 small bucks that I would have let go because I passed on bigger. I’d rather take the doe at this point to get the numbers down and make the bucks move more. But what do I know, I just hunt and don’t watch the hunting shows on TV.

Next year I’m not passing on doe. I’m planning on 3 minimum and my daughter can take a few if she wants to. It needs to be done. The neighbors have combined have 3,000+ acres and the terrain is driftless area terrain so it’s hard to hunt. Especially sitting on your butt. This keeps the numbers up.

 

[Durran87]

CWD is hitting us hard in southern WI. We have huge deer herds in my neighborhood, but no one wants to shoot does. We went from almost no positives 10 years ago, to now about 1 in 3 are positive. I killed a buck during gun season that was the most disgusting excuse for an animal--I shot him at 10 yards while walking in. He was super bloated and seemed to be in the middle of dying--tested positive although I didn't need the test results to know. Been finding dead deer, mostly bucks, all over. The neighbors are making excuses like last winter was too hard--no one wants to admit the reality of what's happening. I've even been finding dead bucks in July now. Really discouraging...

 

[WI in the west]

I feel like the DNR has to find a way to repair there public reputation. From my experie ce a lot of people sont like how they do things and dont want to cooperate woth them. My dad does CWD testing here in WI. He has a european mount business so he gets about 200 people coming in a hear. And a lot of those people when he asks if theyd like the free test say no cause they hare the DNR. Mostly for either wolves or eradicating deer. They got to find a way to repair that relation ship or theres not much hope to get people to listen to them anymore.

Also to the whole dumpstsr thing, they need to have more. My dad lives in a spot were its very inconvenient to get to a dumpster safe for cwd. And theres lots of people in that scenario. He offered to let them put one on his properety for free to add another location for them. But they wouldnt do it unless he payed for it. I cant remeber what the cost was i want to say $700, but could be wrong. Anyways i dont get what fairy tail they live in thinking that was a good offer. And they are shocked when we say that most farmers and other people arent going to drive a carcass 15-30 minutes to a “legal” dumpster. They are almost all going to dump
Them in a crick or fence line. It seems the guys collecting the sames care a lot though and want to make changes to help but Madison is holding them back.

 

[Fogalo]

We’ve been pounding does - like killing on average 8 or so a year since cwd started on a couple hundred acres. We’ve definitely noticed the lack of deer.

The crappy part is we didn’t have cwd in the beginning and now we do. Whether or not we slowed the spread I guess we won’t know. About 75% the bucks we shoot over 4 test positive and about 10% of all the does

 

[Aeast]

Step 1 - Get the federal government out of it! As long as there are politics involved, nothing will be accomplished.

In my opinion, it will be about impossible to get rid of this disease in a wild heard, deer will have to build up a natural immunity to it.

Look at covid, nothing has worked to "slow the spread", hahahaha.

 

[Ches]

I think deer farms brought this to Wisconsin, I know they have put new regs on them but they should have outlawed purchases from outside the state when they found it in Colorado.