Ep. 22: Inside the CWD Conversation: What I Learned from MDC

On this episode of Keota Outdoors, Luke sits down in the mancave to talk about what's keeping him busy this summer as deer season inches closer. Trail cameras are hitting the woods, mature bucks are starting to reveal themselves, and it's time to begin building this year's hit list. Luke shares his current trail camera strategy, what he's looking for this time of year, and how he's preparing for the upcoming whitetail season.

The second half of the episode dives into one of the most controversial topics in Missouri hunting today—Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Luke recently had the opportunity to participate in a CWD discussion hosted by the Missouri Department of Conservation alongside approximately 30 hunters, landowners, business owners, outdoor enthusiasts, and other stakeholders from across the state. The meeting provided an open forum to discuss CWD, MDC's management efforts, and the concerns and opinions of those directly impacted.

Luke recaps what was discussed during the meeting, shares how the conversation changed his perspective on MDC's approach to managing CWD, and breaks down the new Missouri CWD regulations that will take effect beginning in 2026. Whether you agree with the changes or not, this episode aims to provide insight into the reasoning behind them and encourage an informed conversation about the future of deer hunting in Missouri. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody. Welcome back to Kyoto Outdoors. Today we are going to talk about some stuff I'm doing in the outdoors right now, this time of year. We're just following up on 4th of July here. So hope everybody had a safe 4th of July and still has all 10 of their fingers. And I'm also going to talk about CWD here in Missouri. And just a forewarning, I'm no CWD expert. Don't know a lot about it, but there is a lot of information out there about it. And I was fortunate enough to sit in on a meeting that the Department of Conservation hosted that included like landowners, just people that care, really. It's people that care and that would willingly voice their opinion and ask good questions. I was fortunate enough to be invited to that. And I had a lot of great takeaways from that. And I walked away with a different outlook on CWD as a whole and how our department is managing CWD and how they're trying to protect our herd. That information was great. And I wish that everybody that cares about CWD or that voices an opinion about it could have heard it. It just changed my mind on things a little bit. So we're going to get into that. First of all, I want to talk about uh just what I've been doing right now, and that's anticipation. It's checking trail cameras. Um I've got six or eight SD card style trail cameras out right now, and just in some historically good summer spots that I'll catch pictures of some good bucks. And had some good card pulls so far. Some highly anticipated ones where I'm kind of expecting a deer that I know to show up. I've got a couple of those. Um, one of those deer, I'm about 50-50 right now. I'm not sure if it's him or not. Uh, there's a nice deer that's got big brow tines, and he's kind of behind schedule as far as the other deer go. Many deer are already out to like eight or ten pointers, and you can see all their tines are already starting to develop. And this one, like the last pictures I've got of him, his G2s have started, and his main beams are just past his G2s, and he has these real big brow tines. I'm hoping that's this real big eight that I had last year, that I think was four last year. And so he'd be five-year-old this year, and certainly one that I'm gonna target if that's him, if he shows up. Um another deer that I wasn't expecting or wasn't really on my radar that now is. Uh he's a four-year-old deer. He's a looks to be just a nice wide, heavy-horned eight. He's got a kicker off a base, he's got a split brow time, and he's got a kicker off a G2. So, like, he's got some trash on there. Great looking deer so far. Like, I'm it looks like he's still got quite a bit of growing to do as far as lengthwise. Uh, I'm real excited to see what he turns into. My only concern is I don't think I had a lot of pictures of him last year during the rut, even maybe not any. Uh I had some in the summer and he just I didn't pay attention to him last year. He was just a nice three-year-old eight, and really just not sure. I've gone back through my pictures and I'm not seeing many of them other than some velvet pictures. So while he probably will make that shooter list or target list, seems like he may be tough to track down, but we'll see. Got one other deer that I don't yet recognize. Uh some got a few pictures of him, nothing real clear, real perfect, but it looks like a big frame deer. Had some junk on his bases. Interested in him, hoping to get some more pictures of him to try to figure out who he is or how old he is