Here’s why the Michigan DNR is so worried about CWD
Kudos to Lydia Lohrer and The Detroit Free Press. She's written an article about where things stand with CWD in the Michigan deer herd and why we may have to change (at least temporarily) the way we hunt in Michigan.
I hunt in Clinton County - in Deer Management Unit 333 - the heart of the concerned area for CWD and an area with mandatory testing of all tagged deer. Frankly, I haven't heard of anybody getting a deer in that area, that tested positive for CWD. Friday, I shot (according to the DNR staff at Riley Township) a 2 1/2 year old buck. I was laughing, because I've seen so many young year and a half old bucks that he looked older than that. And, of course, that's what we've all been told - let the young bucks grow up to be big bucks. The good news is - looks like people are cooperating with the mandatory testing. When my buddy Jim and I took ours in on Saturday, the DNR staffers told us they'd seen about a thousand deer so far this season, at just that one check station.
"Let' em grow" might be old school now, because, according to the article, the deer found with CWD have been young deer. If we're going to beat CWD, we may have to take out more of the young ones to cut the spread of the disease.
The other news in this story? Some scientists are concerned that CWD could make the jump to humans. In fact, some scientists think it's inevitable. I hadn't heard that before. No wonder they're scrambling.
Bottom line, from Chad Stewart of the Michigan DNR, “When they look back on the history of deer management in Michigan, these years will be considered pivotal to the culture of deer hunting."
So, if you're a deer hunter in Michigan, you need to know what's going on with this stuff and better yet, get involved somehow.
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