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These wild elk were recently photographed at an Oregon cervid
ranch where they managed to gain entry to a pasture where
captive cervids have been held previously. Diseases like Chronic
Wasting Disease are known to linger in holding facilities after
infected animals are removed. OHA is pushing for a
double-fencing requirement to prevent contact between wild and
captive cervids.
OHA urges double-fencing of cervid holding facilities
Because the spread of devastating diseases to the state’s
big game herds poses such a huge and unacceptable risk, the
Oregon Hunters Association is recommending to the Oregon Fish
and Wildlife Commission that Type 1 captive cervid holding
facilities in Oregon be required to double-fence their
enclosures, even if hunters have to foot some of the bill.
OHA initially insisted that the operators of the cervid
facilities assume the entire expense of the extra precautions,
but when it became apparent that no such requirement would be
forthcoming from the state, OHA’s leadership deemed the
potential expense well worth the insurance it would provide to
protect the state’s wildlife from diseases that have run rampant
in big game herds elsewhere in the West.
The most well known diseases deadly to big game animals
are chronic wasting disease (CWD) and bovine tuberculosis (TB).
While there has been a ban on importation of live cervids into
Oregon for a number of years, a case of TB was detected in a
captive cervid in Oregon that had been tested many times prior
to falling ill to the disease and dying.
Studies show that CWD and TB can be transmitted from one
animal to another, and investigations in states where CWD is
believed to have spread from captive cervids to wild big game
animals implicate nose-to-nose contact at fence lines between
captive and wild animals.
Further research suggests that double-fencing is the only
way to prevent nose-to-nose contact and the horizontal
transmission of disease between captive cervids and wild
animals. The perimeter fencing also would provide added
insurance against captive animals escaping the enclosures or
wild animals entering the holding facilities, as happened this
winter at a facility on Oregon’s coast.
States and provinces where CWD has spread to wild herds
have seen devastating losses in their big game herds, and have
been unsuccessful in curbing the continued spread of the
disease. While OHA supports a phase-out of cervid ranching in
Oregon, its State Board of Directors believes that as long as
the operations exist here, the potential risk of diseases in the
state’s wild herds warrants an investment of insurance by
hunters, who have the most to lose.
Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) that govern the private
holding or propagation of cervid species have been under review
by the Cervid Rule Advisory Group (CRAG) for several months. OHA
had a representative on this group.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife presented the
recommended changes to the Fish and Wildlife Commission on April
18. Within this document is a recommendation to double-fence all
Type 1 cervid holding facilities in Oregon.
Given the apparent unwillingness of the state to force
cervid ranches to absorb the cost of double-fencing themselves,
OHA believes hunters and holders of captive cervids must work
together to protect the holder’s investment and the wildlife of
Oregon.
Compromises of this nature are not without precedent in
Oregon. The fishermen of Oregon have helped to fund the fish
screening effort to keep fish out of irrigation systems for many
years.
OHA believes it’s critical that hunters make every effort
to protect Oregon’s wildlife from disease.
Presented with the political reality and weighing the
options of having double-fencing or not having double-fencing,
as distasteful as it is, the OHA board had to support a
cost-sharing plan for double-fencing.
ODFW
stumps for budget, fee hikes
These
wild elk were recently photographed at an Oregon cervid ranch
where they managed to gain entry to a pasture where captive
cervids have been held previously. Diseases like Chronic Wasting
Disease are known to linger in holding facilities after infected
animals are removed. OHA is pushing for a double-fencing
requirement to prevent contact between wild and captive cervids.
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife held two meetings of the External Budget Committee
(EBAC) in February and March of this year. The committee is made
up of representatives from OHA and many other interested
organizations.
The purpose of this advisory group is to assist the
department in establishing budget priorities for the 2009-11
biennium. At the first two meetings, the group was presented
with an extensive review of the department’s program structure,
revenues and expenditures. The committee also examined the
projected current ending fund balance and the potential
dedicated and obligated funds packages.
As the group reviewed the budget materials, it became
apparent that the agency is faced with a need for a fee increase
request for the 2009-11 biennium. What the fee increase will be
and how it will be structured is still undecided at this time.
OHA is working closely with the agency to determine what its
needs are and what a fee increase will buy the hunters of
Oregon.
ODFW will hold another EBAC meeting in May, at which time
we will examine the input from the April ODFW budget meetings
held statewide and determine what budget proposal to submit to
the Commission in June. We will update you on this budget
process as it moves along.
* * * * *
Would you support a 20% increase in license and tag fees?
Answer this month’s hunter survey question at
www.oregonhunters.org/oregonhuntingstand.asp
* * * * *
Sportsmen’s Coalition hits hot issues
When the Oregon Sportsmen’s Coalition met in March, hot
topics included ODFW’s requested fee increases, new legislation
affecting fines, Oregon’s fledgling youth mentor program, a
proposal for funding DNA/forensics for wildlife, prospective
changes in cervid ranch rules, an update on the Idaho sheep
planning process, the acquisition of lands located in the Imnaha
River drainage of Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in
Oregon and the challenges facing Oregon’s wildlife laws.
The Coalition is made up of various hunting and shooting
organizations from around the state. Representatives attended
from these organizations: Oregon Hunters Association, Oregon
Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation, Oregon Association of Shooting Ranges, Oregon State
Shooters Association, Traditional Archers of Oregon, National
Rifle Association and the Mule Deer Foundation.
OHA and the Oregon State Shooters Association coordinated
the meeting, and the agenda was the result of suggestions from
many of the organizations that attended. The Coalition mission
is to provide a forum for communication among sportsmen’s groups
to share concerns and solutions. Speakers included
representatives from the ODFW, the Oregon State Police Game
Enforcement Division, Idaho Fish and Game and The Nature
Conservancy.
The Coalition is expected to meet again during the
summer.
Wolves are in Oregon; now what?
In January of this year, a radio-collared gray wolf was
confirmed in Oregon, just weeks before the de-listing of wolves
from the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in a portion of
eastern Oregon was scheduled to take effect on March 28.
As wolf activity in Oregon increases, the state is poised
to take over management of the species. Oregon adopted a wolf
management plan in 2005 and has been implementing it since.
After federal de-listing occurs in the eastern portion of the
state, wolves still will be protected by the state’s ESA until
ODFW documents the existence of four breeding pairs for three
consecutive years east of the Cascades.
As ranchers and farmers lose livestock to wolves,
increasing pressure will be put on Oregon’s Legislature to act.
Will the famous wolf bill from previous legislative sessions
find its way to the governor’s office to be signed in 2009? Stay
tuned.
Cervid rules go before Commission
For nearly a year the Cervid Rule Advisory Group met
and wrote proposed changes in Oregon’s cervid ranching rules
administered by ODFW. The extensive rule rewrite covers all
aspects of cervid ranching.
A new provision in the rules proposed by staff
requires that all cervid ranches in Oregon be doubled-fenced.
This has emerged as the most controversial of the recommended
changes and one that the ranchers oppose because of cost.
Other issues that OHA – a participant in the rules
revisions – proposed to ask the Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission to support at its April meeting included: keeping the
number of licenses at 16 with some sort of phase-out of cervid
licenses, making the cervid ranchers financially responsible
with a bonding requirement, prohibiting the importation of
gametes and embryos, and requiring disease testing upon the
death of any cervid.
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