Deer hunting in unit CWD and placing mineral rocks

[LostMountainVol]

I live in GA but will be hunting on land in West Tennessee this fall so I am not super familiar with all the unit CWD regulations. Am I reading correctly that it would be illegal for me to place a mineral rock in my food plot? It appears like it is but just want to make sure. Just bought 2 and planned on putting out this weekend when we come in to hang our stands. Thanks! From TWRA website below

Wildlife Feeding Restrictions Within CWD Affected Counties

Within the CWD Management Zone the placement of grain, salt products, minerals, and other consumable natural and manufactured products is prohibited.

Feeding restrictions do not apply if the feed or minerals are:

• placed within one hundred (100) feet of any residence or occupied building; or
• placed in such a manner to reasonably exclude access by deer; or
• placed as part of a wild hog management effort authorized by the agency; or
• present from normal agricultural practices, normal forest management practices, or crop and wildlife food production practices.

 

[BSK]

Correct. Feeders and salt licks in West TN is now illegal.

 

[TheLBLman]

Correct. Feeders and salt licks in West TN is now illegal.

Incorrect?
What if you don't possess a hunting license, and just have in your backyard for "wildlife" viewing?

It's my understanding that more salt licks & feeders have been, and remain, simply in people's yards, than ever were on "hunting" lands.

 

[Spurhunter]

Yes, salt/mineral licks are illegal in CWD zone.

 

[timberjack86]

Incorrect?
What if you don't possess a hunting license, and just have in your backyard for "wildlife" viewing?

It's my understanding that more salt licks & feeders have been, and remain, simply in people's yards, than ever were on "hunting" lands.

Yeah that is confusing, also why are food plots still legal?? Would that not be concentrating deer? Especially small kill plots? 5 acre clover plot maybe not so much.

 

[BSK]

Incorrect?
What if you don't possess a hunting license, and just have in your backyard for "wildlife" viewing?

It's my understanding that more salt licks & feeders have been, and remain, simply in people's yards, than ever were on "hunting" lands.

That is correct. You can have feeders/salt licks next to your house (within 100 feet).

 

[BSK]

Yeah that is confusing, also why are food plots still legal?? Would that not be concentrating deer? Especially small kill plots? 5 acre clover plot maybe not so much.

Because deer do not feed in a food plot or ag field like they do at a feeder or salt lick. As deer feed in a food plot, not only do they break up and each feed in a different area, once a deer has eaten a mouthful of food from a particular spot, the food is gone, precluding other deer from placing their mouth in the same spot. At a feeder, deer feed in the exact same location as where other deer have placed their mouths (because the food is in a pile, and feeding in a spot does not remove the feed).

 

[Spurhunter]

@BSK
What's your opinion on this theory I read on salt licks and CWD?

If there are 2 old salt licks on 100 acres, the deer are going to use them, congregating at 2 locations. If there are 20 salt licks on 100 acres, the deer will be more spread out. We should be encouraging hunters to make more salt licks instead of banning them.

 

[BSK]

@BSK
What's your opinion on this theory I read on salt licks and CWD?

If there are 2 old salt licks on 100 acres, the deer are going to use them, congregating at 2 locations. If there are 20 salt licks on 100 acres, the deer will be more spread out. We should be encouraging hunters to make more salt licks instead of banning them.

Considering 1) the high saline environment of a salt lick actually strengthens the CWD causing prion, 2) salt licks do little to nothing for deer, 3) deer remember the salt licks their mother showed them, and will travel back to those same licks in summer no matter how far they've dispersed from them (meaning deer from a very wide area will use a salt lick) I would not and do not recommend hunters/managers use salt licks in or near CWD areas.

 

[TheLBLman]

You can have feeders/salt licks next to your house (within 100 feet).

100 feet is @ 33 yds.
Drive around West TN, and I suspect you'll see most deer corn feeders
closer to 50 yds behind the homes.
("Bird" feeders are usually very close to homes.)

If these "wildlife" feeders are supposed to be no further than 100 ft from a home,
then there's apparently no enforcement of this supposed law.

 

[BSK]

100 feet is @ 33 yds.
Drive around West TN, and I suspect you'll see most deer corn feeders
closer to 50 yds behind the homes.
("Bird" feeders are usually very close to homes.)

