Chronic Wasting Disease a new normal for deer hunters?

I have five deer kill-tags in my possession - mailed to me, free of charge, by the state Department of Natural Resources. What’s more, I can use them any time between now and April 30. Bucks, or does, muzzle-loader, or shotgun. I can share the tags with three of my hunting buddies, and I can get five more if I want them.

So, you’d think I’d be happy. The more deer hunting, the better. Right?

Under normal circumstances, yes, but these are hardly normally circumstances. It’s possible, in fact, that they may never be normal again for hunters in mid-Michigan.

In late May the DNR confirmed that a free-ranging deer in Meridian Township had tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease — a contagious illness fatal to deer. It was the first time CWD showed up among the state’s free-ranging herd, although in 2008 a deer at a private hunting ranch in Kent County contracted the disease.

Earlier this summer a second deer in Meridian was found to have CWD, and, on Aug. 6, a third. State wildlife officials are understandably alarmed by this development. CWD is a genuine threat to Michigan’s deer herd.

One part of the DNR’s strategy is to prohibit practices that could promote the spread of CWD — baiting, for example, which brings deer nose to nose. The second part — an attempt to assess the scope of the problem — is to kill and test as many deer as possible in what the DNR considers the “core” CWD danger zone: Meridian and eight neighboring townships, including Alaiedon, where I live.

Since I own more than five acres in Alaiedon, my hunting opportunities will be practically unlimited this year, which means that the opening day of the archery season (Oct. 1) — the Michigan bow hunter’s Christmas morning —- has been rendered meaningless, and the anticipation of the hunt, which is half the fun, has been lost.

The glimmer of hope in all this is that the three deer that have tested positive so far were part of the same extended family, and all were found within a one-mile radius of the Haslett Road-Marsh Road intersection. Let’s hope that the problem is, indeed an isolated one, and that the DNR’s actions are not too late.

Read John Schneider's daily blog at www.johnschneiderblog.com.