The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will be holding a public meeting with landowners this fall to develop a localized pilot effort in eight areas around the state to help manage deer and chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has also held meetings with landowners last month in regards to harvested deer with CWD.
In recent years, the white-tailed deer were found sick near Ponca in Newton County and tested positive for CWD. Twenty-three percent of the white-tailed deer in northern Newton County were affected. Additional positive CWD tests were also found in Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cleburne, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Franklin, Grant, Independence, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Pope, Randolph, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian, Sevier, Stone, Union, Van Buren and Washington counties.
CWD is a contagious, deadly brain disease of white-tailed deer and other members of the deer family, called cervids. CWD Core Areas are locations within approximately one to two miles of a confirmed CWD case. According to MDC and the AGFC, CWD is a growing threat to deer health and the future of deer hunting in Missouri and Arkansas.
Landowners in the CWD Core Areas will receive an invitation by mail from MDC before their area meeting with additional details. All landowner meetings will be held from 6-8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. AGFC has held open houses about the detection of CWD during last year’s deer hunting season.
The first open house will be held from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Adams Building on the University of Arkansas Cossatot Community College De Queen Campus, 183 College Drive in De Queen. The second open house will be 6-8 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Sheridan REC Center at 1511 S. Rose St. in Sheridan.
“We won’t have any formal presentations or lectures, just experts in deer management who will be available to help people get the most out of their deer season,” A.J. Riggs, wildlife health biologist for the AGFC, said.
In Missouri, CWD meetings will be on Sept. 22 in Mountain View, at the Mountain View Community Center; on Sept. 23 in Lowry City at the Lakeland Scout Center; on Sept. 28 in Carthage at the YMCA Youth Activity Center; on Sept. 29 in Moberly at the Lodge at Rothwell Park; Oct. 1 in Hillsboro at the Hillsboro Intermediate School; on Oct. 5 in Cape Girardeau at the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center; on Oct. 6 in Harrisburg at the Lions Club and on Oct. 8 in Tina a the Tina-Avalon school gymnasium.
During the landowner meetings, MDC staff will share information about the role of hunter harvest in managing deer populations. According to MDC, by increasing deer harvest near (within 1-2 miles) where CWD has been found, CWD will spread slower, the herd will be healthier, and quality hunting opportunities will be maintained into the future.
“The new approach focuses on building partnerships with landowners and putting hunters at the forefront of deer and CWD management by encouraging additional harvest during deer season,” said MDC Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle. “We’ll use what is learned through this year’s pilot to develop a template that can be replicated in other CWD Core Areas in the future.”
The MDC and the AGFC encourages landowners and hunters in all CWD Core Areas to help protect the herd by harvesting additional deer and having their deer tested. To provide hunters with more opportunity to harvest deer, landowners with at least 20 contiguous acres in CWD Core Areas in Missouri can receive five no-cost CWD Management Permits for use on their qualifying property.
Landowners interested in joining the AGFC’s Deer Management Assistance Program or learning how to develop their food plot plans for maximum benefit will be able to speak with biologists from the AGFC’s Private Lands Habitat Program and the National Deer Association.
No registration is required for either meeting. More details about deer, deer hunting and wildlife health can be found at agfc.com/deer.
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