Outdoors Blog

Category: Chronic wasting disease

We knew this was coming, right?

Perhaps the most emotional discussion coming out of the chronic wasting disease discussion is the ban on deer baiting and how it will affect the people who grow and sell ag products for deer bait.

It's a pretty sad tale. There are people across Michigan who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into this year's bait sales, and an outright ban on baiting will ruin some of them.

It's not a good time to make decisions that can wreak that kind of financial havoc. Michigan is already in enough trouble without adding more bankruptcies.

But given what we know about how devastating chronic wasting disease is, it's difficult to understand how any good business plan could include that feast-or-famine strategy.

Michigan drew up its CWD action plan in 2002. For six years, a public document -- available to anyone -- has stated plainly that when CWD reached Michigan, baiting would be severely restricted.

You'll notice I said "when" and not "if." The scientists and wildlife managers never wavered on that point. They beat the drum early and often. CWD is coming. It's coming. It's coming.

Despite knowing all that, there were still people out there with all their eggs in the deer-bait basket and no contingency plan.

Now CWD is here, and the lines are drawn. The state's decision-makers have to decide whether to protect the deer herd or to protect the people who chose not to hear the drumbeat.

Maybe there's a compromise. Maybe there isn't.

But if the Natural Resources Commission sides with the deer herd, it won't be hard to understand why.