Legislature needs to develop meaningful CWD policy
MADISION - Well, that didn’t last long.
The emergency deer carcass transport rule that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday was suspended by a Wisconsin legislative committee at 5:30 p.m. the same day.
Or, from another perspective, it was painfully long.
The hearing and executive session of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules on Emergency Rule 1820 lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes.
For those who’ve been following the chronic wasting disease proposals recommended in May by Gov. Scott Walker, much of Monday’s testimony was the same, only in long-form, as that given at public input forums held in recent months by the Department of Natural Resources.
Only this time, it was presented to the comparatively uninformed members of JCRAR.
The questions asked by committee members were just the sort you’d expect from a Legislature that had failed to enact meaningful CWD policy for more than a decade.
They haven’t been engaged, it hasn’t been a priority. It’s been too tough a problem.
And over the last eight years of Republican control in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature, CWD management has suffered from partisan dysfunction.
A deer farm fencing proposal (Assembly Bill 374) introduced by Democrats in 2017 failed to even get a hearing in the Assembly Natural Resources and Sporting Heritage Committee.
To his credit, Gov. Walker’s CWD recommendations mirrored elements of AB 374, including a call for enhanced fencing at deer farms.
The other portion called for added restrictions on movement of deer carcasses from the state’s 55 CWD-affected counties.
Taken together, EmR 1820 addressed two realms of CWD management within human control: we can stop transporting CWD prions from areas of known infection to areas without, and we increase barriers between captive and wild deer.
The Natural Resources Board approved the rule, 7-0, in August and Gov. Walker signed it in September.
But JCRAR leaders opted to take up the rule, an ominous sign for supporters.
Committee co-chair Sen. Steve Nass (RJanesville) led off the hearing with a statement that acknowledged the importance of dealing with CWD but stressed EmR 1820’s “significant burden” on hunters and “costly requirement” on deer farmers.
At turns, Nass, other committee members and some who testified questioned whether the issue merited an “emergency.”
Tami Ryan, DNR wildlife health coordinator, gave a sobering timeline of the progression of CWD in Wisconsin. After finding the disease in one county in 2002, the agency now considers 55 counties CWD-affected.
The CWD-prevalence in bucks near the original detection area in Iowa County is about 50%.
In addition, the disease has popped up in deer at captive facilities in Eau Claire, Marathon, Oneida, Shawano, Washington and Waupaca counties before any wild deer in the counties were found with CWD.
Chronic wasting disease is contagious and caused by an abnormal protein, or prion. It is fatal to deer and has no known cure. It affects members of the deer family.
Still, public health officials advise against consuming meat from a CWD-positive animal.
Studies in western states have linked CWD to herd-level declines of deer and elk.
Wisconsin has a CWD problem; current rules and regulations have failed to contain it.
So yes, after 16 years of inaction by the Legislature, many consider it an emergency.
No one who testified on Monday stated the EmR 1840 was perfect. Even supporters detailed areas they felt it could be improved.
Opposition largely came from the deer farming industry over costs of enhanced fencing.
Still, conservation leaders Larry Bonde of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and George Meyer of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation recommended the committee leave the rule as is.
Changes could be implemented down the road, they said.
In the end, the committee voted, 6-4, to suspend the deer carcass transport portion of the rule. However, the deer farm fencing component was left in place (4 voted to suspend, 6 to sustain).
For hunters, the vote means the 2017 carcass transport rules are once again in effect.
With its action, JCRAR has focused all eyes on the Legislature to take action on CWD.
Nass said it could come in the next legislative session, starting in January, and through the next state budget, likely to be finalized in June or July.
“It’s clear that a more comprehensive approach to addressing CWD is needed,” Nass said. “And that’s the permanent rule collection point, dollars thrown toward CWD, which would be developed next year, and that would provide the necessary time to obtain consensus among all stakeholders and lead time for educating hunters on any new requirements impacting the deer hunting season in 2019.”
Considering the Legislature’s abysmal track record on tackling CWD, that’s asking the public to suspend disbelief.
T.J. Hauge, representing the Wisconsin chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said hunters have responded positively in times of crisis such as depletion of game during the market hunting era.
“Our leaders recognized that things could not continue to be done in the same way they had been done before and were asking hunters to change their long-held traditions,” Hauge said. “And they were asking politicians to make the right decisions instead of the popular decisions.”