A couple articles from the Rochester Post Bulletin....
DNR sets rules for CWD hunt
Updated Dec 15, 2016
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The Minnesota Department of Natural resources has released details regarding the special deer hunt to take place in the chronic wasting disease zone where two bucks tested positive for CWD earlier this fall.
The hunt will run from Dec. 31 through Jan. 15 in what is now called Deer Permit Area 603. The detailed map of the zone is available on the DNR web site.
The rules
• No trespassing. The majority of this deer permit area is private land. Hunting access is with permission from the landowner only. Do not presume that just because a hunt has been authorized, there is access for hunters.
• Hunters should also recognize that the limited public lands may be crowded.
• Each deer harvested must be presented at one of the five registration stations within 24 hours of
harvest. CWD testing is mandatory for all deer 1.5 years of age or older. This includes deer that a
person may consider mounting.
• Fawns will not be tested; however, they must be presented for registration.
• Each deer needs a special carcass tag that will be issued by DNR. This includes fawns.
• Carcasses that are sampled cannot leave the CWD Management Zone until a negative test result
is received; this may take up to 4 business days from date of sampling (weather dependent).
• Results can be checked on the DNR Website at
www.mndnr.gov/cwd or by calling the DNR
Information Center at 888-646-6367.
Who can hunt, license requirements
• Either-sex, no bag limit, cross-tagging allowed.
• The hunt is open to both residents and non-residents.
• The antler-point restriction regulation is not in place.
• Any unfilled firearm or muzzleloader license or bonus permit from the 2016 season is valid. Any firearm that is currently legal in Zone 3 may be used.
• Archers can participate, but they must use archery equipment. You can't shoot a deer with
a gun and tag it with an archery license.
• Disease management permits ($2.50) are available and are valid for either a buck or doe. These are available to residents and non-residents and you do not need a previous license. The $2.50 covers the cost of issuing the permit.
Park hunt?
• Forestville State Park is open to deer hunting during the entire season with no special permit
required. Hunters must possess a valid State Park pass for entry and comply with all other park
regulations.
If you shoot a deer
• DNR officials will be available at 5 registration locations between 8 a.m and 6 p.m. daily during the season. A DNR official needs to see each deer to take a sample and attach a carcass movement tag. All deer must be presented for registration and a CWD sample will be
collected on all deer 1.5 years of age or older.
• Stations are located at:
• Chatfield - Magnum Sports, 20 Main St. South
• Harmony - Oak Meadow Meats, 50 9th St
• Lanesboro - Lanesboro Fisheries office, 23785 Grosbeak Road
• Preston - Preston Forestry office, 912 Houston St
• Wykoff - Goodies & Gas, 104 E. Front St
If you shoot a trophy
• Bring it to a registration station first.
• Call M&M Taxidermy at 507-696-8588 to make arrangements to cape your deer and remove
the sample. M&M is the only taxidermist authorized to perform this service. You will be
responsible for any charges incurred for caping your deer.
• You can cape the deer yourself as an option; however, the deer needs to be presented to a
DNR official for sampling and must remain in the CWD management zone.
Waiting for results
• Whole carcasses of sampled deer are required to stay inside the CWD zone until there is a negative test result. Boned-out meat, quarters with bone in it, and antlers without any brain material may leave the zone immediately; however, the remaining carcass, including the head and spinal
column, must remain inside DPA 603 until a negative CWD test results is received.
• Fawns must be registered and they will receive a carcass movement tag so they can leave the
CWD management zone immediately.
• Check your test results on the DNR website at
www.mndnr.gov/cwd using either your MNDNR
number (no dashes) or your carcass movement tag number.
Carcass holding and disposal options
• For hunters without a location to hold their carcass within the zone while awaiting test results, a
refrigerated trailer is available at the Preston Forestry office. Please register your deer at this
location and we can hold the carcass until the results come back.
• To assist with carcass disposal, a dumpster will also be available at the Preston Forestry Office. Hunters can legally dispose of the carcass remains, head, and hide at this location.
• If you do not wish to keep a deer you harvest, we have a list of people who will accept the
animal. Please register the deer at the Preston office.
If the test is positive?
If you harvest a deer that tests positive for CWD, you will be contacted by a DNR official immediately and asked about the location of the carcass remains (e.g. head, spinal column). If possible, the carcass remains will be picked up for disposal at the University of Minnesota's alkaline digester. It will be the hunter's choice to keep meat from this animal or provide it to the DNR for proper disposal.
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Hundreds crowd gym in Preston to hear DNR's deer details
Brian Todd, btodd@postbulletin.com
Updated 10 hrs ago
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PRESTON — About 800 people crammed into the Fillmore Central High School gym Thursday to hear details from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on the special deer hunt planned to deal with chronic wasting disease.
Two deer shot near Preston in November were found to be infected with CWD, an always-fatal neurological disorder that is similar to mad-cow disease but isn't known to affect humans.
Robert Lawstuen, who lives about four miles north of Preston, said he attende the meeting to get more details on the DNR's plans for the hunt, which will run from Dec. 31 to Jan. 15. "If it'll help, good," he said of the DNR's plans. "If it's not going to do anything, it's a waste of time. We don't know that yet."
The goal for the special deer hunt is to harvest enough animals to sample and test 900 adult deer, aged one-and-a-half years old and older, said Lou Cornicelli, a DNR wildlife research manager. That, he said, will likely affect the local deer population. "There will likely be a 20 to 25 percent reduction in the deer population," he said.
The exact impact will not be known until after the aerial survey, which started Tuesday and should be completed by Saturday, is finished, Cornicelli said. At that point, the DNR will have a better idea of the deer population in the newly designated Deer Permit Area 603, which covers 370 square miles through most of Fillmore County and a small sliver of Olmsted County.
The DNR plans were made in response to a pair of deer -- shot by different hunters on separate weekends -- that were found to have CWD.
"We hope that we're on the front end of the infection," said Michelle Carstensen, with the DNR. "We want to act fact and be aggressive moving on this." By being proactive, she said, the DNR hopes to reduce the transmission risk for deer and manage any potential outbreak.
Minnesota has had three recorded cases of CWD. The last case in the wild in the region was in Pine Island in 2010, she said. In the Pine Island case, about 5,000 deer were tested over a three-year period in a 300-square-mile area. Only the original doe ever tested positive for CWD, she said.
The 900 deer to be tested through the upcoming special hunt will give the DNR a chance to do another assessment and gauge the prevalence of CWD. "If we get through this 900 and it's zero, it doesn't mean we'll do 900 again next year," Carstensen said. "In fact, I would say why would we bother. We just let the hunters themselves remove deer and continue monitoring."
Still, any time there is a health issue with deer, said Denis Quarberg, president of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, it is going to affect deer hunters. "The plan is to take 900 adult deer out of here," he said. "That's going to increase the amount of take, which is going to end up taking more deer off the landscape and stop some of the recreational hunting that goes on in the area."
With fewer deer, landowners who sell deer leases on their land will be affected as well, he said. That can be seen in Colorado and Wyoming, where CWD was first found and has reduced the deer density to extremely low numbers, Quarberg said. "How many hunters are you going to have going out for nine days and not seeing a deer," he said. "Because that is the very potential of what is there."
Cornicelli repeated Carstensen's call that eliminating CWD from Southeast Minnesota would require aggressive and swift action. "This is not a department problem, this is an all-of-us problem," he said. "We have to work together to do this."
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