Republicans blame Gov. Evers for CWD spread? Sure, why not.

Suddenly Republicans have a sudden urge to tackle the CWD crisis infecting our deer herd in Wisconsin, after doing nothing and making it worse for 8 years? No, not really...

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker took a largely hands-off approach after he took office in 2011. The disease has since spread across the state. According to the DNR, 26 counties had at least one infected deer in the wild ... 56 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties qualify as affected.

Republican Sen. Devin LeMahieu pressed Cole on why the governor's spending plan includes no new strategies for combatting CWD ... asked (if) Evers thinks fighting the disease is important.

Walker/Republicans Punted on CWD for 8 Years, Even Stopped Picking up Road Kill Deer: So I nearly spit out my coffee a few weeks back when I heard the outraged voices of Republicans grilling DNR Secretary Preston Cole about Gov. Tony Evers lack of effort to do anything about CWD.

Enter State Sen. Tom Tiffany, the guy most responsible for ripping up Wisconsin's natural resources and environmental laws. He has single-handedly put industries like mining and corporate farming ahead of sports hunting and clean water. Seriously...and I'm not joking, he's the chairman of the sporting heritage committee. Just 3 months after Evers took over as governor, Tiffany had the balls to say..."I could...say this is a failure of the Evers administration...!" I also missed the part where the state spent millions trying to fight CWD:

Republican Tom Tiffany, chairman of the state Senate’s sporting heritage committee, said he’s not surprised Evers “punted” on the disease. The state has spent millions trying to fight it to no avail, he said. 

“I could take a real partisan line here and say this is a failure of the Evers administration, but these are difficult decisions. We’re just not sure yet what is going to be effective. But they’ve got to come forward with a plan. We need leadership from the Department of Natural Resources and … the governor as well.”

Hold on there. I'm guessing Sen. Tiffany's low information voters wouldn't have noticed, but here's how Republicans made things even worse...recently.

Trolling to get moderate voters to support his reelection, Walker issued a few emergency rules supported by Democrats, including double fencing deer farms, restrictions on the movement of live deer from one farm to another, and putting a stop to transporting deer carcasses across county lines. But a joint committee of GOP Senators and Representatives basically killed all the new rules. We're now starting from scratch thanks to our anti-government/deregulation Republican majority. 

As for Evers plans for CWD...

Cole says the governor wants to see what research reveals about the disease and doesn't want to spend money on it when other states are doing the work ... the DNR needs to do more to persuade hunters to turn in deer heads for testing ... the DNR is in the middle of a four-year study on deer mortality and Evers and the agency should wait until that’s complete before making any decisions.

Hunters, thank Walker for Spread of CWD! He's your guy...

The spread of CWD in Wisconsin is pretty much out of control, thanks to Scott Walker. He thought hunters didn't care too much about eating contaminated meat, but since reports came out that it is possible CWD could spread to humans, well, hunting has since declined a lot. Go figure.

While other states have taken action, Wisconsin has not, until now...but wait, maybe not?

JS: An emergency rule recently signed by Gov. Scott Walker to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin may consider suspending all or part of the emergency CWD rule ... on the day it is scheduled to take effect. The emergency rule would have been the first substantive effort to curtail the disease in more than a decade. The rule was opposed by deer farming interests. 

The fatal deer disease has been spreading across Wisconsin relatively unchecked for the last 16 years. The Legislature has failed to enact measures to reduce the prevalence or distribution of CWD in the state.

Instead of using science and common sense to control CWD, Sen. Steve Nass wants a few unelected whiny hunters to run the DNR:

Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said he ... can block or alter a rule with a simple vote. "This emergency rule contains substantial and burdensome changes to the way Wisconsin hunters will deal with deer carcasses with little advance notice or education," Nass wrote.

More and more hunters have been contacting their legislators and speaking against provisions in the rule, said Mike Mikalsen, chief of staff for Nass.

Many of the solutions in the approved emergency rules have been debated and researched for nearly a decade, so Nass is lying about "little advance notice or education." These are long overdue actions:

1. The measure has two prongs, one to enhance fencing at deer farms to reduce the risk of contact between captive and wild deer ... Deer farmers would have one year, or a time agreed to with the DNR, to perform any required fencing changes.

2. The other to reduce the distribution of infected carcasses by hunters, the rule would require deer killed in a CWD-affected county to be quartered or boned out before being removed from the county. There are two important exceptions: A whole carcass could be moved out of a CWD-affected county if it is taken to a taxidermist or a licensed meat processor anywhere in the state.

When will Republicans ever be blamed for destroying recreational hunting and outdoor sports in the state? 

George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said "We know there are going to be challenges for sportsmen and women. But this is about protecting Wisconsin's deer herd."

As of early September, Wisconsin had 55 CWD-affected counties.

Two maps tell the whole Walker CWD disaster, today and from January 2017:

Jan. 2017

Sept. 2018

Walker's CWD Hotline?

