Montana FWP hopes dumpsters will help stop chronic wasting disease

By AMY QUINLIVAN

Mineral Independent

Once the thrill of the hunt is over, and you’ve recovered your deer or elk the next step is to process the animal. A good percentage of sportsmen and women bring their harvests to local butcher shops and have meat preparations done for them.

But many hunters still process their big game at home with their families around the kitchen table. Once the last packages of burger and backstraps are sealed tight and marked for the year all that remains are the scraps. A rib cage that takes up a lot of space in the garbage can, the bones, hooves, head, and hide all have to go somewhere.

This year Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has a new approach for that last step in the process of harvesting wild game. A simple solution that will hopefully yield a greater return for hunters all across Montana; slowing the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.

For the first time dumpsters have been put in place across Mineral County this hunting season to help reduce carcass dumping in the forests. Alex Mattson is a game warden for Region 2 in the Superior Ranger District and has been helping arrange this new disposal system.

“FWP is trying to minimize the spread of CWD in Montana. Dumpsters are being put out to encourage hunters to properly dispose of carcasses. Dumping carcasses is illegal, unethical and can spread diseases,” Mattson said.

He noted, “It is pretty common in most of Montana. In Mineral County, I often receive calls about dumped carcasses. It is considered littering.”

Carcass waste including the head/brain, spinal column, bones, hide, and any soft tissue waste should be bagged and disposed of in a landfill, at these new specified dumpsters or they may be left at the kill site.

“The CDC scientists believe CWD proteins (prions) likely spread between animals through body fluids like feces, saliva, blood, or urine, either through direct contact or indirectly through environmental contamination of soil, food or water. Dumping CWD infected carcasses can spread CWD,” said Mattson. This is the exact reason FWP is taking extra precautions by creating these disposal sites and encouraging hunters to utilize them.

St. Regis resident Abbigail Day plans to do so. Her family of hunters would usually have to put carcass remains in their trash can each fall. Not only would this take up a lot of space but it also attracted birds and other critters. This hunting season Day said of the dumpsters, “Absolutely we would use them! I think it’s a fantastic idea to have them.”

Mattson recommended, “If a hunter is hunting in a CWD positive part of the state, they are advised to have the animal tested for CWD and not to consume the meat if it tests positive. If a hunter is concerned about their harvest potentially having CWD, they can collect and submit the sample themselves or visit a CWD sampling location.”

A deer or elk with chronic wasting disease will display symptoms such as poor body condition, excessive salivation and drooling, drooping head and ears and disoriented behavior. Mattson remarked, “However, you cannot determine an animal's infection status by their appearance. Infected animals show no obvious symptoms for the first 15-17 months of their infection.”

Thankfully for hunters in Mineral County positive cases of CWD have yet to appear in the area. Mattson said, “There are positive samples around the Libby area in Lincoln County in Hunter Districts 100, 103, and 104. There have not been any positive samples as of August 27, 2020 in Region 2.”

For now, local hunters can focus on harvesting their big game animals while benefitting from this new disposal setup throughout the county. There are currently five trash cans in five separate locations.

In Haugan at the weigh station containers are situated at the west end of the parking lot. St Regis has dumpsters that are on Old US Highway 10 across from Mill Creek Road, they are on Denley Loge's property next to I-90.

For Superior, carcasses can be brought down to Diamond Match Road on the east end of the Mineral County Road Department gravel yard. Towards Alberton cans have been placed at the Petty Creek Fishing Access Site on the north side of the entrance. Some residents who recently discovered the trash containers were confused about their purpose. There is no signage yet but FWP is working on placing some at each location describing their intended usage.

Mattson mentioned that the plan is to have the dumpsters out until sometime in mid-December for hunters to finish up their processing and harvesting. He added, “Please use the dumpsters or the Republic Services Transfer Station to dispose of carcasses in Mineral County. Please contact 1800TIPMONT for any violations that are observed.”