Conservationist says DNR not doing enough against Chronic Wasting Disease

CWD spread to 41 counties in Wisconsin

A local conservationist echoes lawmakers’ recently voiced concerns about the rise of Chronic Wasting Disease among Wisconsin whitetail deer.  

Marc Schultz, chair of the La Crosse County Conservation Alliance, says the DNR’s do-as-little-as-possible-and-hope-everything-turns-out approach clearly isn’t working. 

“It’s not an easily solved problem at all,” he said. “But, just because it’s difficult to solve doesn’t mean you don’t admit it exists.”

CWD has now spread to 41 Wisconsin counties and roughly nine percent of deer tested last year had the disease.  

“Initially (the DNR) came in with a lot of funds to do some stop-gap controls,” Schultz said. “But, what we need is long-term research on this thing … to try and figure out the disease.”

Schultz says a collaborative research approach involving the state, the feds and the public would create a better understanding of CWD and possibly identify ways to control the spread of the disease.  

He is critical over the DNR’s apparent willingness to let the disease “run its course.”

“Nobody knows what the term ‘run its course,’ means, because they don’t understand the pathology of the disease, so that’s dangerous,” Schultz said.