http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/research/health/disease/cwd/cwd_se_special_hunt.pdf
Glad my farm did not end up in this zone. They are going to wipe the deer out. Unlimited tags for buck or doe?? 
RVRDUX
Yep it’s a complete joke. When they did this in pine island they shot all those deer and not one tested positive. Are Dnr is a complete mess when it comes to are deer heard. They seriously have no clue. I was told by a good friend that owns a deer farm we were having a beer at deer camp in southeastern mn and he told me mark my words they will say they found it even if they don’t. The Feds/ ins company’s had a 3-5 million dollar purse they were giving the Dnr research program for this if they found cwd. And look what happened he nailed it. He was spot on and said they would find it. He also told me that not only will they say they found 1 but they will say they found a couple close together. And he was spot on that as well. It’s all about the dollar signs it’s a complete joke to ruin one of the states healthiest deer heards. I just think they should take a step back and get more info from local people around that area and see what they want to do. not just go in and start mowing down the heard cause of 2 so called cases of cwd.
WOW…. complete extermination… unlimited for even non residents..thats crazy stuff…
Why don’t they just bring down some wolves as long as the dnr is dealing with insanity.?
With all of the QDM principles that have taken hold how many landowners are actually going to participate? Is it possible that landowners could work together to create private “safe” zones?
Will
So whos hunting this? We are thinking about going. Beats the heck out of standing on ice.
I’ve heard that if you do not allow the Dnr or other people on your land to hunt and if they don’t reach the numbers by hunters they will use helicopters to push deer of private land for sharp shooters to kill. Just what I have read on some articles.
Like I said it’s a sad deal. I feel bad for the deer, the people with hunting property in the area and the farmers that enjoy the whitetails. It’s a loose loose for everyone except the Dnr.
I for one will be participating in this (provided that the temperatures are a little warmer than they currently are). The main reason is we have a deer farm that adjoins our property, the deer farm has been there for about 6-10yrs, (been hunting the property for 20yrs). Just curious to know if our herd has been hit by it or not.. The owner actually had a buck escape from the pen about 3 yrs ago and was never found. The deer we shot during slug season did not come from this property, so we were able to get any tested back then.
When Pine Island happened, our area (5 miles northwest of Preston) was also monitored and at that time we didn’t have the disease.
Having lived through the Bovine TB eradication efforts in the NW part of the state let me say hunting is screwed for a long time down there.
Kill ’em while you can boys!
They tried to eradicate them in WI when it was found. Didn’t work. We hunt out west and they don’t seem to want to eradicate the elk out there? It’s been out there a long time. Mother nature will take care of it.
Riverruns that’s spot on. Mother Nature will take care of them. Leave the damn deer alone. They have been pressured since sept.
Yep it’s a complete joke. When they did this in pine island they shot all those deer and not one tested positive. Are Dnr is a complete mess when it comes to are deer heard. They seriously have no clue. I was told by a good friend that owns a deer farm we were having a beer at deer camp in southeastern mn and he told me mark my words they will say they found it even if they don’t. The Feds/ ins company’s had a 3-5 million dollar purse they were giving the Dnr research program for this if they found cwd. And look what happened he nailed it. He was spot on and said they would find it. He also told me that not only will they say they found 1 but they will say they found a couple close together. And he was spot on that as well. It’s all about the dollar signs it’s a complete joke to ruin one of the states healthiest deer heards. I just think they should take a step back and get more info from local people around that area and see what they want to do. not just go in and start mowing down the heard cause of 2 so called cases of cwd.
mattgroff:
What would be your solution to this disease issue?
You indicate “Mother Nature will take care of them” – what does that mean? You want the deer to die from the disease; have you seen a deer in late stages of CWD infection? It is not a pretty sight.
What would be the motive of your DNR to indicate they found a positive animal when they did not?
Buffalo Fishhead
I’m a land owner just outside of Fountain and am sick at the thought of all the hard work making food plots and planting trees for deer cover. This knee jerk reaction is gonna take decades to fix. Some of these deer are infected so what, we probably have had infected deer for centuries. Coyotes purpose is to take down the infected, weak or lame critters. Science and technology has allowed us to discover what was undetectable before. Is there an outbreak like blue tongue in Montana a few years ago. What is their rationale? I bet that if they looked at every deer shot in every county, they would find it in every county.
