TNGunsmoke
Well-Known Member
TWRA has started a new round of CWD informational meetings, and last night's meeting was in Madison Co. They are live streaming these on Facebook, so if you can't make it to one, you can watch them online. They do have someone checking the video feed so if you have a question, they can be asked in the chat, and the presenters can answer them during the Q&A session after the presentation. You can also go back and watch previous ones if you have Facebook, although you can't ask questions this way.
There were two wildlife commissioners in attendance, so that was unusual, but I feel a good thing.
Overall deer harvest numbers statewide were down last year, and it seemed even more so in the CWD Unit. They are almost begging folks to kill deer for samples in certain areas. Looks like a couple of new programs coming that more details will be available after the season setting meetings. One is a permit for landowners to take deer outside of normal season dates, if I understand it right, this will be similar to the depredation permits they currently do with farmers, and will be within 3 miles or so of the "Spark" zones. Spark zones are the outliers where a confirmed positive deer has been marked that is well away from the bigger concentrations of confirmed positives. The other looks to be a targeted sampling(with land owner permission) where a contract sharpshooter will be taking deer around those areas (proposed numbers mentioned were 10/square mile) to be tested. Emphasis on both will probably be older male deer since prevalence rates are double in that population than older females.
The speed with which test results come back was mentioned, and at least a reason given for some of the delay last year. All our test samples were sent to Colorado, and with Thanksgiving and a week long closure for a blizzard, they fell 6 weeks behind in getting the tests done. This has been mitigated somewhat by adding a lab in Mississippi, and they are hoping to have one ready in Tennessee by this season, and then another through UT soon after(but possibly not until the next.
They are still assessing the effectiveness of the earn-a-buck and replacement buck programs, numbers given were around 1000 extra earned tags and 300 replacement tags issued, but they had no idea if they resulted in an additional buck killed.
The online map of positives was slightly out of date(maybe 30 days) and they are still getting some test results in. 7 positives confirmed in Madison Co last year, farthest north was close to Three Way, and threw Gibson and Crockett into the High Risk zone. Chester and Haywood had new positives as well to add them to the zone. So the CWD Unit will have 7 positive counties and 4 high risk for next season.
There were two wildlife commissioners in attendance, so that was unusual, but I feel a good thing.
Overall deer harvest numbers statewide were down last year, and it seemed even more so in the CWD Unit. They are almost begging folks to kill deer for samples in certain areas. Looks like a couple of new programs coming that more details will be available after the season setting meetings. One is a permit for landowners to take deer outside of normal season dates, if I understand it right, this will be similar to the depredation permits they currently do with farmers, and will be within 3 miles or so of the "Spark" zones. Spark zones are the outliers where a confirmed positive deer has been marked that is well away from the bigger concentrations of confirmed positives. The other looks to be a targeted sampling(with land owner permission) where a contract sharpshooter will be taking deer around those areas (proposed numbers mentioned were 10/square mile) to be tested. Emphasis on both will probably be older male deer since prevalence rates are double in that population than older females.
The speed with which test results come back was mentioned, and at least a reason given for some of the delay last year. All our test samples were sent to Colorado, and with Thanksgiving and a week long closure for a blizzard, they fell 6 weeks behind in getting the tests done. This has been mitigated somewhat by adding a lab in Mississippi, and they are hoping to have one ready in Tennessee by this season, and then another through UT soon after(but possibly not until the next.
They are still assessing the effectiveness of the earn-a-buck and replacement buck programs, numbers given were around 1000 extra earned tags and 300 replacement tags issued, but they had no idea if they resulted in an additional buck killed.
The online map of positives was slightly out of date(maybe 30 days) and they are still getting some test results in. 7 positives confirmed in Madison Co last year, farthest north was close to Three Way, and threw Gibson and Crockett into the High Risk zone. Chester and Haywood had new positives as well to add them to the zone. So the CWD Unit will have 7 positive counties and 4 high risk for next season.
