Possible to manage for trophy deer and be a good steward in cwd country?

[DeerCamp]

fairchaser,

I've seen the data from the states attempting targeted removal (to slow the spread). I'm not that impressed. No local control group to see if doing nothing produced different results. And then, let's say it does slow the spread. So what? It's going to spread. Everywhere eventually. So how long do you hold deer densities at extremely low levels - for some, so low they will give up hunting? I'm not saying targeted removal doesn't have an impact, I'm just asking, in the long run, is it doing any good? There will never be a "cure" for CWD. It is a disease the wildlife species it affects will have to genetically adapt to.

I tend to lean this direction, but with a caveat.

Considering that we don't think it will impact humans, what difference does it make it a deer dies by gun or CWD?

But if there is any credibility to the research that CWD may have bacterial sources, I think there has to be a happy medium. Let's slow the spread until there is a way to treat the disease. If that never happens, the deer will have to adapt.

But again - if CWD is inevitable, why hasten the deer population decline by gun?

Areas like Madison County have had so few positives relative to the overall harvest - what's the benefit of trying to drastically reduce the deer population at "this" point.

 

[BSK]

Well said DeerCamp.

 

[hard county]

I tend to lean this direction, but with a caveat.

Considering that we don't think it will impact humans, what difference does it make it a deer dies by gun or CWD?

But if there is any credibility to the research that CWD may have bacterial sources, I think there has to be a happy medium. Let's slow the spread until there is a way to treat the disease. If that never happens, the deer will have to adapt.

But again - if CWD is inevitable, why hasten the deer population decline by gun?

Areas like Madison County have had so few positives relative to the overall harvest - what's the benefit of trying to drastically reduce the deer population at "this" point.

As far as I know, we do think it can be transmitted to humans. We know it was transmittable to 5 chimps in one study. And the point of keeping the population low is keeping the infection rate low. Based on the data we have, decreasing the population in an area seems to also decrease the percentage of infected deer.

In my mind, this is just quality deer management. Keeping a healthy herd of deer regardless the numbers seems like a worthy pursuit.