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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Discovery of corn that fertilizes itself could transform agriculture

Posted on August 24, 2018 by admin

 

Anna Groves, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 7:30 a.m. CT Aug. 20, 2018 | Updated 10:13 a.m. CT Aug. 20, 2018

Farmers in a small area of southern Mexico knew that a variety of corn grown in the area was special.

But a group of researchers — including a contingent from the University of Wisconsin-Madison — believe the corn could ultimately transform the way the largest crop in America and the world is grown.

The potential improvements in water and air quality — not to mention financial savings — are staggering. In fact, the lead researcher from Madison acknowledged that he and his colleagues spent a decade studying the corn before going public this month because the conclusions were “almost outrageous.” Continue reading →

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Illegal turtle farm raid nets massive haul

Posted on August 23, 2018 by admin

By Ryan Gaydos | Fox News

Aug. 23, 2018

The operators of Europe’s largest illegal turtle farm were shell-shocked Thursday during a Spanish police raid that rescued more than 1,100 turtles — including endangered species selling for nearly $12,000 each, officials said.

Mallorca police also seized about 750 eggs, and will end up with many more than that: 200 female turtles were about to lay eggs. Specimens of 14 of the 50 most endangered species in the world were also discovered at the illicit pet farm, officials said.

Some of the most protected species came from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Video of the turtles were posted on YouTube.

The operation was launched 18 months ago when a shipment of turtles was seized at Mallorca airport, Europol said in a news release. The discovery eventually led them to the farm.

A Barcelona pet shop specializing in exotic animals was allegedly used as a front to smuggle the exotic animals in and out of Spain, officials said.

Six people were arrested between Mallorca and Barcelona in connection with the smuggling, Europol announced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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