or what he's gonna be, you know. And then there's another deer that has not shown up that is probably gonna be my number one target if he does show up. He was a real big three-year-old last year, had a bunch of trash, made a big jump from two to three, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he turns into as a four-year-old. It's on a small parcel, uh, so you know, people can bash you about hunting a four-year-old, but around here, every neighbor we've got is gonna shoot that deer if they get an opportunity to. So he's on my hit list as well. Um if if he shows up, like I said, I think he'll be north of 150 if he does, and if he makes a jump that I expect him to, but uh last year he did not show up until July 6th. Um as this comes out, it will be July 8th. So um, like I said, it's just an SD style camera though, so I'm gonna let it soak a couple weeks, and I'm gonna really hope he's on there. And if he is, I'll probably throw a couple cell cameras in that piece of ground just to try to learn a little more about him, try to keep better tabs on him. If he's there, a lot of ifs in deer hunting, especially running trail cameras and trying to track these deer year to year. Like I love it. I love to look back and say, yep, that's that deer from last year. Um, but it's hard to do, and you can put a lot of weight into something that's not even there. Um, this deer in particular, we did have pictures of him sometime in December, if I remember right. So I'm pretty confident he I know he made it through the rifle season. I would assume he made it through the alternative season as well here in Missouri. So hopefully he'll be back and better than ever. But yeah, I'm gonna keep looking, keep looking for his bucks. I got some few more trail cameras to get put out, and honestly, I really don't put a lot of weight into my velvet pictures. Like we all know that deer shift, um, just because they're showing up in velvet doesn't mean they're gonna be there all fall. Um, kind of just like that big eight I was talking about. Like he he moves out as far as I know from last year anyway. There is one other deer that I've got to get some more pictures of him, but this is a he's a six-year-old deer. I know for a fact I've got five years worth of pictures of him. Like as a year and a half old, I'm certain this was him as well. Tracked him year after year. He's never been anything but a little eight-pointer, like 120-inch eight-pointer as a five-year-old last year. And I think he's gone like downhill bad. Like, I think he's gonna be a seven this year, from what I can tell, if it's him. And the reason I think it is him, the right side looks just like him. Um, but overall, his body, something's weird about it. If you could just show deer picture to someone, they'd be like, Yeah, something's wrong with that deer. His like hindquarters have always been real thin, and something's just funky about the shape of his body and his back, and so I can kind of recognize him from just looking at his body, not really his antlers. Um, I'm looking forward to see what he turns into. I'm not gonna target him if it becomes late season and I I still got a tag to fill. I might, you know, a six and a half-year-old deer is certainly a certainly a big achievement, something that a lot of people have not killed, but as of right now, I've got better things to chase. So moving on to the topic of CWD. CWD came about in Missouri back in like 2012, I believe. Uh it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but I guess it has. Um I think back then the narrative was, oh no, it's gonna kill all of our deer, you know, and we haven't seen that, obviously. Um, so that's a good sign. Uh while there are still cases around, there are still positive tests that show up every year, it seems that we're keeping it at bay. Um there's a lot of discussion, you know. You see it on Facebook or on social media, people blasting MDC for how they're doing things, or for what their plans are, or how they don't care, or how they just want the money that comes from CWD and from the government, and you hear a lot of stuff and you don't even know what to believe, honestly. Like, that's where I see it. Like, I don't put much weight into it, but some people do. What happens is like these false narratives get spread, and people just keep amplifying that. Um, you know, like the recent thing you hear around here is oh, they're just feeding corn, NBC's feeding corn and killing all the deer. And like you can see how that can get changed from what's actually happened to this story when someone's mad and they just blow it a little bit out of proportion on Facebook, in some Facebook group, whatever it may be. So um I was fortunate enough recently, back in May, to be invited to basically a CWD discussion. Uh Jason Summers from MDC was there, along with a few other guys from MDC that are highly involved in the CWD management side of things, as well as just deer management, herd