Deer tests positive for CWD in Dickinson County, MI

Posted on February 5, 2019 by admin

October 18, 2018 Michigan DNR Release

A 4-year-old doe killed on a deer damage shooting permit in Dickinson County’s Waucedah Township has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, marking the first confirmation of the incurable deer disease within Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The finding was verified by Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in East Lansing and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

The deer was shot on an agricultural farm about 4 miles from the Michigan-Wisconsin border.

“We remain committed to maintaining healthy Michigan wildlife for the residents of, and visitors to, this great state, now and into the future,” said Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh. “Fortunately, over the past few years, with the help of hunters, the U.P. CWD Task Force, DNR staffers and others, we are far better prepared to respond to threats posed by chronic wasting disease in the U.P.”

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Largest monarch population since 2007 announced

Posted on January 31, 2019 by admin

Monarch Joint Venture
Jan.30, 2019

The eastern North American monarch population estimate for the winter of 2018-2019 reports a population size of 6.05 hectares, as announced today by WWF- Mexico and the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP). This is the largest population we have seen since 2007, an increase of 144% compared to last year.

 

The large population this year is an encouraging sign for monarchs, and an inspiration for us to continue our work together. Good weather conditions during the breeding season supported the increase, as well as efforts across North America to protect and restore habitats. However, we cannot rely on persistent good growing-seasons to sustain monarchs into the future. Our efforts to get more high quality habitat in the ground matter for monarchs, and they must continue.

 

“We are invigorated by the good news about the eastern population this year,” said Wendy Caldwell, Executive Director of the Monarch Joint Venture, “but there is much work left to be done. With the recent release of an extremely small western population, we strive to embrace an all hands on deck approach to rebuilding this population and continuing to grow and sustain the eastern population.”

 

 

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CWD battle heats up in Minnesota

Posted on January 17, 2019 by admin

CWD battle heats up in Minnesota: Fatal deer disease keeps spreading, has crossed species

By John Myers / Forum News Service on Jan 13, 2019 at 2:04 p.m.

 

This emaciated deer in Iowa County, Wis., was later confirmed to have CWD. Most animals that carry the disease look healthy. It’s only in the final stages where they become sickly looking. Wisconsin DNR photo. 1 / 2

DULUTH — With Minnesota wildlife officials scrambling this winter to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease among wild deer in southeastern counties, and 55 Wisconsin counties now identified as CWD sites, the impacts of the disease are hitting closer to the Northland.

CWD, now confirmed in 25 states and two provinces, is always fatal to cervids — whitetail and mule deer, moose and elk. Studies show that once it infects more than one-third of the population, entire herds may be decimated.

In parts of southern Wisconsin, more than 50 percent of the wild deer are now infected with CWD. So far, there is no antidote, no vaccine for deer, no way to get rid of it.

But it’s not just deer populations that are at stake — it could be the future of deer hunting. Even if wild deer somehow persist on the landscape, it’s unclear how many hunters would still want to hunt them if CWD remains a possible threat to people. Continue reading →

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Missouri’s First Conservation Bank To Benefit Endangered Bats

Posted on October 15, 2018 by admin

Conservation Employees’ Credit Union

Money Matters Fall 2018 Issue

Partnering with Burns & McDonnell, the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation (MCHF) opened the Chariton Hills Conservation Bank. This is the first conservation bank in Missouri to be approved by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It’s also the first nationwide conservation bank to protect the endangered Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat, which inhabit caves and forests in the eastern and midwestern part of the United States.

Conservation banks are areas of land set aside that permanently protect threatened or endangered species and their habitats. These banks function to offset adverse impacts to these species that occurred in similar, nearby ecosystems. In exchange for permanently protecting the land and managing it for these species, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service approves a specified number of habitat or species credits that financial institutions may sell.

“The concentration of Indiana and northern long-eared bats in this tri-state area presents significant opportunities to benefit the species,” said Kevin Roper, MCHF Executive Director. “Our board of directors have taken up the challenge and developed a strategy to support endangered species as well as the land bank program.”

“We are excited to work with Burns & McDonnell and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to enhance conservation programs in Missouri,” said Roper.

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Chronic wasting disease linked to Fort Collins for 50 years

Posted on August 29, 2018 by admin

 

Miles Blumhardt, Fort Collins Coloradoan Published 8:00 a.m. MT Aug. 23, 2018 | Updated 9:48 a.m. MT Aug. 23, 2018

 

Mike Miller, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Wildlife Health Program Leader, feeds an elk at agency’s Wildlife Research Center on the CSU Foothills Campus on July 18, 2018.(Photo: Miles Blumhardt/Fort Collins Coloradoan)Buy Photo

“Watch your step for rattlesnakes,” Mike Miller cautions as he unlocks a squeaky gate that leads to a fenced field of dried, knee-high grass on the western outskirts of Fort Collins. “We usually don’t let anyone in here anymore.”

Here, on Colorado State University’s Foothills Campus sits a dilapidated animal pen that appears untouched since scientists discovered the mule deer they were studying were unexpectedly and mysteriously dying.

Researchers were baffled. Why were seemingly healthy deer taken from across Colorado’s wilderness turning thin and wasting away toward premature death?

“The reaction to it, quite honestly at the time, was just frustration because it kept ruining good research experiments,’’ says Miller, Colorado Parks and Wildlife senior wildlife veterinarian, whose office is a short walk from the pens where the deer were dying. “The deer didn’t live long enough.’’

That was in 1967.

A half-century later, chronic wasting disease, a mysterious malady intricately tied to Fort Collins, is stirring renewed anxiety as federal officials study once again its potential to spread to humans. Continue reading →

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