Hi ARC members:

 

Do you remember the chill that ran through the agency 20 years ago? Most of us were there to hear then Secretary Darrell Bazzell declare: “No other event in the recent history of the Department of Natural Resources has generated the [level of] concern of Wisconsin sports people and biologists.” 

 

Three deer taken by hunters in the fall of 2001 near the Village of Mount Horeb tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD.) I remember the stunned look on a lot of faces and worries about Wisconsin's billion-dollar deer hunting heritage. 

 

But lawmakers and consultant Texas Deer Czar James Kroll later dismissed the spreading infection as a four-county problem limited to Dane, Iowa, Sauk and Richland counties. He prescribed “passive management.” Fast forward to today: CWD has been confirmed in 31 counties. Canadian scientists have discovered a potential path for the disease to be transmitted to humans.

 

What's the status today? And what's going on with the scary avian flu? 

 

Bryan Richards, Emerging Disease Coordinator for the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, has tentatively agreed to make a presentation at our March 1 meeting at the Esquire Club on Sherman Ave. in Madison. He's an expert. He's promised a frank, insider conversation.

 

Haven't signed up yet? 

 

Menu options sound great. Click here to sign up on our website.  (Signing up isn’t binding; it just gives us a count to set up the room and help the restaurant prepare.) 

 

Our website is wisarc.org And, if you find yourself free at the last minute, come anyway. This should be a very interesting and timely presentation.

 

See you there?

 

Laurel