DNR likely to escalate war on chronic wastingBy Paul Smith, Outdoors Editor, JSOnline
January 6, 2010Deer management in Wisconsin is challenging in the best of times. Toss in a deadly, partially understood wildlife disease and you could argue DNR deer managers are masochists to stay on the job.
Their tasks aren't likely to get any easier.
Based on a Wednesday meeting of a special Natural Resources Board committee, the DNR probably will be asked to stiffen its CWD management plan to include more sharpshooting and other intensive - but publicly unpalatable - deer reduction measures.
The full NRB tabled the department's draft CWD plan in August, pending review of an independent panel.
The panel, made up of five out-of-state wildlife managers and researchers and a University of Wisconsin communications specialist, submitted its report in December. Their opinion: The DNR's plan is too soft to prevent the spread of the disease.
Among other things, the panel said the state should consider Earn-A-Buck regulations south of a line from Green Bay to Eau Claire; the NRB should seek statutory authority that would expedite access to private properties to enable intensive deer reduction; and that "discussions around sharpshooting should be how to conduct activities, not whether to conduct them."
The NRB committee (chairman Dave Clausen of Amery, John Welter of Eau Claire and Jane Wiley of Wausau) met with several DNR staffers Wednesday in Madison to talk about the next steps.
"My opinion is someday we will have science that allows us to deal with this disease," said Clausen, a veterinarian and hunter. "But are we going to have some uncontaminated ground and some healthy deer to work with when that happens?"
Wisconsin is entering the ninth year of managing CWD in its wild deer herd. The fatal brain disorder is caused by a prion that can be passed from animal to animal or from ground to animal.
CWD was first documented in deer in Colorado in the 1960s; it since has been found in more than a dozen states and provinces.
For better or worse, Wisconsin has become the laboratory for CWD research in an Eastern, high-density white-tailed deer herd.
Substantially more is known today than a decade ago.
Among the findings: CWD isn't found statewide but clustered in south-central and southwestern Wisconsin; the disease prevalence increases with the age of the deer; and it hasn't been found to jump the species barrier to cattle or humans.
The understanding of CWD's impacts on the deer herd is also clearer, said Davin Lopez, DNR wildlife biologist.
"In 2002, the CWD models said we could expect extinctions of deer populations," said Lopez. "But now the models say there would probably be lower population densities, not extinctions."
Lopez, one of the authors of the draft plan, wasn't arguing for a "do-nothing" approach. He said he believes that, left unmanaged, CWD will have a profound impact on the hunting culture of this state.
One could argue it already has. The DNR began its CWD management with a deer eradication policy, including about 100 days of gun hunting and heavy use of sharpshooters.
In recent years, responding to public opposition to such aggressive measures, the DNR reduced the gun hunt to about two dozen days and has curtailed sharpshooting, said Tom Hauge, DNR wildlife director.
But the NRB committee clearly is going to push in the other direction.
Clausen, Welter and Wiley discussed a wide range of recommendations, all in the "more aggressive" mode.
In general, they agreed the state's CWD plan should be proactive, not reactive; sharpshooting should be considered; the plan should be longer than five years and be more specific; killing deer in the buffer areas may be more important than in the CWD management zone; and more attention must be paid to the "human dimensions" of the plan to help gain public support.
The committee is expected to make its recommendations to the full NRB later this month. Then the board will decide what, if any, changes to ask the department to make.
CWD has taken a back seat to other deer management issues in recent years. Many consider it only a southern scourge.
While the jury is out on how severe a threat it is to deer hunting, a more aggressive plan is likely to ensure the disease becomes a statewide issue.
Deer goals: A joint legislative committee decided Tuesday to send clearinghouse rule 09-053, deer management unit population goals, back to the DNR for revision.
The DNR had proposed to increase the goals in 13 deer management units and lower them in two, resulting in a statewide overwinter goal of about 748,000 deer. The current overwinter goal is 737,000 deer.
But in a unanimous vote, the Assembly Committee on Fish and Wildlife and the Senate Committee on Transportation, Tourism, Forestry, and Natural Resources refused to approve the DNR's proposal.
"We've agreed to consider some modifications to this rule," said Keith Warnke, big-game ecologist with the DNR, following Tuesday's vote. "We have started talking to legislators about potential changes."
PDF: External review of Wisconsin's CWD planSend e-mail to psmith@journalsentinel.comhttp://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/80867957.html