management. And there was about 30 people that attended. Um, they ranged from landowners. Uh, there's probably some outfitters there as well, maybe some few younger folks like myself who are involved in the outdoors and just love to hunt and truly care about the deer herd moving forward. Uh, there was also some old guys who've been hunting for years and years, were hunting back when there wasn't hardly any deer. So they've seen it all, you know. There was an out-of-state guy, I think, that owned land here that was like from Iowa, but he was a landowner here. There was also some ag business folks that don't deer hunt, but they own a lot of ground that's located in some of these CWD areas. So there's really a wide variety of individuals here. It wasn't a one-sided discussion. It wasn't Hunter versus MDC. It was an opportunity for concerned and caring people of northern Missouri to ask the Missouri Department of Conservation questions to say, hey, what do you think we should do given our opinion? Um, like the MDC just wants to let the people be heard, like they care what we think. And it was very obvious at this meeting. I just want to go over a few um they shared. And like I've already said, like the whole discussion was great. Uh I wish that we could have recorded it or something, and of course they wouldn't let that happen, but uh I wish that everybody could hear um everything they had to say. So one of the questions that somebody asked and that I was gonna ask if but somebody beat me to it, was what about blue tongue? And like obviously this is a conversation about CWD, but when we're talking about uh disease in the deer herd or concerns about population decline in the whitetail herd here in Missouri, HD is what they call it, hemorrhagic disease or blue tongue is certainly something that has to come up with that topic, right? Like you can't ignore it. So from my personal experience, back in 2012, and I think everybody across northern Missouri can relate to this, uh, we had a real bad EHD or blue tongue outbreak. And on our property alone, we went from seeing 20, 30 deer sit during rifle season to here we are in 2026, and we still don't see that. Our numbers are still down compared to what they were in 2012. And I was young in 2012, so I'm not saying that I I mean I do remember the deer numbers being better, but my dad used to take notes in his deer stand, he's got a notebook in there, and he'd keep track, like sitting there through all day hunt, he'd write down what he sees, you know, and it just doesn't compare to what we're seeing nowadays. EHD is certainly impactful to the population. So somebody asked, well, why aren't we concerned about EHD? And so I've got a graphic here, I'll throw up so you can see it. But EHD can cause short-term declines, but the herd recovers quickly. CWD can cause long-term declines with fewer mature bucks and does in the herd. So what they're saying is, and they show a graph here, uh, like on the left for the EHD, EHD is like it's short-term, it happens fast. Like a deer gets EHD, and I don't know the numbers, but I'm saying within a few weeks they're dead. Um so there's really no way to prevent that, to help that in any way. Um and what they're saying is the herd will bounce back pretty quickly from that. It's not something that carries over year to year. So, like, yes, there's an outbreak, but next year's a new year, and it's not like it's gonna continue to get worse. You just gotta be hopeful that the next year's not a drought, right? Like, that's what we associate EHD with. It's a drought year, like late summer when things get dry. Compared to CWD, CWD gets into a population and stays. Nobody has figured out how to get rid of it. The population doesn't reset, it lingers and just continues to spread and continues to spread into offspring, into other deer. So while at surface level they may look similar and blue tongue may even look like a bigger risk, what MDC is saying, and I believe they are right, in the long term, chronic wasting disease is a much bigger concern. That was a that was good to hear. It was good to hear them explain that, and I hope that you guys, if I I hope I gave a good enough explanation for that as well. But just the fact that they can bounce back from that short-term decline really makes the difference. Moving on from that, first off, I want to talk about our efforts and what they have been doing. Like I said, you hear people talk, well, they're just baiting corn and killing all the deer. Well, it's not exactly like that. Um, what they do is a positive test comes up, okay? They take that location of where that deer was killed and they create a radius. And I'm not sure, I don't know if it's two miles or five miles, I'm not sure what it was. But they call that a hot spot. Like, hey, we have a for sure positive right here on this pin. That means there's probably more deer in this area infected. So, for example, I'm in Macon County. We've had a couple in Macon County. That doesn't mean they just go kill as many deer as they can in Macon County. That's not that's not what they're doing. They go to that landowner and whoever in that small radius, two miles, I think. I think it was two miles. