Harrisburg – The Pennsylvania Game Commission knows one aspect of its new CWD Response Plan might be a hard-sell for both hunters and the general public.
But without it, the agency believes the disease could continue to spread.
Under the plan, the PGC will establish Containment Zones, places where a new CWD case emerged. To help stop the spread of the disease, the agency will seek to reduce the deer numbers within the zone, which will likely be three square miles as based on the daily movement of deer. By reducing deer numbers, the PGC hopes to eliminate those animals that have come in contact with an infected deer and are considered high-risk.
To achieve that goal, however, it’s going to take more than hunter harvests.
“The research is very clear that the goal of a Containment Zone is to eliminate deer that are high-risk,” said PGC Executive Director Bryan Burhans. “The research is also quite clear that can’t be done by hunting alone.
“Targeted removal is the only effective means that other states used to get the numbers of deer out of there.”
Targeted removal is a practice that utilizes sharpshooters to cull the deer herd, and in order to conduct the practice on private land the agency will need permission from landowners.
Andrea Korman, the agency’s CWD biologist, said targeted removals would be conducted after hunting season and on a small scale. Initially, in the draft CWD Response Plan, targeted removal was an option for larger Enhanced Surveillance Areas. Korbin said targeted removals aren’t affective on a large scale, so it was limited to be used only on the smaller Containment Zones.
“The purpose is to remove deer that may have been in contact with an infected individual, and that’s something targeted removal can help with,” she said.
If permission can’t be obtained from landowners and plans for a targeted removal are scrapped, the Containment Zone will likely be incorporated into a larger Enhanced Surveillance Area for CWD management, according to Christopher Rosenberry, chief of the agency’s game management division.
In 2019, the PGC planned a targeted removal to reduce deer numbers in Bedford and Blair counties as part of a CWD research project. The idea was meant with opposition from hunters, however, and ultimately stopped.
That’s one reason why targeted removals under the new CWD plan won’t be conducted on a large-scale basis, Rosenberry said.
If a planned targeted removal is stopped due to lack of landowner permission this time, Burhans said there really isn’t a backup option.
“If we’re not able to get access to properties to do targeted removal in a Containment Zone, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to stomp out other infected deer from moving out (of that area),” Burhans said.
The agency could lean heavily on hunters in affected areas to not so much reduce deer numbers, but provide enough samples so officials can track the movement and prevalence of the disease.
For that purpose, Korman said, there are options.
“We want hunters to have the first opportunity to help us manage CWD. Additional or extended seasons could be used in the future,” she said.
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News
