MADISON – By a six-to-zero vote the state Natural Resources Board at a Sept. 8 special meeting enacted an emergency rule banning baiting and feeding of deer in 22 Wisconsin counties. Department of Natural Resources officials say additional counties may be added to the ban if new discoveries of either chronic wasting disease or bovine tuberculosis are made during the rule’s 150-day effective period. The rule will take effect upon publication and will be in place prior to the opening of the archery deer-hunting season Sept. 13.
The affected counties are: Portage, Juneau, Waushara, Calumet, Manitowoc, Adams, Marquette, Vernon, Richland, Sauk, Columbia, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha, Layafette, Green, Rock, Walworth and Racine
Baiting outside of the 22 counties identified in the emergency rule will be limited to 10 gallons; there is no limit to feeding outside the 22-county area.
“The counties identified in this rule are known areas of risk for either chronic wasting disease or bovine tuberculosis because the diseases have been found there,” said Tom Hauge, director of the DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management. “Also included are counties within a 10-mile radius of a captive or free-roaming domestic or wild animal that has been confirmed to have CWD or TB since Jan. 1, 1998.”
Following the vote to enact the emergency rule, the board approved a motion directing DNR Secretary Scott Hassett to confer with Department of Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen on rules leading to better regulation of movement and containment of captive wildlife. The board asked for recommendations on those rules to be presented at the NRB meeting scheduled for Sept. 23-24 in Boulder Junction.