If these "wildlife" feeders are supposed to be no further than 100 ft from a home,
then there's apparently no enforcement of this supposed law.

May very well be true.

 

[Spurhunter]

Considering 1) the high saline environment of a salt lick actually strengthens the CWD causing prion, 2) salt licks do little to nothing for deer, 3) deer remember the salt licks their mother showed them, and will travel back to those same licks in summer no matter how far they've dispersed from them (meaning deer from a very wide area will use a salt lick) I would not and do not recommend hunters/managers use salt licks in or near CWD areas.

Great points I did not know. Thanks for answering and educating me.

 

[Spurhunter]

salt licks do little to nothing for deer

Then why are deer so attracted to them especially during the warm months? I'm not arguing your point. I'm honestly curious about the answer.

 

[TheLBLman]

Considering 1) the high saline environment of a salt lick actually strengthens the CWD causing prion, 2) salt licks do little to nothing for deer, 3) deer remember the salt licks their mother showed them, and will travel back to those same licks in summer no matter how far they've dispersed from them (meaning deer from a very wide area will use a salt lick)

Believe you are correct about this, but . . . . .

I would not and do not recommend hunters/managers use salt licks in or near CWD areas.

I would not prohibit hunters/managers from doing it, if they so desire.

We have too many laws, either not based in science, or based in pseudo-science, or more often based on nothing but the person in charge wanting to be in control of other people, and most often using fear of the unknown as the rationale.

Currently, in the CWD zone, where only legal hunters are prohibited from placing salt licks,
not only do homeowners do whatever they desire in their backyards, but cattle farmers dot the landscape with salt licks.

Since it's either not illegal for them, or not an enforced law, I see no basis strong enough to warrant this being imposed on legal hunters. Worse, this is in an environment of increasing illegal poaching, under which TWRA has never before been so unable to enforce the poaching laws.

As some others have stated on other threads, CWD is to some game-agency leaders what Covid was to some government leaders --- a mechanism to force fear-based controls over other people.

But back to the salt, I see deer regularly visiting salt licks that were made decades ago, with no salt added in years. Old salt licks dot the landscape. Between this, cattle farmers & homeowners maintaining salt licks, what difference does it make that legal hunters can't?

Never mind the illegal hunters & poachers are running rampant with relative impunity (and still placing new salt licks).

Kinda like the gun laws are mainly just harming law-abiding people?

 

[fairchaser]

Considering 1) the high saline environment of a salt lick actually strengthens the CWD causing prion, 2) salt licks do little to nothing for deer, 3) deer remember the salt licks their mother showed them, and will travel back to those same licks in summer no matter how far they've dispersed from them (meaning deer from a very wide area will use a salt lick) I would not and do not recommend hunters/managers use salt licks in or near CWD areas.

Ames went out and covered up with dirt using a dozer over 100 salt licks. I've visited some of these and they are no longer being used by deer.

 

[BSK]

Then why are deer so attracted to them especially during the warm months? I'm not arguing your point. I'm honestly curious about the answer.

The same reason we love candy. It tastes good. Now bucks certainly can use the salts in a natural lick like Trophy Rock during the times they are growing and hardening antler, as well as does nursing their fawns. But lots of salt/mineral lick companies have tried to show benefit to do deer from their products and all have failed. No science exists that shows wild, free-ranging deer benefit from mineral supplements or salt licks.

 

[beefydeer]

Even with the new regulation I doubt we see any decline in the infection rate and we will likely see more counties added to the CWD zone unfortunately.

 

[BSK]

Even with the new regulation I doubt we see any decline is the infection rate and we will likely see more counties added to the CWD zone unfortunately.

It is going to continue to spread until it has spread to all white-tailed deer. And there's nothing we can do about it until Nature finds a fix (deer genetically resistant).

 

[Andy S.]

Currently, CWD "Management Zone" includes TWO counties east of the TN River. Hardin and Wayne. OP's restrictions apply in those counties as well.

 

[TheLBLman]

ANY TIME now, I expect the following counties to be added for CWD:

Lawrence, Lewis, Perry, Humphreys, Houston, and Stewart.