A program that combines deer hunting and invasive species appears almost tailor-made for me by featuring two of my top topics for outdoor news.
The free Invasive Plant Control for Deer Management webinar begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30. Use this link to access the Zoom call at meeting time: short.mdc.mo.gov/4XS.
The program is the third of at least four cooperative presentations by the National Deer Association and the state Department of Conservation this year. A recording will be available through YouTube in the near future. I have watched the two previous discussions and found them to be informative and enlightening. Both are just more than an hour long.
Chronic wasting disease was the first topic covered. Kevyn Wiskirchen, a wildlife programs supervisor from the conservation department, led the discussion with updated details on the effect the disease is having on deer herds in Missouri and nationally. I like to believe I am fairly well versed in the topic, but I discovered several new notes to add to my understanding.
The greatest prevalence of CWD in our state is in the cluster that includes Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve counties. At 1.76 percent, the ratio of positive tests compared to all sampling in the area is just a nudge ahead of the Linn and Macon counties region where the disease was first discovered in free-ranging deer a dozen years ago.
While that number can be looked at as good or bad news, it pales in comparison to places like southwest Wisconsin where more than half of the mature bucks and nearly 40 percent of does test positive for the disease.
Aggressive efforts to identify and limit spread of the disease in Missouri seems like the best strategy. Political pressure in the Badger State – when CWD was first found there – forced a wait-and-see approach that can be attributed to the current crisis.
I had known Wisconsin’s wasting disease woes, but I learned about trouble in Tennessee from the presentation. Just a few years ago the state claimed no cases, but also admitted that testing was only slightly more than non-existent. The “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” plan came unraveled when 10 positive cases were discovered there in December 2018. Now the prevalence east of Memphis is recorded as high as 18.4 percent.
The other previous program in the series was directed to farmers and property managers regarding crop damage. Cheyne Matzenbacher, the deer outreach specialist in southern Missouri for the National Deer Association, led the discussion for that meeting, which was recorded in early June. Suggested methods for protecting corn, soybeans and other crops from deer damage included fencing and natural barriers, harassment with noises and other nuisances for the animals, repellents that can reduce attractiveness of the growing plants, and trapping or harvest options among other ideas.
“Having zero deer damage to your crops is not a realistic or achievable goal,” Matzenbacher says. “Light deer browse is OK, and in some cases even good for your crop. None of the methods is foolproof, but they can be used to help reduce deer-crop damage to a low, tolerable level.”
My favorite item in the presentation was a comment at the end when the presenters asked for the farmers and landowners who viewed the information to share any tips and tricks they know to help control deer damage. Telephone numbers and email addresses for the specialists were available at the end of the show.
The fourth webinar in the series is scheduled for September and will focus on hemorrhagic disease in deer. Save this link and click on it on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.: short.mdc.mo.gov/4Xq.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
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