In Chronic wasting disease is both a state, national issue, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reprinted an editorial about CWD from the Rochester Post Bulletin. It's praising the request "for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior to expand federal tracking and mapping of CWD and to establish universal standards for transporting deer across state lines."
We're still curious whether Senators Klobuchar and Wicker are simply asking for resources to be shifted within the agencies, rather than seeking increasing funding, as is the case in Senator Tester's bill (there's a bipartisan companion bill in the House introduced by Ron Kind of Wisconsin).
In the meantime, the Minnesota DNR has announced a 2018 special CWD hunt:
A special deer hunt to help limit the spread of chronic wasting disease in wild deer is scheduled in December.
Dates
- Friday, Dec. 21, through Sunday, Dec. 23
- Friday, Dec. 28, through Sunday, Dec. 30
The hunts will occur in deer permit areas 603, 347 and 348 and portions of deer permit areas 343 and 345 that are south of Interstate 90.
These hunts are one step DNR is taking to contain CWD in southeast Minnesota.
Harvesting deer across a broad area is intended to lower populations locally and remove males because they can move the disease longer distances. This helps reduce the opportunity for deer to spread the disease across a larger geographic area and potentially removes CWD-positive animals from areas where the disease exists.
- CWD testing is mandatory for all deer, regardless of age.
- Deer must stay inside the hunt boundary until a not-detected test result is received.
- The hunt is open to both residents and non-residents.
- Hunt is either-sex and there is no bag limit.
- Cross-tagging for bucks, commonly called party hunting, is allowed.
- The antler point restriction regulation is not in effect.
- Landowner permission is required to hunt on private land.
- A limited number of hunting permits are available for Forestville State Park and Pin Oak Scientific and Natural Area. See the 'Where can I hunt?' section for complete information.
Learn more about the hunt at the 2018 special CWD hunt page.
Map: The DNR special hunt boundaries.
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