Without the Dnr jumping to the conclusion of mowing down the heard. How about they sit back and watch the area for awhile this winter. Farmers are more favorable to let somebody study the heard on there farm and watch them as opposed to coming in and killing them all. People work hard to own land and hunt in southeastern mn. Land is not cheap. I know about 5 land owners in this zone and not one of them is happy about this situation. And what I meant about let nature take its course. Sorry I worded it wrong. I meant by maybe the ones infected will be coyote bait. Idk. I’m not a expert but I just feel bad for everyone involved in this. And the deer as well. Some damn nice deer are going to be killed. Also I see this being a huge safety issue. Allowing anyone to go there and use rifles. This is a recipe for disaster.
I also think it sucks.
I prefer they find the root cause with the money being spent.
Where does it end otherwise?
Also, I don’t think they can use “rifles” if you are referring to “high powered rifles”?
I heard you can use rifles. But I may be wrong I read it in a story online. I sure hope not.
Why dont they take the zebra mussel approach-Crop dust the whole area with some unproven chemicals and pesticides and wait and see what happens.May work may not.Either way the unknown damages that may be incurred are worth a shot to beat mother nature rite…
What would be your solution to this disease issue?
You indicate “Mother Nature will take care of them” – what does that mean? You want the deer to die from the disease; have you seen a deer in late stages of CWD infection? It is not a pretty sight.
What would be the motive of your DNR to indicate they found a positive animal when they did not?
Buffalo Fishhead
Totally agree. Lots of hysteria about “wiping out” a deer herd with a 2 week hunt? Sorry guys, but I have to be honest here: Get a grip.
First of all, to Matt, I’d say that a deer farmer is hardly an unbiased source of information in regard to CWD. Deer farmers have their own political agenda here and obviously they don’t want anyone even talking about CWD, much less admitting that it’s out there and now in the wild. They want everyone to bury their heads in the sand so that the deer farms can continue to do whatever they want, under almost non-existent regulation, and with no oversight. Bottom line is that they don’t want anyone asking questions like where did CWD come from? I wonder why.
If you look at the rules including the registration requirements, carcass testing/holding requirements, and other restrictions, there’s no way this is even going to make a dent in the deer population overall. Very, very few people are going to want to hunt and take deer under these regulations and restrictions. It may in some areas where the population is very high and there are public lands or state parks, but overall this won’t produce enough of a population reduction for the average hunter to notice, much less “eradication”.
Keeping in mind that landowners are in no way required to allow hunting on private land, that means that 98.7% of the land within the special hunt area cannot be hunted at all without landowner being on board. Hardly a situation that is going to produce this “eradication”.
Sorry, but I’m tired of this deal where every guy and his dog think they know better than the DNR how to do everything. So if the DNR took your proposed “do nothing approach” and CWD went epidemic and killed 80% of the deer in your area, you’d be good with that? Or would you be on here screaming about “DNR mismanagement”? Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
This is one disease that I don’t want to take any chances with. I’m sorry if that means a reduced herd in some areas, but just burying our heads in the sand and hoping this goes away is a fantastically bad idea IMO.
Ultimately, this is no different than doe permits, overall deer kill, and so forth. The DNR can do anything it wants with how many doe tags are issued, etc, but it’s down to the landowners as to what actually happens on their land. It doesn’t matter how many doe tags there were in my area because I said nobody shoots does on my land and I have neighbors who are on-board as well. So DNR has no say in it, we’ve got all the does we started the season with.
Grouse
Edit–
Ha! Grouse summed up my thoughts far better than me. I fully agree Grouse.
Here’s a link to the presentation the DNR did last night in Preston:
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/research/health/disease/cwd/20161215-Preston.pdf
Would be interested to hear from those that are landowners in the zone.
Says that the goal is 900 adult deer sampled, and a 20-25% population reduction.
USDA sharpshooters to be used if they don’t hit the 900 adults during the special season.
Thanks for the link to the slides, Xplorer. This helps clarify a number of things.
– 900 deer across 10 units = 90 deer taken per DMU as part of the study. Hardly “eradication”, then, that’s not even the equivalent of extending the normal hunting season by one weekend day. I would strongly suspect that more deer are killed on the roads each month in EACH of these DMUs, so again not exactly the “decimation” of the heard that some were on about.
– No, you cannot use rifles to take deer during this special hunt. Both presentation and hunt rules clearly state this, but it shows the level of hysteria that people are trying to create around this hunt.
– The 900 deer taken for the survey/study does NOT equate to reducing the deer population by 20-25%. To reduce the herd that much would require many years and I’d question whether this would ever be achievable in any area of MN without extraordinary methods that certainly have never been seen before in MN. Not to mention the cost of this kind of effort would be in the tens of millions of dollars. Bottom line is there is 0.01% chance of this ever happening.
