Harrisburg – The Pennsylvania Game Commission is taking a new approach to manage chronic wasting disease, and the agency is depending on hunters to help.
Under the new CWD Response Plan that was approved at the July 25 quarterly board meeting, the game commission established two new designations for areas throughout the state where the disease has appeared. In addition to the Disease Management Areas, which were implemented 2012, the agency will also incorporate the use of Enhanced Surveillance Units and Containment Zones.
An ESU is an area within a larger DMA where an infected deer, wild or captive, has been confirmed. Increased sampling will be utilized to determine the extent of infection on the landscape and disease prevalence. To achieve the goal, the agency will sample between 250 and 300 deer within an ESU annually. The agency hopes those samples can be provided from hunter-harvested deer, and to help the cause the PGC is offering special Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) permits associated with ESUs. The permits went on sale on July 30 and they allow hunters to harvest antlerless deer during the upcoming 2020-21 season.
The agency has established eight ESUs throughout the state, and tests on harvested deer will be done at no cost to the hunter. Samples will be collected via deer-head collection bins within each ESU, and results will be shared with hunters who submitted samples.
“The Game Commission has a CWD Response Plan,” said Christopher Rosenberry, chief of the agency’s game management division. “But hunters are the real key to making it work. The samples they provide from deer they harvest, especially in Enhanced Surveillance Units, help us to identify where CWD exists on the landscape, at what prevalence, and what management actions we need to take to control it.”
To a lesser degree, hunters will also be relied upon to help the agency manage the disease in Containment Zones, small areas immediately surrounding a new, isolated CWD detection. The goal in Containment Zones is to prevent the establishment and spread of CWD by removing high-risk deer – those that have come in contact with an infected animal.
Andrea Korman, the game commission’s CWD biologist, said the zones will be approximately three square miles – the area that most deer travel on a day-to-day basis.
“It would be likely they would’ve come in contacted with that (infected) individual,” she said. “Reduction of deer abundance in affected areas is the only strategy that works.”
To manage deer in Containment Zones, however, the agency would like to employ targeted removal to augment the harvest from hunting season. Such an endeavor would require cooperation from private landowners.
Together, the samples collected in ESUs and Containment Zones will allow the Game Commission to assess CWD and monitor the effects of management actions, with the goal of slowing and hopefully stopping the spread of CWD.
“Samples are key to the success of this program,” said Dr. Lisa Murphy, Co-director of the Wildlife Futures Program and Resident Director of the PADLS New Bolton Center. “A top priority of the Wildlife Futures Program, a collaborative program between the Game Commission and Penn Vet, is providing fast and accurate CWD test results. “One of our primary goals is to prepare our staff, laboratory space and equipment so that we can provide hunters and the game commission with quick turn-around times on testing so decisions can be made in a timely manner.”
The response plan outlines some additional strategies meant to control CWD.
For example, it proposes a ban on the movement of high-risk parts – brains, spinal cords and spleens – from what’s called the state’s CWD “Established Area.” That’s where the disease is established on the landscape and where CWD is unlikely to be eradicated.
The intent is to reduce the movement of CWD prions from higher-prevalence areas to lower-prevalence areas within Disease Management Area 2.
The draft version of the CWD plan called for a statewide ban on feeding deer and the use of urine-based and synthetic attractants. As the plan was revised, however, the ban was reduced from statewide to just DMAs. Instead, Korman said the agency will focus on more education and outreach regarding the dangers of feeding deer and using attractants when it comes to CWD.
Education and transparency are a critical components of the plan, and PGC Executive Director Bryan Burhans admitted some decisions in the fight against CWD may not be well-received.
“Not everyone is going to be happy with use managing CWD. But transparency and communication is a very important part of this entire process,” he said.
SIDEBAR
The eight DMAP areas associated with Enhanced Surveillance Units for the 2020-21 season are:
● DMAP Unit 3468 in Bern, Brecknock, Cumru, Heidelberg, Jefferson, Lower Heidelberg, Marion, North Heidelberg, Penn, South Heidelberg and Spring townships in Berks County; Brecknock, Clay, Earl, East Cocalico, East Earl, Elizabeth, Ephrata, Upper Leacock, Warwick, West Cocalico and West Earl townships in Lancaster County; and Heidelberg, Jackson, Millcreek, North Lebanon and South Lebanon townships in Lebanon County. It encompasses 346 square miles and has 4,430 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 3934 in Bloom, Boggs, Bradford, Brady, Decatur, Ferguson, Knox, Lawrence, Penn, Pike, Pine, Union and Woodward townships in Clearfield County. It encompasses 172 square miles and has 2,201 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4311 in Barr, Blacklick, Cambria, East Carroll and West Carroll townships in Cambria County. It encompasses 35 square miles and has 437 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4312 in Canoe and North Mahoning townships in Indiana County; and Bell, Perry, and Young townships in Jefferson County. It encompasses 36 square miles and has 463 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4313 in Fairfield and St. Clair townships in Westmoreland County; and West Wheatfield Township in Indiana County. It encompasses 27 square miles and has 347 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4314 in Greene, Guilford, Quincy and Washington townships in Franklin County; and Franklin and Hamiltonban townships in Adams County. It encompasses 99 square miles and has 1,270 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4315 in Adams, Beaver, Center Franklin, Perry, Spring, Washington, West Beaver and West Perry townships in Snyder County; Fayette, Fermanagh and Monroe townships in Juniata County; and Decatur Township in Mifflin County. It encompasses 158 square miles and has 2,025 permits available.
● DMAP Unit 4316 in Antis, Tyrone and Snyder townships in Blair County; Reade Township in Cambria County; Rush and Taylor townships in Centre County; Gulich Township in Clearfield County; and Franklin, Spruce Creek and Warriors Mark townships in Huntingdon County. It encompasses 138 square miles and has 1,761 permits available.
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News
