Pennsylvania Game News - August 2019 - 8

they often repeat claims originating in
Iowa County. A 2010 falsehood by one
leading critic lives on: "Management
techniques that include eradication and
herd reduction have proven unsuccessful
here in Wisconsin."
What the critic didn't mention was
his group's successful efforts to torpedo
CWD management. Their opposition
included door-to-door petitions with redhighlighted maps to show farmers and
other landowners which neighbors closed
their lands to DNR staff and CWD-control
efforts. The pressure wasn't subtle. One
farmer they failed to intimidate was Steve
Harrington, of Arena. Harrington said it
was common to see opponents driving
past his farm to "monitor" hunters on his
400 acres during winter hunts.

INITIAL SUCCESS
Even so, many hunters and landowners
used the longer gun seasons, unlimited
permits and "earn-a-buck" rules that
require harvesting at least one antlerless
deer before buck hunting to reduce deer
numbers and control the disease from
2002 through 2006.
In addition, many landowners let DNR
staff shoot deer at night over bait sites that
targeted sick deer. In early 2007, DNR
shooters culled 987 deer, of which 80
percent were antlerless. That accounted
for just 1.7 percent of the 2006-07 deer kill
in CWD zones, but 23 of those deer carried CWD - a 12.5 percent infection rate.
Iowa County's infection rate in 2006
was 2 percent for deer shot by hunters.
The "sharpshooting" program's success, however, only hardened opponents,
who attacked the agency and urged local
and state lawmakers to fight diseasecontrol and herd-reduction efforts. For
8

example, opponents pressured the DNR to
drop earn-a-buck rules in 2005 as a goodwill gesture, and in return "guaranteed"
hunters would shoot more antlerless deer
than ever.
That didn't happen. The previous year,
2004, Iowa County's gun hunters registered 2,699 bucks and 5,463 antlerless
deer with help from earn-a-buck restrictions. In 2005, without those restrictions,
the totals fell to 2,749 bucks and 3,932
antlerless deer; and in 2006 the totals
slipped further to 2,640 bucks and 2,755
antlerless deer.
With less pressure on antlerless deer,
herds began rebuilding. The DNR reinstated earn-a-buck rules in 2007, but
lawmakers responded by slashing funds
for CWD testing and research. The chairman of the Assembly's Natural Resources
Committee, Rep. Scott Gunderson, called
CWD spending a "boondoggle."
CWD funding ranged from $4.8 million in 2004 to $5.8 million in 2007. After
Gunderson and other Republicans took
control of the Assembly, they cut CWD
funding by 52 percent to $2.8 million in
2008, and to $2.4 million in 2009.
Gunderson and others later pressured
the DNR to kill a four-day antlerless gun
season in October, eliminate the extended
gun seasons in November and December,
and ax a landowners' winter hunt that ran
through March 31.

ABANDONING PLANS
DNR biologists Carl Batha and Don
Bates, both now retired, coordinated the
CWD program during its first decade.
They contend hunters and other efforts
were controlling CWD until lawmakers
forced the DNR to start backing off in
2005. DNR data show CWD prevalence
Pennsylvania Game News - August 2019

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