Grouse
Without the Dnr jumping to the conclusion of mowing down the heard. How about they sit back and watch the area for awhile this winter. Farmers are more favorable to let somebody study the heard on there farm and watch them as opposed to coming in and killing them all. People work hard to own land and hunt in southeastern mn. Land is not cheap. I know about 5 land owners in this zone and not one of them is happy about this situation. And what I meant about let nature take its course. Sorry I worded it wrong. I meant by maybe the ones infected will be coyote bait. Idk. I’m not a expert but I just feel bad for everyone involved in this. And the deer as well. Some damn nice deer are going to be killed. Also I see this being a huge safety issue. Allowing anyone to go there and use rifles. This is a recipe for disaster.
Matt that would require common sense…Of which the DNR has none. You are spot on. More resources toward something that makes ZERO sense…RR
Grouse,
To be fair, the 900 is only the number of “adult” deer >1.5 years old. There is no limit to the amount of young deer that can be taken. If I read it correctly all you need is a $2.50 zone tag and they are unlimited, which if you were looking at filling a freezer or 4, would be a pretty cheap way to do it.
With the amount of private land at about 98% tho, if landowners do not let folks on it to hunt, there may be a very limited number of deer taken during the hunt. The up to 4 day holding period to get a negative test back may also deter folks from outside the area of participating too.
Anyone have any idea how big this area is? How many square miles are we talking, and what is the current average deer per square mile now?
Here is the map, looks like 371 sq miles, of which 94 sq miles is forest.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/research/health/disease/cwd/index.html
I heard you can use rifles. But I may be wrong I read it in a story online. I sure hope not.
Maybe attending the meeting or reading the presentation would help bring some clarity here.
Yes, I went to the meeting.
I heard you can use rifles. But I may be wrong I read it in a story online. I sure hope not.
If a landowner decides to get a landowner permit they then can designate shooters on their land and can use rifles but this is for starting on January 16th after the special hunt ends (more info on this will be available soon), otherwise No you cannot use rifles during the special hunt..
slide 21 from Xplorer’s link
We were told at a registration station that young deer, less than a year old, cannot be tested for the disease. I think small deer are safe from this harvest. I still think its over-reacting. Take fifty deer within a circle of 5 miles using the two closely neighboring suspect deer’s location as the center. This shouldn’t be a wholesale slaughter of the deer.
If the dnr is seriously concerned about something decimating its deer herd, then how about this same tactic being used on wolves? What is the difference here….deer dying of a “maybe” disease or being killed by an out of control and greatly mis-managed wolf population? Dead deer are dead deer. Only the deer management personnel in this state can spit watermelon seeds out of both sides of the mouth simultaneously.
I have no stake in the MN CWD season, but as I read these and see multiple references to the DNR screwing this up like they did wolves is irritating. Both the Wi and MN DNR have no control over wolves, it is the FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT which means the state’s have no say in it. Until a FEDERAL motion to repeal the decision, or a FEDERAL judge decides to repeal the decision the DNR has no control. Wolves migrated back to WI from MN, not a one was released in WI. Stop whining about the DNR and it’s screw up with wolves when ITS NOT IN THEIR POWER TO CONTROL.
As far as CWD goes baiting,feeding and deer farms are the number one spreading system for it. Anywhere deer are feeding in extreme proximity to each other. If you want CWD to be managed, baiting and feeding have to go.
If you want CWD to be managed, baiting and feeding have to go.
Baiting in MN is illegal. Maybe not in IL or WI, but here it is, so let’s not drag it into the fray since it does not apply. As for feeding I totally agree and it wouldn’t hurt to see more stringent controls put on deer farms….double fencing, etc.
I live in MN and my license dollars go to support this dnr. And I think I can have a voice even if it sounds like whining to ya’ll. Since this is a MN issue and , as you say “have no stake in MN cwd season”, how about you worry about things where you live and let MN residents deal with the things that can impact MN residents. Someone from outstate butting in here is about as common sense as a federal judge in Georgia trying to decide how friggin many wolves is enough for Minnesota.
I am not trying to tell MN how to run its seasons, my comments are only to clarify the wolf issue, and to state where I stand on CWD. Baiting, feeding and deer farms are what need to be managed and if MN has already banned that great that’s awesome. I did not say they did or did not allow it and did not say any one state was managing it better. My issue was only with the continual blame of wolf “mismanagement” on the DNR of varying states when in reality they have their hands tied.
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