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The Next Great Debate
As a deer hunter, I read all sorts of heated debates about what is the best management practice for a given area. Some examples include: To shoot spikes or not to shoot spikes? What age should we allow bucks to get before we make harvest decisions? Do we need antler point restrictions? Should everyone be allowed to shoot crossbows during archery season? Does a camera that sends pictures to a website in real time give hunters an unfair advantage?
These are all very important topics to discuss, but as hunters are becoming more informed, I feel the next great debate should be about whether or not the hunting public should be allowed to supplement the diet of free ranging deer.
There have been many states that found a case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild, free ranging deer and automatically (mostly without any public input) eliminated all feeding and mineral site usage by the law abiding public. In most cases, the deer herd has had a long history of being supplemented and the state agency pulled out the rug from underneath them. The state biologist mean well, but in most cases, they reacted too quickly without weighing all of their options.
Illinois for example, banned the use of minerals and feed for wild white-tailed deer, in order to prevent the spread of CWD. The science of CWD and its transmission is still in its infancy, and there is evidence that suggests Copper deficiency or manganese may influence CWD occurrence.
A recent study from Southern Illinois University suggested that direct contact is the primary driver of CWD transmission among free-living white-tailed deer. The deer in their study area were not supplemented by feed or minerals, so if the disease still spreads by direct contact without any feed or mineral sites available, why ban such practices? What if a simple mineral imbalance causes the normal prion to become deformed? Did you know that a potential cure for CWD is being tested by researchers from all across the country? Although it’s many years from being commercially available, the authors suggest that putting the vaccine in feed may be the best approach for treating free ranging deer.
Some argue that feeding brings deer to a concentrated area where contact can happen more than would occur naturally, but studies that found ill effects of feeding all had one big problem (pun intended); they used only a few big feeders. Of course you will unnaturally concentrate deer if you have 2,000 lbs of feed in one spot, but what about spreading feed out so that you have one 250 lb feeder for every 100 acres? Or even one 50 lb feeder for every 10 acres? I just want people to realize that feeding wildlife may not be as bad as some agencies lead on. I hope more hunters start talking about this topic, as the more people talk about it, the more research can be done.
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