LANSING -- Three key Michigan lawmakers are urging the state Department of Natural Resources to lift its ban on baiting and feeding of deer imposed for this fall's hunting season in the wake of Michigan's first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease.
State Sen. James Barcia, D-Bay City, chairman of the Senate Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Recreation Committee, said it doesn't make sense to ban baiting in the entire Lower Peninsula due to the finding of CWD in one deer at one enclosed facility.
"We must remain vigilant without overreacting in a manner that will do more harm than good," Barcia said.
DNR Director Rebecca Humphries imposed Michigan's baiting ban after the Aug. 25 confirmation of the fatal brain and nervous system disease in a doe at a Kent County deer breeding facility.
The DNR and state agriculture department also have quarantined more than 550 private facilities where deer are raised and kept for hunting, breeding and hobby purposes.
State Rep. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, said if a ban on baiting were announced in the winter or spring, there would be an opportunity to plant different crops.
But bait crops are mature, contracts have been signed, and much of it is already on the retail market, Mayes said.
"To impose a baiting ban in September for the entire Lower Peninsula for 2008 would result in millions of dollars of economic costs to farmers and retailers, resulting in a wide-ranging loss of employment and the ruin of some small markets, stores and farms," he said.
An epidemiological study by state veterinarians has not turned up CWD in any other captive or free-ranging Michigan deer. State officials do not know how the deer at the Kent County facility became infected with CWD.
Barcia, Mayes and state Rep. Joel Sheltrown, D-West Branch, who chairs the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee, authored resolutions that call on Humphries to lift the ban in the lower peninsula, except for the Kent County CWD surveillance zone.
The resolution also seeks public hearings by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission.
DNR spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said concentrating deer activity at bait sites increases the likelihood that diseases will be passed from deer to deer.
"The DNR doubts that most people would say 'yes' to the question: Are you willing to risk causing Michigan's deer herd to be sick from chronic disease from this day forward just so that you can use bait? We firmly believe hunters want to pass a healthy deer herd on to the next generation. That is why it is important to stop baiting," Dettloff said.
First identified in Colorado 40 years ago, the disease has spread eastward to 11 states and two Canadian provinces. None has been able to eradicate it.
In Wisconsin, where it showed up first in wild deer killed in 2001, the effort has included baiting bans in 26 of 72 counties and hiring sharpshooters to thin the deer herd.
You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com.