County makes slight change for culling for CWD

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

The Colorado Division of Wildlife will not be culling deer for chronic wasting disease in Horsetooth Mountain Park because Larimer County Commissioners wanted diseased animals to first be identified with tonsillar biopsies.

Excluding personnel costs, tonsillar biopsies cost about $300 per animal in areas where deer are easy to capture, CWD field coordinator Fred Quartarone said in a letter to the commissioners. In response, county parks and open lands director Gary Buffington said the county will not allow hunting or DOW sharpshooting as an alternative to biopsies in the popular public park. The DOW had wanted to take eight deer from the area for ongoing research and herd reduction.

CWD is a fatal neurological disease afflicting some Colorado deer and elk herds. As part of the effort to track the occurrence and distribution of the disease, the DOW has been culling herds and also testing deer, elk and moose heads submitted by hunters.

In January, the DOW asked commissioners for permission to cull herds again on some county-owned lands. Commissioners agreed to some of the sites, but with more restrictive conditions than years past. In the Redtail Ridge Open Space in the Little Thompson area, for example, commissioners disallowed the use of sharpshooting.

In March, Quartarone asked the commissioners to reconsider the restriction, and they agreed that sharpshooters could kill up to 15 deer in the rugged open space. The area is not open to the public at this time.

No culling will take place in Eagle's Nest Open Space near Livermore this year, but it could be opened to public hunting next year.

At the March meeting with Quartarone, Commissioner Kathay Rennels took the opportunity to chastise the Colorado Wildlife Commission for no longer requiring mandatory CWD testing in Larimer County, which is considered a hot spot for the disease. "This sends a very weird message to folks," she said.

CWD testing for deer and elk is now voluntary statewide, but hunters are still required to submit moose heads for testing. No moose has tested positive for the disease to date.