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that, but in this small radius and they do cull some deer. Um, yes, they feed corn. The first option is they give the landowner options to have more tags, and they say, landowner, would you, if you want to participate in this, would you like to fill these tags yourself? I know some folks that do. I know some other folks that have, know some folks that, you know, kind of got their neighbors together, like, hey, if we can take out more deer, um, we can avoid this feeding corn and cooling process, you know. MDC, uh, unlike the narrative that everybody says, they do get to ask the landowners, like, well, do you have a preference? Like, would you rather us shoot does? Would you rather us shoot bucks? Of course, nobody's gonna say they'd rather that, but MDC will do their best to only target does or only target younger bucks, whatever it may be. Um they are, they do care what the landowner says. Like the landowner is very involved in that. Uh some people expressed their concern that, well, the wrong landowner could have a very bad impact. And the example was there's this one guy that leaves his crops in till spring, and there's hundreds of deer on his farm and they're coming from miles around and feeding on this one guy's farm. Well, what if he wants the conservation to come in and kill so many deer? Like, you're not only affecting this farm, you're affecting all the farms around it. And so that was a discussion for quite a while. And they kind of just reinstated that while the landowner does have some say in it, like the conservation department also has some say in it. And that's not their goal, and they would certainly be careful in situations like that. Uh moving forward, I think they talked about like based on what we had said and what the people there wanted was that that we'd like to see an opportunity for landowners to take more of the deer. Like, if you want to kill 10 deer, like give us 10 tags, give us a window to get it done. Rather than culling them, that way, you know, the landowner can be particular about which deer get killed. Um, something that was interesting though, and this really changed my mind on it. Like, I was I will say that I'm guilty of saying this is like uh burn the town before the wildfire gets it to me. Like that's kind of the analogy I've always used. And I've I know that that's not accurate, but you know, before CWD kills the deer, let's just go kill them all. Well, it's not like that, but here's why they've been doing it, and here's a graph, I'll throw it up right now. Here's why it's working. So, targeted removal keeps a lid on the CWD infection rates. So we're talking of 13 years here of CWD, so since 2012 to 2025, the orange line is from Wisconsin. So Wisconsin also had CWD outbreak about the same time we have. For the first six years, along with Missouri, where Missouri's green, both Wisconsin and Missouri participated in targeted removal in these methods that we're talking about, either having going to these hot spots and taking more deer out of these hot spots. We, Missouri, have continued targeted removal, and this is actually in Macon and Lynn County, so right here close to home for me. We have continued targeted removal through 2025. The infection rates are still below 2%. Really not much higher than where we started. Like we are keeping it at bay, it seems like. And while it's lingering, it's still here, but our efforts seem to be working from keeping it spread from spreading. In Wisconsin, at year six, so in 2018, the story kind of was the people had had enough. And people spoke out and said, we don't want the conservation killing any more deer. We're done with that. And I think through the public pressure, the DNR, Wisconsin DNR, laid off of it and said, okay, we're done. And look at what's happened to the infection rates uh in Wisconsin. They've gone up to nearly 12% in those next few years. I truly think that without the Missouri Department's conservation's efforts, the infection rates would be much higher here in Missouri without the targeted uh cooling of these deer in these hot spots. It seems like it's working. Like this graph right here just says so much. And while Wisconsin's not the same as northern Missouri, CWD is the same disease. Like the deer are the same. We're we're talking about, we're comparing apples to apples here, really. So I'm thankful that we've been doing this. Like, like I said, this graph just really made me look at things differently. And one thing they talked about is once it gets up to that 10-12% range, they really expect it to just take off. And that's kind of what they said, actually, around like four or five percent. Like they said at like five percent, you