MARINETTE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – With the state’s nine-day gun season starting this Saturday, hunters should be aware of baiting and feeding restrictions in place for some areas.
The restrictions come in response to the “hot topic” of chronic wasting disease.
A wild deer tested positive for CWD in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula last month and CWD was also found at a captive deer farm in Goodman earlier this year.
For Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this is the first time that a wild deer has tested positive for the disease.
“I guess none of us were totally shocked or surprised. We were hoping this day would never come,” says Craig Albright, Michigan DNR Wildlife Division Field Operations Manager.
Albright says that the affected deer was a four-year-old doe shot in Dickinson County, which is only about four miles away from the Wisconsin border.
This has prompted areas of the Northwoods to ask hunters to drop off the heads of deer harvested so they can be tested for CWD.
So far northeast Wisconsin has been fairly lucky in avoiding the disease.
“At this very point, we have not found wild CWD in any of the Northeast Wisconsin counties,” says Jeff Pritzl, DNR District Wildlife Supervisor. “We’ve been pretty much flanked on all sides now, except for the waters of Lake Michigan.”
Pritzl notes that there hasn’t been a confirmed case of wild CWD in the area, but the disease has been spotted.
CWD was found at a captive deer farm across Marinette County near Goodman earlier this year.
Officials say the disease can easily be spread and the baiting and feeding restrictions are an effort to keep deer from grouping together.
“Just disease management, in general, has to do with deer density, the amount of contact they have with each other, and so that’s why there are good reasons to not draw a lot of animals into one spot on a repeated basis,” explains Pritzl. “And that’s what baiting does.”
A concern for officials is that deer tend to be sociable animals and can travel 20 to 30 miles.
The baiting and feeding ban has sparked mixed emotions from local hunters.
“It helps bring in the wildlife and the deer and all that. And now, it kind of stinks, because some areas you can’t. You just got to sit there, and wait for the deer,” says Laurie Piencikowski of Green Bay.
“You’re restricting deer movements. And the deer, based on my observations and lots of trail cameras, they tend to become very nocturnal,” says Al Hofacker of Athelstane.
“I just wish if they’re going to have a baiting ban, it was statewide, and it was equal for everybody. Either bait or don’t bait,” says Brian Heins of the Town of Seneca.
CWD is present in at least 23 states and has also been found in at least two Canadian provinces, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those statistics are as of August 1, 2018.