Walker's career record Repair Campaign slaps together a quick plan to control CWD, after hunting took another hit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Scott Walker owns the spread of CWD and the decline of Wisconsin's deer hunting tradition statewide.

I've been covering the out-of-control spread of CWD in Wisconsin for years. I've pointed out that deer hunting isn't down because the hunting age didn't include babies or that hunting in parks and around schools was off-limits, it had more to do with Chronic Wasting Disease. We can thank Scott Walker's deregulated, voluntary, "common sense," unscientific management of the deer population.

...promote voluntary landowner surveillance testing permits, encourage the reporting of "sick deer" at the local level...

and...

...Allowed deer herd growth favored by hunters in areas with chronic wasting disease despite the advice of some scientists who say less deer density will slow the disease’s spread.

Scott Walker's Sudden "better-late-than-never" reelection Year Solution for CWD: One-by-one Walker is trying to cross off every ignored policy failure. Ain't happenin'.

Walker's critics were right about what should have been done. It turned out the Democrats weren't spewing hate and partisan attacks like he said they were.

From the governor who pulled state funding for road kill removal, we just saw this report:

Avid hunter and Oneida County Deer Advisory Committee (CDAC) Vice Chairman Roger Sabota said, "It's bad, but we're going to get through it. If we get more people concerned with it, we get some people with professional backgrounds involved with it... A lot of our businesses are dependent on hunters."

Walker might have also got a whiff of this on Feb 21, 2018:

The Tomahawk meeting (came) just a month after CWD was found in a wild deer in Lincoln County. It was killed in between Rhinelander and Tomahawk and it is the only wild one in North Central Wisconsin testing positive for CWD. "Obviously I'm concerned," said Jim Blankenhein, who lives just a few miles from where the deer was killed. "It makes me a little nervous." Blankenhein was one of about 50 people who showed up to the meeting. When it's been established in a population for any length of time, population's really drop off," said Chuck McCullough, a DNR Wildlife Supervisor. "If you have CWD in a population of wild deer it seems like it's a one-way trip downhill."

WPR came out with these two reports yesterday (Tuesday, May 2). Walker's panicky CWD plan, which doesn't exist yet, maybe finalized sometime before hunting season. But like before, Walker is calling for meetings, volunteer work and finally putting in place rules critics have been begging for the last 8 years. But it still doesn't measure up. Walker also mentioned his old plan, suggesting there was one...not really (audio):

Walker said the new rules will ... compliment a state CWD response plan initiated in 2010. "We need to protect Wisconsin’s hunting traditions and long-standing heritage by working together to contain the spread of chronic wasting disease in deer." How has that worked out so far?

Scott Loomans, policy initiatives advisor for DNR Secretary Dan Meyers, said "We’ll be working this summer to get rules in place for the hunting season this fall ... We have regulations currently but they’ve kind of become out of date." Loomans said that’s because current law allows hunters to move carcasses from places that have a high prevalence of CWD.

Increased surveillance, increased sampling, carcass movement restrictions and local community involvement are just some the goals outlined in the recently updated Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources CWD Response Plan. The plan, part of Gov. Scott Walker's Chronic Wasting Disease Initiative ... will be the guide for CWD response and management over the next five years. 

Walker's CWD Disaster Explained: I had to include Patrick Durkin's comprehensive article on how Walker has botched something so important. And yes, private business interests played a part:

Two wild deer far outside Wisconsin’s endemic zone for chronic wasting disease tested positive last week for the always-fatal disease, and yet the Department of Natural Resources downplayed the news in press releases, emphasizing instead that the discoveries renewed baiting and feeding bans for the areas.The new CWD cases were reported April 18 in Eau Claire County and April 20 in Oneida County. Both were those counties’ first CWD cases in wild deer.

Then again, downplaying CWD has been the DNR’s game-plan since Gov. Scott Walker took office in January 2011. Gov. Walker quickly entrusted Wisconsin’s deer management to Greg Kazmierski by appointing him to the Natural Resources Board, which sets DNR policy.

Kazmierski owns and operates Buck Rub Outfitters in Pewaukee, an archery/bowhunting pro shop and manufacturer. Kaz frequently fusses that publicly discussing CWD hurts tourism and makes hunters go elsewhere or quit hunting.

Case in point: When Tami Ryan, the DNR’s wildlife health section chief, spoke at the DNR Board’s Feb. 28 meeting, she reported that an Iowa County study found CWD-infected deer dying at three times the rate of healthy deer. Instead of probing such findings, Kazmierski fretted that DNR data and terminology make Wisconsin’s CWD status sound worse than necessary.

Kaz urged the agency to quit using the word “affected” for counties within 10 miles of a CWD case. He suggests labeling them “watch counties” so folks don’t confuse “affected” with “infected.” Board member Fred Prehn chimed in, saying many CWD-affected counties have never had a deer test positive.

