Hunters looking to participate in this year’s Pennsylvania elk season have until Aug. 29, to submit an application through the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us). Click on “The Outdoor Shop” in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage, then select “Pennsylvania Game Commission Outdoor Shop” in the lower left-hand corner, then click on “Elk” in the banner and complete the application. The deadline to submit a paper application was Aug. 15.

Applicants must place a $10 non-fundable application fee on their credit card payment (VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express accepted) to be included in the drawing. Details on the elk season and drawing are available on pages 102-105 of the 2008-09 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations, which is provided to license buyers.

On Sept. 20, the Game Commission will hold a public, computerized drawing as part of the annual Elk Expo held in Elk County. At that time, the agency will award the 45 elk licenses, the first 17 drawn will receive an antlered license and the next 28 drawn will receive an antlerless license.

Nearly 600 brain and lymph node tissue samples from white-tailed deer in all three counties of Delaware showed no evidence of chronic wasting disease (CWD), the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife announced today. This brings the total number of Delaware deer tested since 2003 to more than 2,400.

During the October muzzleloader and November shotgun deer seasons last fall, 599 tissue samples were collected at meat processors across the state from deer harvested by hunters. The Division’s goal is to test and sample 200 deer within each county. Last year the Division met its goal in Kent and Sussex counties but came up a few samples short in New Castle County. The samples were submitted to the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center for testing. Final test results just received showed all the samples to be negative for the disease.

“Six hundred samples give us a 99 percent probability of detecting the disease if it existed in one percent or more of the deer population. The only way to be certain that every deer in Delaware is free of CWD would be to test every deer, and that would not be practical. While this doesn’t provide 100 percent assurance of no disease, we are encouraged by these results,” said Joe Rogerson, the Division’s Game Mammal Biologist.
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Hunters with permanent disabilities will find it simpler to attain a crossbow permit as the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) streamlined the application process and redefined eligibility requirements at its August meeting in Lansing.

The NRC adopted recommendations from its crossbow disability workgroup, which worked for four months to develop new permitting criteria. The workgroup was made up of representatives from the medical community, bow hunting interests, the Accessibility Advisory Council, general hunting interests, crossbow industry representatives and Department of Natural Resources personnel.

Under the new criteria, a physician can automatically certify a hunter as eligible for a crossbow permit if the hunter:

- has an amputation involving body extremities required for stable function to use conventional archery equipment, or,

- has a spinal cord injury resulting in permanent disability to the lower extremities, leaving the applicant permanently non-ambulatory, or

- has a permanent wheelchair restriction.
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Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 1B, covering all of Erie County, as well as portions of Crawford, Venango and Warren counties has exhausted its entire antlerless deer license allocation, announced Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe. As previously announced, antlerless deer license allocations for WMUs 2F and 2G have been exhausted.

Roe noted that this does not mean that hunters, both residents and nonresidents, are out of options when looking to hunt for antlerless deer thanks to Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) coupons that remain available.

“While DMAP permits may be used only on the specific property for which they are issued, they do offer hunters additional antlerless deer hunting opportunities on public and private lands in WMUs 1B, 2F and 2G,” Roe said. “DMAP was developed to provide a way for hunters to help landowners achieve the type of deer harvest they require to better manage their lands. We encourage hunters to contact these landowners and take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity.”

Landowners can’t charge or accept any contribution from a hunter for a DMAP coupon. While hunters may obtain up to two DMAP permits per property, DMAP permits do not impact a hunter’s eligibility to apply for and receive antlerless deer licenses issued for WMUs.
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After extensive testing, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has not found any evidence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the state’s white-tailed deer population.

The FWC tested 560 free-ranging deer during the past year and more than 3,500 deer during the past six years, with no CWD-positive results.

“While we can never say that Florida is entirely free of the disease without testing every deer, this sample size gives us confidence that if CWD is present in Florida, it is at low levels,” Dr. Mark Cunningham, FWC’s wildlife veterinarian, said. “However, even low numbers of CWD-positive deer would be cause for concern, so we plan to continue testing for the foreseeable future.”

CWD is a contagious neurological disease that has been found in captive and wild mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and Rocky Mountain elk within several Midwestern and Western states. The disease causes degeneration of the brains of infected animals, resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death.

Thus far, no Southeastern state, including Florida, has been hit by the deer disease.
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The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reminds deer hunters that private land antlerless licenses for southern Michigan and a six-county area of the northeastern Lower Peninsula go on sale over the counter at 10 a.m. Sept. 8. In the past, private land antlerless deer licenses went on sale Aug. 16.

Leftover licenses for both private and public land for the remainder of the state will go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 17.

“In recent years, private land licenses have all been sold over-the-counter and have been available beginning Aug. 16,” explained DNR deer specialist Rod Clute. “However, some areas of northern Michigan sold out of licenses quickly. A drawing was established this year (last day to apply is Aug. 15) to provide everyone with an equal opportunity to obtain one of these licenses.” Additional information may be found in the 2008 Hunting and Trapping Guide on the DNR Web site, www.michigan.gov/dnr.

Hunters may purchase one antlerless license each day for either private or public land but may buy no more than five private land licenses total.
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