Special antlerless deer hunting permits available in 2 Westmoreland townships near where CWD found

Special hunting permits for an area of Westmoreland County are on sale in an effort to help the Pennsylvania Game Commission slow the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer.

Hunters can use the Deer Management Assistance Program permit in Fairfield and St. Clair townships in the northeastern corner of the county, as well as West Wheatfield Township in Indiana County.

There are 347 permits available for the 27-square-mile area.

“For the 2020-21 hunting seasons, deer hunters have more opportunities in terms of days to hunt and antlerless licenses in (Wildlife Management Units) where CWD has been found in free-ranging deer,” said Bob Frye, commission spokesman.

The special permits allow hunters to harvest antlerless deer during the 2020-21 seasons in eight Enhanced Surveillance Units around the state. The commission wants hunters to submit deer heads to them for CWD testing in an increased effort to track where the disease is spreading and find a way to manage it.

A deer found in Westmoreland County last year tested positive for the fatal disease and the commission doesn’t want it to continue to spread through Southwestern Pennsylvania, Frye said.

The commission’s board recently approved a new plan to address CWD, a contagious disease that affects the brain, nervous system and lymphoid tissues of deer and elk. Disease management areas have been in place in Pennsylvania since 2012 when CWD was first found, including parts of Westmoreland, Indiana, Armstrong and Somerset.

The commission will place collection bins for deer heads in each unit in hopes of gathering at least 2,000 from the eight Enhanced Surveillance Units. Permits are available for the other units in Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Clearfield, Cambria, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Snyder, Juniata, Mifflin, Blair, Centre and Huntingdon counties.

Harold Daub, executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationists, compared the commission’s tracking of the disease to the coronavirus pandemic. Giving hunters an opportunity to help find out more about the invisible enemy affecting the deer population is critical, as is public support of the plan, he said.

The special permits can be purchased where hunting licenses are regularly sold.

Since 2012, 95,000 wild deer have been tested for the disease resulting in 473 positive cases. About 1,400 elk have been tested with no positives.