On a recent Saturday during one of West Virginia’s antlerless deer firearm seasons, I drove 56 miles from my Virginia home to my Monroe County, West Virginia land, which I bought in 2008 so I would have a place to hunt in the Mountain State. Because of chronic wasting disease, Virginians can’t bring deer harvested in West Virginia or other states across the state line unless they’ve been quartered or unless the other portions of meat have no part of the spinal cord or head attached.
Obviously, in the CWD era that we live in, it takes considerable time and planning to undertake an out-of-state-trip. So my wife Elaine and I created a list for what I would need to put in our truck: large cooler, three bags of ice, skinning and field dressing knives, rubber gloves, plastic bags of different sizes for the quarters, top and bottom loins, and heart and tongue, plus loppers to sever the legs. Despite all the planning, I forgot to bring a plastic tarp to cover the truck bed, which is where I planned to do most of the skinning and quartering.
Although Elaine and I process many of the deer I kill and all the ones I tag in West Virginia, out of curiosity, I checked to see what the nearest Mountain State processor to our house was. What I learned was that I would have to endure almost a 150-mile round trip to pick up the venison… a nonstarter for us.
The next morning, I arose at 4 a.m. and after breakfast, the drive, the hike up the mountain, and the long wait for shooting light to arrive, I reveled in the coming of dawn and the awakening of songbirds. Not long afterwards, a mature doe meandered up the mountain. At 8 a.m., I touched off my .30/06, watched the doe stumble a few yards and fall, then gutted her and embarked on a 25-minute drag back to the truck.
Next, I skinned and quartered the doe on the truck bed, which took about 90 minutes. A 90-minute drive home then ensued, and after the meat had chilled for several hours during the trip home and afterwards, Elaine and I butchered and packaged the meat, finishing around 4 p.m. It was a long but very satisfying day. I enjoyed a successful out-of-state hunt on my own land, and just as importantly, I didn’t do anything that could potentially cause the spread of CWD.
Navigating New Rules
Simply stated, many hunters will be pursuing deer out of state and out of their home counties this year, and they need to know what the CWD regulations are relating to deer transport said Justin Folks, deer project leader for the Virginia Division of Wildlife Resources.
“The less we move the high-risk parts of a deer – the brain and spinal cord – the easier it will be for us all to manage the spread of the prions that cause CWD, and for wildlife biologists to manage the deer herd,” he said. “Even if CWD is currently not in your area, it certainly can show up if people don’t follow deer transport restrictions. I know it can be a pain to deal with this, but that’s the world we all live in now.”
Justin also offered this advice.
- Learn whether CWD is present in your home state and, if so, where the Disease Management Areas (DMAs) are and what their regulations are.
- Learn where the DMA’s local processors are and whether they accept deer from all the counties in a DMA.
- Learn how to butcher your own deer, just in case you can’t find a processor. There are many helpful YouTube videos on processing. Justin recommends learning and practicing the gutless method to harvest meat from a deer, particularly if you hunt within a DMA, to help reduce the risk of moving prions across the landscape.
The era of moving whole deer carcasses across state lines is largely over. Whole deer carcasses in Virginia and other states typically can’t be moved outside of DMAs, either.
Brett Skelly, deer project leader for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, adds some other pointers for hunters to keep in mind.
- If you hunt in a DMA where CWD has been found in deer, don’t bait or feed whitetails, which concentrates them at small sites and increases the likelihood of CWD transmission from deer to deer.
- Follow regulations about carcass transport and disposal.
- Be aware of regulations of individual states. For example, West Virginia allows whole carcasses to be transported into the state if those deer were harvested in the bordering states of Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, or Pennsylvania and if that deer was not harvested in a CWD disease management area.
Final Thoughts
Recently, a Virginia deer hunter, whose property lies within a DMA, told me he wasn’t going to hunt on his land this year. In DMAs, this is not the time for hunters to stop going afield. Deer hunting continues in DMAs, just with a few new rules to follow, and hunters should stay engaged in the fight against CWD.
Finally, deer hunters should always carefully study regulations in the states they plan to go afield in. In the CWD era that we live in, doing this has never been more important.