With bow hunting for Wisconsin's white-tail deer population continuing on its way and the start of gun season a few weeks away, Wisconsin's Natural Resource and Tourism Departments are in a race against time to settle the public perception of chronic wasting disease.
The state is unsure exactly how CWD, which is similar to mad cow disease but not known to infect humans, will affect the monetary impact hunters have across the state, according to Lisa Marshall, public relations director for the Department of Tourism. The disease was originally found in western Dane County, but has since been located in a deer farm in Portage County
\We absolutely do not know what to expect,"" Marshall said. ""In the hunting season of 2000 and 2001, deer hunters spent $233 million in Wisconsin. And this only includes travel expenditures for food, lodging and retail.""
One clue the government does have concerning this fall's turnout is the total licenses it issues to hunters.
""Up to this point [license sales] are down 22 percent,"" said Joe Polasek, director of the Bureau of Management and Budget for the Department of Natural Resources. ""I figure for every 5 percent decline in revenues it's a loss of $1 million.""
The DNR recently requested to receive the remainder of the $4 million appropriated to them by the state Legislature. Under the terms of the funding, the Department of Natural Resources received the first $2 million immediately, but had to present a detailed financial report to the state's Joint Finance Committee to receive the final $2 million. However, the request details a management plan that costs more than $12 million.
Most of the funding has already been allocated within the DNR's own budget; however, an additional $2.9 million is still unfounded.
Polasek said the money would assist with a large scale testing of the deer herd for CWD.
""The big push is really a state-wide sampling of 50,000 deer and we're hoping that after we complete the test we'll find the outbreak will be isolated to the current target zone,"" he said.
As part of the DNR's management plan, the gun season on deer will be extended in the hot zone and will run from Oct. 24 to Jan. 31 according to DNR spokesperson Bob Manwell who added that no comprehensive assessment will be done until after the season is over.
""It's all very fluid at this point in time, it's kind of a 'what if' sort of game we play with this whole thing,"" he said. ""There's quite a bit of time ahead of us before we decide what's next.\
