MADISON (AP) — An influential group of sportsmen says the state Department of Natural Resources needs to better educate people about chronic wasting disease.
The suggestion was among a set of recommendations the Conservation Congress unveiled Tuesday at a news conference with the department highlighting efforts to deal with the disease as the fall deer hunting seasons approach.
The congress said every DNR employee who has contact with the public should be given a CWD brochure to hand out to people. The congress said the brochure also should be given out with every license sold.
The congress said the DNR also needs to streamline its website so CWD information is readily accessible. The group also called on the DNR to place more dumpsters on the landscape to make it easier for hunters to dispose of carcasses and expand the number of unmanned kiosks across the state where hunters can drop off tissue samples from their kills for testing.
Tami Ryan, the DNR Wildlife Management Bureau's acting director, said the department will take the recommendations under consideration.
The state DNR has ordered hunters in a half-dozen northwestern Wisconsin townships to submit deer they kill this fall for CWD tests.
Ryan said the order comes in response to three infected deer identified in Eau Claire County last year. After the news conference, she said citizen deer advisory councils in surrounding counties formed a committee in response to the infections and recommended the DNR implement the mandatory testing order.
Ryan said the order was issued last week and applies to the nine-day gun season in townships in Eau Claire, Dunn and Pepin counties. She said the department will be doing in-person sample collections in the area.