can see it really takes off. And it's only gonna get worse, I'm sure. Like it's gonna keep climbing. So it seems like what we've been doing is working. Um obviously, like the public doesn't think so, but like this chart shows it really well. Um to talk about something else, you know. We talk about we talk about the conservation's killing all of our deer, you know, they're killing all of our deer. So here's a here's a graph. I'll throw it up right now. Like I said, you you think the conservation is decimating the deer herd, and hunters don't get to kill anything. So since 2012 to 2025, Missouri hunters have harvested more than four million deer. That's crazy. Targeted removal by the Missouri Department of Conservation has taken 26,800 deer in a 13-year time period. That's not that many deer. 26,000 sounds like a lot, but when you compare it to 4 million, it's you know, it's less than 1%. It's not that crazy. Another chart here, I won't be able to throw this one up, but opening day of firearm season in Missouri, uh, Missouri hunters harvested 38,120 deer on opening day. One day. In the 13 years, Missouri Department of Conservation have harvested 26,802. So hunters have killed more in one day than they've killed in 13 years. So when you say they're killing all the deer, like it's not true. It's very targeted, it's very location specific, it's at these hot spots and it's working. And we've got to support them, I think. Like they're doing Doing more than I can do sitting here in my man cave. I'm just trying to spread the word, but all the Facebook Warriors, I they're not doing any good. We've got to trust them. And and they're you can get on MBC's website, go to Deer, go to CWD, and all this information's on there, and you can find what what you're wanting to hear. Um is truly good information. Um something else that is talked about, and you gotta trust them that this is legit. And I will say one of the landowners that did have a lot of like coaling going on on their property, they weren't hunters, but they had a lot of ground, a lot of agricultural ground. They backed this statement. But um, so venison that comes out after the testing, you know, they're taking these deer off these properties. 62% of that venison is returned back to the landowners. Um, the other 36% is donated to share the harvest. And then 2% of these animals have tested positive. So those obviously get discarded. Um, but you know, I've heard on Facebook people say, oh yeah, they killing all these deer and throw them in a ditch or throw them in a dumpster. Like, that's not happening. They're getting tested, they get processed, and they go to people who want it or need it. Um, so that's that's a positive too. I mean, that's helpful. And one thing we talked about in this meeting was there's not enough share the harvest locations. There's just not very many. And we kind of discussed like MDC may work to get some more of those around just to make it easier to donate a deer to share the harvest, and that way they're getting tested as well. Um, you know, one guy was like, you know, I got a property an hour away from home and life's busy, and would I like to take a few doughs? Yeah, but sometimes I just don't have time. Like um, he'd be happy to shoot one and get it tested and sampled and help the cause, but he just doesn't have time to process it himself, take it somewhere, get it tested, you know. And so that's why the share the harvest and and I think in this guy's aspect, like if his family doesn't eat deer meat or something, so he he can only eat so much anyway. And he was like, we need more share the harvest locations. And I again I think share the harvest is great. So here's another good um this is just kind of some general information about CWD and how it works. So they radio call our bunch of deer to do some testing in southwest Wisconsin. What they found was deer with CWD obviously had significantly lower survival rates. So this includes, I believe this data includes things like hit by a vehicle, shot by a hunter, um, predated by something else, whatever it may be. Bucks that tested positive had a 17% chance of survival. That's not very good. Like that's terrible. Like, how are you supposed to get a deer to the age of four or five or six, get a buck to that mature age with a 17% survival rate? Like, that's terrible. And I North Missouri does not want that. Like, that is not something that we are interested in, guys. Second, bucks that were negative had a 69% chance of living. So that's pretty good, right? Like, if this buck doesn't have CWD, his chances go way up. Those that were positive had a 41% chance of living, and those that were negative had an 82% chance of living. One other thing that like CWD can cause, and I think that this chart shows it, is like when CWD is getting worse, like the deer do not act right. I've got a friend that's once sent me a video of this buck that walked right up to him. Like I'm pretty confident that deer