Sigh. How can we declare any county CWD-free when the DNR hasn’t conducted widespread systematic testing in over a decade?

After 8 years, Scott Walker decides he wants to Fight CWD to get reelected.

Better late than sorry?

Frustration with weakened state environmental protections is causing some Republican voters in Wisconsin to ponder something that was unthinkable 10 years ago — voting for Democrats.

Hunting and fishing enthusiasts, lakefront property owners and neighbors of large farming operations are among those who have grown unhappy with the long list of changes enacted by Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP majority in the Legislature.

Dwindling numbers of deer hunters and deer killed are hard to hide:

Alan Hovarth, a retired paper mill manager who lives in Superior, said he has watched in dismay as a politicized DNR muzzled its scientists while avoiding tough decisions about the spread of chronic wasting diseasethrough the deer herd and hazardous pollution from the expansion of animal feedlots.

“I supported Gov. Walker initially — I was a strong supporter — but I’ve come to view some of these things that are being done as being detrimental, and that is of great concern to me,” Horvath said. “Their agenda is more important to them than allowing a healthy discussion.” Horvath said he will look more carefully at Democratic candidates than ever before

Here a look at 8 years worth of Walker's environmental teardown: Pretty much under the direction of the Assemblies environmental wrecking ball, Tom Tiffany. Keep in mind, this list is from October 2015:

(1.) Make it easier to destroy wetlands. (2.) Block homeowners’ ability to challenge large farms and frac sand mines when they believe a cluster of their high-capacity wells is drying up lakes, streams or drinking water. (3) Seek federal approval to extend by up to 20 years the deadlines for full compliance with limits on phosphorus discharges that promote weed and algae growth in lakes and streams. (4) Slow purchases of conservation lands while mandating land sales and banning local zoning rules that are more limiting than state standards for shoreline development. (5) Insisted it can’t legally limit the expansion of mega farms despite an order to do so from a judge who said ”massive regulatory failure” had tainted Kewaunee County drinking water. (6) Reduced the number of pollution violations it sends to state lawyers for court action and the number of wildlife citations it issues. (7) Delayed for years studying how small dust particles from the frac sand industry affect the health of neighboring residents. (8) Written emergency rules to decrease analysis of potential environmental harm and public hearings on sources of pollution when reviews of similar projects have been done. (9) Received warnings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that air and water quality protections are inadequate or out of date.

But here's the clincher and focus of this post:

Allowed deer herd growth favored by hunters in areas with chronic wasting disease despite the advice of some scientists who say less deer density will slow the disease’s spread.

Scott Walker Checks off another Failure on his Reelection Repair Checklist: More study, and more watching and waiting. Walker still doesn't plan to do anything, but this do-nothing CWD plan sure comes across like he's trying:

Increased surveillance, increased sampling, carcass movement restrictions and local community involvement are just some the goals outlined in the recently updated Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources CWD Response Plan. Implementation of the plan as part of Gov. Scott Walker's Chronic Wasting Disease Initiative has already begun. The updated plan will be the guide for CWD response and management over the next five years. 

CWD Spreading...where's the Deer Czar Now? Since the DNR no longer relies on science, Walker is depending more on local volunteers to simply help out...:

...promote voluntary landowner surveillance testing permits, encourage the reporting of "sick deer" at the local level...

Hunters Start to Panic!!!: Gee, ya think? At least their "small government" pal Scott Walker is saving them a few bucks on their tax bills: 

The Tomahawk meeting (came) just a month after CWD was found in a wild deer in Lincoln County. It was killed in between Rhinelander and Tomahawk and it is the only wild one in North Central Wisconsin testing positive for CWD. "Obviously I'm concerned," said Jim Blankenhein, who lives just a few miles from where the deer was killed. "It makes me a little nervous." Blankenhein was one of about 50 people who showed up to the meeting. When it's been established in a population for any length of time, population's really drop off," said Chuck McCullough, a DNR Wildlife Supervisor. "If you have CWD in a population of wild deer it seems like it's a one-way trip downhill."

And then there's this additional Walker precaution:

They're hoping to have the help from private land owners along with collecting road kills and being notified about sick deer. The DNR is doing the collection in March to test them as soon as possible.

Previously I wrote this...This was Scott Walker's plan by design way back in April 2015:

Governor Scott Walker doesn't want the state to pay to remove deer carcasses along state highways, which means counties could have to foot the bill. Last year the DNR removed nearly 24,000 deer carcasses from state highways across Wisconsin.

The Governor's proposed budget eliminates $700,000 a year for the DNR to remove the carcasses statewide. Under the proposal, responsibility for clearing the deer would fall to whatever government agency is in charge of the roadway. Or they may be left uncollected. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau cautions, "dead and decaying deer on the roadside are unsightly ad can dampen Wisconsin's reputation as a tourist destination."

Walker posted the following budget veto, because thanks to tax cuts, we don't have enough money to fund removal of these disease-spreading carcasses...nevermind putting off road repairs: