The CWD wheel goes round and round. Where it stops, nobody knows. But in today’s headlines, we learn the wheel stops from panic mode to eh-deal-with-it mode depending on which state you happen to live in.,
For example, in Michigan, lawmakers are calling for easing up on CWD-induced laws because the disease is spreading regardless of what has been tried and fawn reproduction rates are keeping up with populating wild herds.
Michigan Deer Season Proposals
When news of chronic wasting disease east of the Mississippi spread across the country, many states scrambled to enact regulations aimed at “curbing” the disease. Michigan was one of them.
Among other things, Michigan lifted state-mandated antler restrictions in 19 Lower Peninsula counties. The rationale was to allow for greater deer harvests of all ages and sexes, hence lower population levels. No dent in the herd was observed. So now state rule-makers are lobbing for the re-implementation of the 4-point (on one side) antler restriction to those 19 counties. The reasoning is that a majority of hunter like hunting bigger bucks, and bringing the rule back would help retain hunter interest.
I honestly don’t believe either rule (with or without the 4-point rule) will help Michigan keep more hunters or put more deer into older age classes.
Also in Michigan, rule makers in the Upper Peninsula want to do away with the baiting ban that was enacted in an effort to “prevent nose-to-nose contact” among deer. Similar bans exist in other parts of the country and there is no proof that baiting bans help contain the spread of CWD.
If the ban is repealed, UP hunters would be able to use bait while hunting deer this fall.
On the flip side, Arkansas is looking at a potential scorched-earth policy that would include allowing hunters to target deer at night in attempts to reduce populations even more.
According to Byran Hendricks, to regulate night hunting activity on private land, the commission could offer a night hunting license. People would buy it, and they would buy the equipment necessary to do it, which would provide additional funds through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. Such a permit would tell the AGFC exactly who is participating legally. A permit stipulation could require night hunting license holders to submit samples for CWD testing from every deer they kill.
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
Texas deer hunters generate more than $4.5 billion in economic impact annually.
As reported by the Houston Chronicle this week, a recent report by Texas A&M’s Natural Resources Institute estimates approximately 555,000 hunters spend nearly $2 billion each year on white-tailed deer hunting in Texas while 200,000 landowners spend closer to $2.5 billion on whitetail-related activities. This is easily the most money spent by a single state on whitetail deer hunting, and represents the magnitude of deer hunting in America.
To put that in perspective, deer hunting is almost as big as golfing in Texas from a dollar standpoint. The state’s 819 golf courses generate an estimated economic impact of $6 billion per year.