A new type of Deer Management Assistance Program permit is being sold by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for the eight new Enhanced Surveillance Units.
Each of the new permits allows a hunter to kill an antlerless deer inside an ESU, which are small areas within Chronic Wasting Disease Management Area where a CWD positive wild or captive deer was found.
ESUs were created under the commission’s new Chronic Wasting Disease Response Plan approved by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners on July 25.
The commission’s goal with the new deer license is for hunters to use the tags to harvest deer in the ESUs and then submit the heads from those animals for CWD testing.
According to the commission, CWD testing occurs statewide annually, but is especially critical in Enhanced Surveillance Units.
CWD detections in the ESUs are at the leading edge of disease expansion or at least 5 miles from any other past CWD detection.
Through the process the commission hopes to determine whether those CWD positive deer were outliers, meaning the only sick one in their respective areas, or a clue to a bigger problem.
The commission’s goal is to limit CWD to no more than one percent of the adult deer in these units. By harvesting deer and submitting heads from those deer for testing, hunters can help determine where CWD exists and to what degree.
The commission noted that such hunter cooperation is a cornerstone of the new CWD Response Plan.
“The Game Commission has a CWD Response Plan,” said Christopher Rosenberry, chief of the agency’s game management division. “But hunters are the real key to making it work. The samples they provide from deer they harvest, especially in Enhanced Surveillance Units, help us to identify where CWD exists on the landscape, at what prevalence, and what management actions we need to take to control it.”
The commission will place deer-head collection bins in each unit. It will test all deer heads gathered with a valid harvest tag – at no cost to the hunter – and report back to those hunters with news of whether their deer tested positive for CWD or not.
Locations of the deer-head collection bins can be found on the Pennsylvania Game Commission website.
The Commission hopes to collect at least 250 to 300 deer heads from each unit.
The eight DMAP areas associated with Enhanced Surveillance Units are:
- DMAP Unit 3468 in Bern, Brecknock, Cumru, Heidelberg, Jefferson, Lower Heidelberg, Marion, North Heidelberg, Penn, South Heidelberg and Spring townships in Berks County; Brecknock, Clay, Earl, East Cocalico, East Earl, Elizabeth, Ephrata, Upper Leacock, Warwick, West Cocalico and West Earl townships in Lancaster County; and Heidelberg, Jackson, Millcreek, North Lebanon and South Lebanon townships in Lebanon County. It encompasses 346 square miles and has 4,430 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 3934 in Bloom, Boggs, Bradford, Brady, Decatur, Ferguson, Knox, Lawrence, Penn, Pike, Pine, Union and Woodward townships in Clearfield County. It encompasses 172 square miles and has 2,201 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4311 in Barr, Blacklick, Cambria, East Carroll and West Carroll townships in Cambria County. It encompasses 35 square miles and has 437 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4312 in Canoe and North Mahoning townships in Indiana County; and Bell, Perry, and Young townships in Jefferson County. It encompasses 36 square miles and has 463 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4313 in Fairfield and St. Clair townships in Westmoreland County; and West Wheatfield Township in Indiana County. It encompasses 27 square miles and has 347 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4314 in Greene, Guilford, Quincy and Washington townships in Franklin County; and Franklin and Hamiltonban townships in Adams County. It encompasses 99 square miles and has 1,270 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4315 in Adams, Beaver, Center Franklin, Perry, Spring, Washington, West Beaver and West Perry townships in Snyder County; Fayette, Fermanagh and Monroe townships in Juniata County; and Decatur Township in Mifflin County. It encompasses 158 square miles and has 2,025 permits available.
- DMAP Unit 4316 in Antis, Tyrone and Snyder townships in Blair County; Reade Township in Cambria County; Rush and Taylor townships in Centre County; Gulich Township in Clearfield County; and Franklin, Spruce Creek and Warriors Mark townships in Huntingdon County. It encompasses 138 square miles and has 1,761 permits available.
DMAP tags for the ESUs can be purchased at any license issuing agent. Hunters just need to identify the unit they want to hunt by number.
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Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
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