Injustice in the Upper Peninsula
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Hi Mary,
I noticed your post on the Michigan Sportsman forum. I have seen copies of several letters that have been sent to you on behalf of state representatives asking for scientific justification of the baiting ban on Beaver Island. Our local chamber has sent letters to Director Humphries asking for action on cormorants. I attempted to present several contrary theories about CWD, almost the same theories presented at the Wisconsin legislature by other experts in the field that clearly disagree with Dr. Millers strategy. I have directly asked the DNR for one study that shows definitively that CWD has had a negative effect on a wild population of White-tailed Deer anywhere in North America and no one responds. On top of that in a phone conversation one of your high ranking officials told me “ in reality there is no scientific justification for the ban on Beaver Island” so I am now asking you as you posted on the forum to communicate with us.
I am meeting next week with several high ranking legislators from the state of Michigan and I believe in the long run to be successful in the overall management of the situation the DNR is going to have to level with representative groups like ours.
Wisconsin just had a positive deer on a new captive cervid facility, and they developed a much more measured response. And speaking of Wisconsin, despite all the gloom and doom predictions, it is all that they can do to keep the population down in spite of what this disease was or is supposed to do, and to date a high percentage of the positive deer in Wisconsin come from captive cervid facilities. Colorado actually shows slightly lower numbers of positive deer this year as does Utah, I am sorry but what Dr. Miller predicts just doesn’t happened in reality, even look at the new strategies in Colorado. It is time to open up and start a logical dialogue here, rather than basing your response on a computer model that has been shown to be flawed. Kansas has had 4 positive deer this year, all adult bucks, again showing the prevelance of this disease in male deer, obviously many other factors are going on here.
I am truly interested in doing what is best for the state, I just think that the anti-baiting agenda of other groups is really short sighted and ignoring the number one reason we have population issues in parts of the state. Studies show that in agricultural areas up to 80% of what deer consume is from farmers crops and as the study that was presented at your TB conference last summer the deer go right onto the farms at night, over the fences and into the stored feeds, believe me I have witnessed it a thousand times seeing the footprints all over the place. As crop production becomes more efficient the ability of deer to eat these high energy products cannot be stopped, and you need to do everything you can to preserve what hunting base that you have. Blaming population issues on baiting and artificial feeding if you practically look at the situation is not logical. I used to sell deer bait in our hardware store. 80% of it is purchased between November 13th and thru the first weekend of hunting season, so basically about 4 to 5 days, it just doesn’t come anywhere near what it is being made out to be.
For over 20 years I consulted on Dairy Farms across the eastern half of southern Michigan, I was known for and selected to participate in national panels for my work in disease prevention on these farms. Part of any sound management is balancing all of the risk factors rationally to obtain the correct course of action. If I thought for one minute that eliminating baiting would stop the spread of this disease I would in no way take the position that I have.
And what you are doing here is attempting to force a theory down the throats of innocent people to achieve some management objective, and please realize there is a growing segment of informed people that are going to see through the smoke and mirrors.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey F. Powers DVM