had CWD. I've been out west in Colorado and I'm confident I've seen a two deer with CWD. My buddy walked up and touched one. Like they don't act right. They stand right there in the wide open, they don't care that you're looking at them, they don't care that you're in a truck right next to them, whatever it may be. So, you know, they may be moving more in daylight, they may run out in front of a car when they normally wouldn't. So, like CWD, while they may get killed by a hunter or by a car accident, like you can still attribute some of that to CWD. Um just the effects that CWD is having on a deer's brain in those later stages of the disease. And I don't know the exact lengths of that disease, but this is like a couple year process. Like a deer doesn't get CWD and die. They get it, they carry it for more than a year. I think it was like two or three years before it typically kills them. So, like, think of all the you know, all the spreading that goes on. So, another topic that was brought up and there wasn't much discussion on it. I mean, there not a lot of room was like baiting and mineral sites. And while hunting over bait's not legal in Missouri, um, you can no longer bait like after season or in the off-season in the summer. You can't bait now, even if you're not going to hunt there, because they claim that deer are going to spread CWD by feeding out of the same bait pile. And like mouth-to-mouth contact or that type of interaction between deer is what spreads the disease. Like, so it's hard to argue with that. Like MDC's doing everything they know to do to help it, and if that's one of the requirements they're saying, we need to just follow it. It stinks. I like to feed deer late in the winter just to help them get through the winter, you know, make them a little healthier, get some pictures, see what's left over, what uh made it through the season, but for now we're not able to do that. And some people are, you know, said, well, you know, MDC's feeding deer to hunt them, to shoot them, to cool them, you know. Like that's not spreading the disease. Like the MDC corn doesn't do that, which is just silly. Like they're target, it's a targeted removal. Like they put the corn out like one day, they come back and hunt like the next whatever two nights until they get their quota, until they fill their quota, and they pick up all the corn and leave. So like there's not a lot of deer that are feeding there that aren't getting harvested for the study. So, no, I don't think that what they're doing is hurting anything by feeding deer that way. Moving forward, another thing people talk about, and I mentioned this people say, oh, CWD is all about the money. Like, MBC just wants the money. That's all they want. Like they're getting so much government money from this, and they're just gonna keep milking it. I'm gonna read this straight from MBC's website. No, it's not about the money, obviously. NBC spends money from its budget and is reimbursed for 75% of qualifying expenses related to CWD testing and management through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Funding is not affected by the number of CWD cases found, and MDC does not make a profit from CWD management. NBC receives no additional federal funding for CWD related activities. During the fiscal year of 2025, from July 2024 to June 2025, MDC spent $6.28 million on CWD testing and management and was reimbursed for $4.71 million through the Wildlife Restoration Program. These funds are spent to ensure Missouri's deer herd remains healthy and to protect the $1.6 billion that deer hunting contributes to Missouri's economy each year. So, no, a fourth of what MDC spends on money or on CWD is lost. Like they do get reimbursed for this, for some of it. This information is out there. I'm sure you can dig deeper and actually find this information other than just this little visual I'm looking at. But like that just shows you, like it's it's not a money grab. They truly care. And like just speaking with Jason Summers, it was obvious. Like they care and they're a little bit concerned. Um while we are keeping CWD at bay, we haven't made a lot of progress either. Like the numbers aren't going down, they're just not going up. And Jason feels the pressure from the public, and like they were holding all these meetings to hear the public, to let us voice our opinions. Trying to think of some other questions that were asked during this meeting. Um, one question that I asked was did the proposed change in the non-resident deer hunting regulations have anything to do with with CWD? Was there any correlation between CWD efforts and this change in uh the regulations? And the reason I asked that is because, you know, from the outside, it looks like MDC's goal is to kill more deer, yet we're taking a tag away from non-residents. So that that contradicts each other. And the answer was no, there is no correlation. And they said that non-resident hunter participation has