New CWD Rules, Including Statewide Bait Ban, Most WA 2025 Hunting Rule Proposals Approved

WDFW reports that Director Kelly Susewind has approved new chronic wasting disease rules, as well as most of the 2025 season’s hunting regulations that agency staff had come to him with.

The CWD rules will take effect in late April and the slate includes statewide bans on baiting while hunting and backyard and other feeding of deer, elk and moose, bars the use of hunting scents made with the pee or glands of said cervids, and will require that all bucks, bulls, cows and does harvested or collected as roadkill anywhere in the entirety of Region 1, far Eastern Washington and its 100-series GMUS, be tested for the always-fatal disease.

A WDFW press release says the idea is to limit the spread of CWD, which was found last year in five Spokane-area whitetails, including four taken by hunters who had them tested.

“Even though CWD has only currently been detected in Eastern Washington, the statewide bans prevent undetected disease outbreaks from spreading between populations. WDFW is also evaluating its own wildlife feeding practices in areas where elk are fed to reduce human-wildlife conflict in agricultural areas,” the release stated.

There are other elements to the new CWD rules – see this WDFW webpage – but as for those 2025 hunting regulations set by Susewind, they include updates to seasons and permit levels for various antlered and horned critters, as well as clarifying language around other items.

The director did not bite on a proposal to create new multiseason tags for members of federally recognized tribes that have signed agreements with WDFW, reaching that decision “based on comments and additional information received during the public comment period and tribal engagement,” per another agency press release out today.

Where the Fish and Wildlife Commission delegated those hunting matters to Susewind, they reserved final decisions on bear and cougar seasons for themselves. Those are slated for a vote at the citizen panel’s April 3-5 meeting in Olympia. WDFW staff outlined their recommendations at last week’s commission meeting.