RIGGINS, ID – The Idaho Department of Fish and Game began a project today to reduce deer density in the Slate Creek area in Unit 14 north of Riggins and east of US 95 in an effort to minimize the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease into adjacent areas. CWD is a contagious and fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, and moose, according to the agency’s Jen Bruns.
All deer taken will be tested for CWD. Elk, which are less susceptible to CWD, will not be targeted, but around 12 elk may be taken from the area for additional CWD sampling.
Fish and Game will provide special permits to landowners to kill deer on their property. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services staff who have experience with similar projects will assist Fish and Game staff in shooting deer on public land.
For this deer removal operation, methods not typically used for hunting will be allowed, including baiting and shooting at night. Because most deer are expected to be on private land, permits will be issued exclusively to landowners, and there will be no public hunting opportunity for this project.
IDFG says this has to be done while deer are still concentrated at lower elevations and before they begin migrating in the spring.
Animals collected by Fish and Game and Wildlife Services that test negative for CWD will be processed and the meat donated, Bruns says.
Landowners may also provide carcasses to Fish and Game for processing and donation.
All potentially infectious carcass parts will be collected and transported by Fish and Game to be disposed of in an approved landfill in Montana.
Fish and Game sampled 3,171 deer, elk, and moose for CWD statewide in 2022, and all 15 positive cases were detected in a 6-mile radius within the Slate Creek drainage.
“The disease was first detected in Idaho in 2021 in the Slate Creek area,” according to a press release. “The project area will encompass the Slate Creek watershed from the Salmon River east to Nut Basin Road and the southern portion of the McKinzie Creek watershed south to the northern portion of the John Day Creek watershed. The project area encompasses less than 9 percent of Unit 14.”
The project is expected to last six to seven weeks, or until control actions are deemed no longer effective or feasible.
Video From IDFG (caution: field dressing of deer included):
