Residents in 10 Arkansas counties are reminded that feeding wildlife outside of the Sept. 1 to Dec. 31 baiting season is no longer allowed.
Counties affected include Boone, Carroll, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Newton, Pope, Searcy and Yell.
Hunters also are reminded a statewide ban on the use of scents and lures using natural deer urine began Jan. 1, 2017. The ban is not a seasonal regulation, but a permanent change.
Both regulations were passed in June 2016, in response to the discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Arkansas.
Cory Gray, research biologist, says there are exceptions to the restriction on feeding wildlife.
“People can still have bird feeders and feed wildlife by hand like the ducks at the park,” Gray said. “And any feeding of wildlife that’s the incidental result of a normal agricultural operation is allowed. Food plots are even OK. We’re just looking at feeders and baiting sites.”
Many regulations concerning CWD were put in place to prevent the spread of the disease across the state, but feeding restrictions target a different, equally important goal.
“We want to slow the spread of the disease over the landscape,” Gray said. “But we also want to slow its spread within the population where we know it is established.”
Feeding unnaturally concentrates deer into very small areas, where nose-to-nose contact is increased, and the infectious agent of the disease, prions, become concentrated. Repeated use of the same baiting sites also can create a hot zone where prions can exist indefinitely, infecting deer long after the initial carrier is gone.
AGFC biologists initially wanted to limit baiting and feeding on a statewide level, but supplemental feeding and baiting have become such a part of Arkansas deer hunting that many hunters felt a statewide restriction is unnecessary.
Baiting is allowed in all other counties of the state, as well as from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 in the CWD Management Zone.
The statewide ban on using scents that contain natural urine or other bio-fluids also went into effect with the new year. This ban is a permanent change.
Other states and Canadian provinces already have begun banning these scents using the same logic, and Gray believes many more will follow suit in the near future.
“Many scent manufacturers have already begun offering synthetic deer urine and lures as a substitute,” Gray said. “Synthetic deer lures are still legal to use, and I encourage hunters to use them if they wish to go that route.”
For more information on CWD in Arkansas, visit www.agfc.com/cwd.