LEWISTON – Starting Feb. 5, Fish and Game staff will continue a control action to reduce deer density in Slate Creek and adjacent areas as an ongoing attempt to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease. The project is expected to last up to 4 weeks.
This is the second year of control actions in and around the Slate Creek area in Game Management Unit 14 north of Riggins, where CWD was first identified in the fall of 2021. CWD is a contagious and invariably fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. There is no cure, vaccination, or effective test for CWD for live, wild animals.
“While one case of CWD was found outside of Unit 14, we believe the spread of the disease could have been worse if management action had not been taken at Unit 14 last winter,” said JJ Teare, Clearwater Region Supervisor. . “So, we’re going to do it again this winter.”
CWD survives in the environment for a long time, and it can be picked up by animals that forage in an area with CWD in the soil. If not prevented, the disease causes long-term threat to the quantity and quality of deer and elk herds and hunting opportunity.
Fish and Game staff will use methods during the control action not normally used for hunting, including baiting and shooting at night. Since most deer are expected to be on private land, special permits will also be issued to landowners to remove deer from their property. Fish and Game will only remove animals from private lands where the department has permission to do so.
All animals taken during the control action will be tested for CWD. Animals that test negative will be processed and the meat donated to local families in need and food banks.
All CWD-infected carcass parts, including heads and spinal columns, will be collected and transported by Fish and Game for disposal at an approved landfill.
Analysis of CWD over the past 3 years indicates that Fish and Game management efforts are working to reduce the rate of CWD spread and spread potential within and outside of Unit 14.
In fall 2021 and winter 2022, Fish and Game biologists sampled 265 animals from Unit 14 and found six positives. In ramping up CWD management and surveillance efforts in 2022-23, biologists sampled 1,297 animals from Unit 14 and found 43 positive. Of those 43, 13 were from hunter-harvested deer and 27 were taken in the previous Slate Creek control action.
Since summer 2023, Fish and Game has sampled 744 animals (mainly through hunter harvest) and found seven positive cases of CWD in Unit 14
Fish and Game asks that people report any sick or dead deer by calling Fish and Game’s Clearwater regional office at (208) 799-5010.
