Statewide bans on baiting, feeding wildlife proposed to help fight CWD

Statewide bans on feeding wildlife and using bait to hunt big game are among a suite of rules proposed to help Washington limit the spread of chronic wasting disease long into the future.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials released the rules last week alongside a full set of new hunting regulations. The proposals are open for public comment with public hearings planned for March.

The CWD rules would replace a set of emergency regulations the agency put in place last August after finding the state’s first case of the disease in north Spokane.

The proposal largely mirrors the emergency rules. A restriction on moving carcasses out of a CWD-positive region would become permanent. Testing requirements for salvaged and hunter-killed deer, elk and moose would be expanded to the full Eastern Region, rather than being focused on hunting units immediately surrounding the known cases of the disease.

Statewide prohibitions on baiting and feeding wildlife represent the broadest expansion of the rules. Similar bans were in place for the game management units surrounding the initial detection last fall.

Banning feeding or baiting is meant to keep deer or elk from gathering in large numbers in one place, where the disease could move quickly and easily between them.

Hunter Westacott, a WDFW biologist focused on CWD, said taking those bans statewide is necessary because it’s possible the disease exists in other areas, potentially brought in by the movement of infected animal parts.

Limiting the congregation of deer and elk via feeding and baiting is meant to limit the chances that any undetected CWD outbreaks get out of hand before they’re discovered.

“If we get CWD in an area and it’s being spread through baiting and feeding by the public, it can get to a level where it’s uncontainable,” Westacott said. “That has long-term effects on our elk, deer and moose populations.”

CWD is a fatal condition that attacks the nervous system of elk, moose and deer, eventually causing them to become emaciated and behave erratically. It’s caused by microscopic proteins called prions, which are spread through the animals’ bodily fluids.

There’s no known risk to humans, but health officials advise against eating the meat from infected animals.

Washington became the 35th state to detect the disease when a deer found dead in the Fairwood area tested positive. More deer have tested positive since, including one in Pend Oreille County.

There’s no cure, and eradication is all but impossible.

Westacott said using testing and stopping feeding and baiting are meant to keep the disease in check and maintain the state’s hunting opportunities long into the future.

“The goal is to protect our cervid species and perpetuate hunting opportunities into the future,” he said.

The permanent rule proposal includes mandatory testing for hunter-killed and salvaged deer, elk and moose in any management region where the disease is known to be present.

That means any salvager or successful hunter in WDFW’s Eastern region — which includes 10 counties — will be required to submit either the entire head of an animal or lymph nodes for testing. The samples are tested at the Washington Animal Disease and Diagnostic Lab in Pullman.

Last fall, the testing requirement was in place for game management units 124, 127 and 130. Plenty of samples came from outside those three units, too. Westacott said they received more than 1,500 samples from hunters.

Getting buy-in for the feeding and baiting bans may prove tougher than some of the other rules.

While the practice is outlawed in some states, including Idaho, there are some Washington hunters who have used bait to hunt deer for years, and it may be tough to talk them out of it.

Dan Wilson, a Spokane hunter and co-chairperson of the Washington chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, does not use bait. He said its use is likely not as widespread as in parts of the Midwest or elsewhere.

But there are hunters who use it. He said that while they might not want to accept change, they’ll have to balance the argument for baiting with what biologists say is best for wildlife.

“If hunters talk about science-based wildlife management, it’s time to lean into that with what the scientists recommend here,” Wilson said.

Feeding may be even more widespread. Westacott said people often feed animals in an attempt to help them, but that the activity poses a variety of threats that go beyond CWD — a number of other diseases can spread quickly through congregation, and sometimes wildlife can’t digest what people are offering.

The feeding ban appears to stop short of ending WDFW’s own wildlife feeding operations. Elk and bighorn sheep are commonly fed by WDFW in the winter at the Oak Creek, L.T. Murray and Wenas Wildlife areas in the south-central part of the state.

Under the feeding ban, the WDFW director could OK wildlife feeding in certain circumstances, including research, tough winters and preventing property damage.

The CWD rules will not require a commission vote. Instead, WDFW director Kelly Susewind will make the final decision after the public comment period ends.