WDFW Adds 24-hour Self-service Kiosk To CWD Monitoring Effort

Washington deer hunting managers are adding a 24-hour self-service kiosk to their chronic wasting disease monitoring efforts ahead of the start of the state’s major season this Saturday.

In addition to increasing the number of staffed game check stations that will be open across far Eastern Washington over the coming weekends, successful hunters can stop by WDFW’s Colville office (755 South Main Street) at any hour and drop off their deer or elk heads.

“There are tools available to remove the deer or elk head (leaving 3 to 4 inches of neck) and antlers,” says spokeswoman Staci Lehman. “To submit, hunters just remove their animal’s head, fill out a data sheet, put both the sheet and the head in a garbage bag, and deposit them into the garbage can at the site. Staff will collect heads and extract lymph nodes for testing.”

Testing those body parts is the only sure way to figure out if an animal is infected with CWD, an always-fatal deer family disease. It’s not currently known to occur in Washington, but it was discovered not far south of Lewiston last November and there’s an outbreak in Northwest Montana about 70 miles east of Newport.

That proximity has WDFW sharply increasing monitoring deer and elk in all game management units in Region 1 – the eastern tier of the state. Early detection will allow for a more rapid response and, hopefully, containment. A University of Wyoming study estimated CWD shrank the size of one deer herd by 19 percent annually and that in 41 years the population would go extinct. 

Lehman notes the kiosk is also open to roadkill salvagers.

She also states that there are concerns that Washingtonians hunting out of state, regardless of their CWD status, may not be aware of new restrictions on bringing game back into the Evergreen State.

“Only the following items may be imported to Washington:

• Meat that has been de-boned in the state or province where it was harvested and is imported as boned-out meat,
• Skulls and antlers with velvet removed, antlers attached to the skull plate, or upper canine teeth- including bugler, whistlers, and ivories- from which all soft tissue has been removed,
• Hides or capes without heads attached,
• Tissue imported for use by a diagnostic or research laboratory, and
• Finished taxidermy mounts.”

As for those staffed WDFW check stations, they will be set up on weekends during the general rifle deer season, October 15-16 and 22-22, in or near Colville, Deer Park, Colbert, Republic, Washtucna, Burbank, Walla Walla and Clarkston, and again during the Northeast Washington late whitetail rifle hunt, November 5-6, 12-13 and 18-19, at Colville, Deer Park and Colbert.

Appointments can also be made to have deer or elk tested at WDFW facilities and the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council’s office in Spokane.

Successful hunters can also remove the lymph nodes themself and mail them to WDFW, which also requests a tooth from the animal for aging. See this webpage for instructions.