The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) working group will meet to make updates to the draft CWD Management Plan in Casper, Feb. 5-6. The meeting will be held in the Dahlia/Plumeria Room at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1150 N. Poplar St and begins at 1 p.m. The public is invited to attend the working group proceedings. A full meeting agenda is available online.
The working group will hear a brief presentation on the CWD Management Plan by Game and Fish and review each recommendation for changes based on public comment. Finally, the group will review each recommendation for consensus.
“Game and Fish received over 100 comments from the public,” said Janet Milek, Game and Fish public information specialist for the Casper Region. “Game and Fish will take these comments, review them, and decide whether to apply them to the CWD Management Plan.”
The draft plan will be presented to the Commission at the March Commission meeting in Cody.
Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik appointed 31 people from varied backgrounds, professions and interests from across Wyoming to the group. The group is charged with developing recommendations to revise Game and Fish’s CWD management plan. Working group members have been exploring scientific, social, economic and policy information related to CWD and deer and elk management and ways to minimize CWD in these populations.
CWD is widely distributed across Wyoming and is fatal to deer, elk and moose. The working group is a part of a larger Game and Fish public process to revise the current CWD management plan— a process that will also include a series of public meetings across Wyoming in addition to the working group meetings. The effort is being facilitated by the Ruckelshaus Institute, Haub School of Environmental and Natural Resources with the University of Wyoming.
The State of Wyoming supports the Americans with Disabilities Act. Anyone needing auxiliary aids should contact the Game and Fish at (307) 233-6404. Every effort will be made for reasonable accommodations.
