CWD in Hardisty Area

[501s]

For the past 5 years myself and a few friends have had a tradition of doing an archery hunt in the Hardisty area for Muleys. It started as a father/son trip with our younger sons who were around age 9-10. It has been an awesome tradition and something the boys have always looked forward too. Once they turn 12 and get all of their certifications they get to join the hunt which is even better. It's probably my favorite hunting trip of the year! Such great memories.

But this year things went down hill. It turned out to be our most successful season and 3 of us shot bucks with our bows. Not huge bucks, but any buck with a bow is an accomplishment. Spirits were at an all time high. Of the three deer, mine was obviously sick with CWD and skinny as can be. Kinda gross actually when we got up to the deer. The other 2 bucks seemed fine. 1 out of 3 isn't bad.

This is where things really went downhill. Hardisty area which has a LOT of CWD is NO longer a mandatory testing zone. This seemed very strange to me. We all decided we were sending them in no matter what. Upon sending the samples in, all 3 deer tested positive. 100% of our animals had CWD.

So now we are stepping back and re-evaluating. What's the point of all the time and energy if you can't eat the animal? Its been our favorite father/son trip and the idea of stopping the tradition sucks when its something you look forward to and enjoy so much.

I just thought I'd share the story and get some other hunters opinions on the subject.

[270WIN]

Pretty sad alright. We can thank the game farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta along with the politicians in both provinces who ignored expert advice and allowed the industry to get started and continue to exist.
Alberta had a chance to keep the disease out but blew it when our government caved in to the whiners and stopped the culls.

[goldscud]

X 100000 270win

[kw12]

We’ve been hunting that area for the last couple years as well and have taken some nice healthy looking deer out of there and all of them have come
Back positive. Really puts a damper on your hunt after you spend that many hours and money going out there to hunt to come out with nothing but a mount on the wall. Mounts are great but my family rely’s on the meat to keep us going over the winter until next season and having to toss those deer is making us think why go next year… I guess we will have to re-evaluate before season and see what we think. Very well could have been the last hunt out there for us.

[dave99]

501, sorry to hear about your CWD results. It sure puts a damper on the experience when you’re looking at a positivity rate that is so high.

I hunt near that area every fall, and love bringing my kids out with me. Out of three deer in the past two seasons, two have been CWD positive. Like all of us who submit deer later in the season, it takes MONTHS to receive the result.

Like you, I also noticed that some zones that have very high CWD prevalence have gone to voluntary submission from mandatory a couple years ago. I don’t know exactly why this is happening, but can only guess that it is a capacity issue: with so many animals getting tested and an overloaded lab, I feel like they have prioritized tracking the spread of CWD into new zones to the west rather than continuing to closely monitor all affected zones. Again, this is just my theory.

I love hunting the eastern parkland-prairie interface, but am also questioning what the point of it is…

[slough shark]

We hunt south of there a bit and yeah in the last 4 years we have had most of our mule bucks come back positive. On top of that this year I do t know if I saw any bucks older than 3 1/2 and I have a lot of permission, have hunted the area for years, I put on the miles and the time, I simply didn’t see them. That is a first for me and I can’t help but think cwd was clearing out the mature bucks.

[Speckle55]

Agree

David

Originally Posted by 270WIN

Pretty sad alright. We can thank the game farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta along with the politicians in both provinces who ignored expert advice and allowed the industry to get started and continue to exist.
Alberta had a chance to keep the disease out but blew it when our government caved in to the whiners and stopped the culls.

[Frank_NK28]

Still don't have our results back yet? Last year we had them back in three weeks and both our deer were negative. I'm in a mandatory test zone(236).

[walleye guy]

hopefully we will be made aware if any moose and elk from that area test positive!

[Lefty-Canuck]

It’s endemic there… so they are researching the spread not the instance. I would still test every animal from the areas that are no longer mandatory but once were.

LC

[270WIN]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

It’s endemic there… so they are researching the spread not the instance. I would still test every animal from the areas that are no longer mandatory but once were.

LC

Yep

[trigger7mm]

I live right here in the area, and for many years have not seen a drop off spot for heads. There used to be one in Killam, that showed up near the end of the season, but I haven’t seen one for quite a few years.

[slough shark]

Originally Posted by trigger7mm

I live right here in the area, and for many years have not seen a drop off spot for heads. There used to be one in Killam, that showed up near the end of the season, but I haven’t seen one for quite a few years.

I didn’t go there the last year or 2 but there’s been one in coronation historically

[tikka250]

Originally Posted by trigger7mm

I live right here in the area, and for many years have not seen a drop off spot for heads. There used to be one in Killam, that showed up near the end of the season, but I haven’t seen one for quite a few years.

Not exactly convenient but there's one in czar as well.

[trigger7mm]

Is it at the Czar service station by any chance? Is it usually there at the beginning of the season?

[Bushmaster]

Here's the list of locations....

https://www.alberta.ca/assets/docume...ation-list.pdf

[trigger7mm]

Thanks Bushmaster.