Commissioners OK continued deer culling for CWD

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Following the recommendation of the county's environmental advisory board, the Larimer County Commissioners decided on Jan. 27 to continue culling deer herds in hopes of curbing chronic wasting disease.

The commissioners, however, made conditions more restrictive than those requested by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and the continued culling was granted for just one year. The DOW began thinning deer herds on county land about two years ago, but the agency has been culling herds through hunting for the past six years.

Commissioner Tom Bender said the county needs to continue culling, since deer herds are too large in some areas. However, he said, "we should start seeing results" in terms of lower incidence of CWD in culled herds.

The DOW was given the go-ahead to reduce deer herds on three of the county's open lands areas, including Devil's Backbone Open Space, Horsetooth Mountain Park and Redtail Ridge Open Space. The commissioners refused permission to cull more deer in Eagle's Nest Open Space in the Livermore area, saying the herds had already been significantly thinned.

Commissioners gave the DOW permission to remove 15 deer from Redtail Ridge, 12 from Devil's Backbone (including the Indian Meadows area) and eight from Horsetooth Mountain Park. The DOW did not propose aerial hunting.

In response to citizens' complaints about the killing of healthy animals, the commissioners insisted on more live testing of animals. They will require the DOW to use tonsil biopsies at Horsetooth Mountain Park, killing only infected deer in that area.

Fred Quartarone, field coordinator for the DOW, said the agency already does tonsil biopsies on deer in Estes Park, but the agency hasn't used the approach on a broader scale for two reasons: the procedure is much more expensive than killing animals, and most animals in the wild are harder to catch than those in Estes Park. Commissioner Kathay Rennels said the county may be able to share the expense of the tonsil biopsies.

Both Rennels and Bender said they prefer herd management through hunting. Parks and Open Lands Director Gary Buffington said his department will consider some type of hunting plan on open lands in the future, since this approach could keep the herds healthy, provide another hunting experience and make use of the meat instead of wasting it.

Quartarone said that information from hunter harvests indicates a CWD infection rate of 6.5 percent in the northern part of the county and 7 percent in the southwest part. The DOW goal, he added, is to have no more than 1 percent of a large herd, or 2 percent of a small herd, infected with CWD.

Quartarone explained that keeping infected herds from growing is an important part of the DOW strategy. By controlling population, fewer deer will be forced out of the herd, so the disease is less likely to spread, he said.

Quartarone also said his agency removed fewer than 500 deer from herds in Larimer County last year.

At the Jan. 27 meeting, several citizens spoke against the continued culling. They cited lack of scientific evidence that culling is effective against CWD, lack of respect for private landowners from DOW staff and the waste of meat when herds are culled by the DOW instead of by hunters.

"It's not clear that mass slaughter will eradicate the disease," said Diane Morison of Livermore.