Changes on tap for deer hunters in parts of the Red River Valley as firearms hunting seasons approach
Nov. 1—GRAND FORKS — Deer hunters in parts of the Red River Valley face a few changes on both sides of the river this fall as wildlife managers in North Dakota and Minnesota ramp up efforts to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease.
North Dakota's deer gun season opens at noon Friday, Nov. 4, and Minnesota deer season opens a half-hour before sunrise Saturday, Nov. 5.
The changes result from a whitetail buck that tested positive for CWD in November 2021 near Climax, Minnesota, after being shot and voluntarily tested during Minnesota's youth deer season. CWD had never been found in the area, and no plans were in place to test for the disease fatal to deer, elk and moose.
In that context, the single positive deer was a bit of a head-scratcher.
The Climax area "really doesn't have any positive cases anywhere close, either in captive cervids or out in the wild landscape," Jeremy Woinarowicz, conservation officer for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in the Thief River Falls West station, said in a recent interview. "The plus is that every single deer we tested last year has been negative."
Still, the single positive case set in motion specific regulations in both states designed to mitigate the spread of CWD.
In North Dakota, the Game and Fish Department now has banned baiting for deer in Unit 2B, a hunting area along the Red River that extends from Grand Forks roughly to Fargo. Unit 2B is now designated as a CWD surveillance unit. In addition, department staff will test deer for CWD in 2B, along with units 1, 3A1, 3A2, 3A3, 3A4, 3B1, 3B2, 3C, 3D1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 4F in the western part of the state.
In the Red River Valley, Game and Fish will have collection sites at Tractor Supply, 4460 32nd Ave. S., Grand Forks; Cenex, 105 Sixth St. SW, Hillsboro; and North Dakota State University Veterinary and Diagnostic Lab, 4035 19th Ave. N., Fargo.
Disposal sites will be available at the Grand Forks Municipal Solid Waste Landfill, 5500 54th Ave. N., Grand Forks; and Fargo Landfill, 4501 Seventh Ave. N., Fargo.
Game and Fish encourages hunters to drop off heads of adult or yearling deer at the collection sites. Hunters wishing to keep the heads can bring them to a Game and Fish district office during business hours for sampling.
Besides the collection sites,
self-sampling kits are available
for hunters who wish to have their deer tested but are unable to drop the head at a collection site. The do-it-yourself kit allows hunters to remove the lymph nodes and ship them to the department's wildlife health lab for testing. Results can be expected within four weeks and will be sent to the hunter's Game and Fish
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inbox.
Carcasses or heads of deer taken from units 3A1, 3A2, 3B1, 3C, 3D1, 3E2, 3F2, 4B and 4C may not be transported to a collection site outside of the unit. Exceptions: lymph nodes extracted from the head for the purpose of CWD testing contained in a sealed, plastic bag; and hunters can transport whole deer carcasses between adjoining CWD carcass-restricted units.
On the Minnesota side of the river, the DNR has established a new deer permit area, DPA 661, along the Red River roughly from Oslo, Minn., south to Beltrami, Minnesota, which is designated as a CWD management zone, the DNR's most restrictive designation. CWD testing is mandatory for deer taken in 661 on Nov. 5-6, the opening weekend of firearms deer season, and voluntary testing is encouraged for the remainder of the season. Whole carcasses of deer shot in 661 must stay within that permit area until they receive a "not detected" CWD test result.
Quartered deer containing the main leg bone or deboned meat can leave the zone immediately. Similar restrictions are in place for other CWD management zones in Minnesota.
DPA 661 replaces what formerly was deer permit area 261.
In addition, deer permit areas 256, 257, 262 and 265 are now designated as CWD surveillance zones — a precautionary measure — and deer feeding and attractant bans are in place for Clearwater, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk and Red Lake counties. Meanwhile, deer feeding is prohibited in Beltrami, Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties but attractants such as salt blocks are still allowed. Baiting for deer is illegal everywhere in Minnesota.
The new regulations in 661 and adjacent CWD surveillance zones will remain in effect for at least the next three years.
"What we're looking for is a three-year plan to have zero positive deer on the wild landscape," Woinarowicz said. "Then we can remove that designation as a disease management area and be done with the testing here."
Sampling stations will be staffed during the opening weekend in Climax, Crookston, East Grand Forks and Oslo. Self-service sampling stations will be set up 5 miles west and 1 mile north of Mentor, Minnesota, the Mentor Roving Crew DNR office and in Ada, Beltrami, Brooks, Erskine, Felton, Fertile, Fosston, Hendrum, Moorhead, Red Lake Falls, Thief River Falls, Twin Valley, Ulen and Warren.
In addition, dumpsters or tripod disposal units will be available at the Climax, Crookston and East Grand Forks Cabela's sites through Jan. 6 for hunters who need to quarter their deer to comply with carcass movement restrictions. Several taxidermists and processors throughout the state also are partnering with the DNR to collect samples for testing.
A list of partners is available
on the DNR website at dnr.state.mn.us/cwd/cwd-partners.html.
Mail-in CWD testing kits
also are available while supplies last.
An interactive map showing the
location of sampling stations and disposal sites
across Minnesota is available on the DNR website. Start by typing "CWD" in the search window. From there, click "Chronic wasting disease management," then click the blue "Find the requirements for your DPA" box and click "View" under the "Map" column of the appropriate DPA.