skyrocketed in the last like 10 years or maybe five years even, and has just gone up dramatically. And he said, you can't believe how many calls he gets about Missouri resident hunter opportunity. Can't hunt in here anymore because it's leased to some out-of-state guy, or can't believe all the out-of-state license plates you see at public hunting areas, you know, during deer season. Things like that. So MDC was putting its residents first in those changes, is basically what they said. Like our main concern is residents, not non-residents. So they took a tag away from non-residents and hope to improve the hunting opportunity for the residents of Missouri. And I was happy to hear that. Like, that's great. Another question that I had for them was again, like, it seems from the outside the MDC wants to kill more deer. Yet in these CWD counties, they now or in recent years, we went from three bucks to now the whole state's two bucks. Um, and I don't that was probably around the CWD time frame. And on top of that, now in a CWD county, I think you can only get two dough tags. So like it just doesn't see it contradicts itself. Again, why if if it's if the MDC truly wants to kill more deer, why are you taking tags away from us? was my question. And what they said was if we take a few tags away from other landowners or from other folks hunting in the air in the county, even, and we target these deer in the hot spots, like your total deer harvested numbers not really changing. Taking less deer in the areas that aren't a hot spot and taking more in the areas that are. And so, like I said, the total number of deer taken in Missouri doesn't fluctuate that much. Yet we are being more impactful on that hotspot area on battling CWD. So, again, they they answered that really well, and that that makes sense to me. And I I I expected that was the answer, but I just wanted to hear it from them. So that was good to hear. Overall, like it was just a great meeting. Like I said, I wish I could have recorded it all because people had good questions. The conservation guys had great answers always. There were a few questions that were not good. There's always like one in every crowd kind of thing, you know, like one guy that shouldn't have been there that just keeps repeating himself and says, it's not a salt lick, it's a mineral lick. The deer need mineral, it's not a salt lick, it's a mineral lick. And then he kept saying, You need to do the science research, and you'll find it's in the stomach. It's something in their stomach. That's what's wrong with them. The guy didn't know what he's talking about, and he just drug it on and drug it on and drug it on. But there's always one of those guys. At the time of this meeting, this was in May of 2026, the department wasn't sure what they were gonna do moving forward. They have had currently paused the coaling operation. They paused targeting these deer herds in the hotspot locations, and they were taking a step back and looking at everything and trying to figure out what's the best steps moving forward. And like I said, these meetings that they held were part of that. There was a lot of them. I was just fortunate enough to be invited to one, but there was more than one across North Missouri. So moving forward, there are going to be some changes. They put out MDC removal efforts, MDC targeted removal efforts have been indefinitely paused. To me, that means forever. But that's a big commitment. Uh, MDC remains committed to keeping the deer herd healthy and working collaboratively with hunters and landowners, but we cannot be successful in this work at the scale needed without your support and participation. So, pausing targeted removal efforts will allow MDC time to continue working with hunters, landowners, and other interested Missourians to adapt and identify a more sustainable path forward for managing a healthy and sustainable deer herd in Missouri. So, for the 2026 deer season, MDC has proposed several changes. These changes are designed to continue to minimize the efforts of CWD on Missouri's deer herd while simplifying regulations for hunters. For 2026-2027 season, the proposed changes include they're going to remove the CWD portion of firearms deer season. So that was an additional five or ten days tacked on to the Missouri firearm season, which is like huge. I'm glad they're getting rid of that, honestly. The removal of CWD management zone, which I'm not sure what that zone really was. Removal of the antler point restriction statewide. And honestly, I wasn't aware that there were still counties or areas that still had the antler point restriction. I guess it was just uh restricted in the CWD areas. And then they're increasing the CWD management permit acreage to 20 acres rather than five. So I think like while most parcels fall under that 20-acre range, um hunters are like landowners for those parcels, we're not contributing very much to the CWD effort when it comes to hunters taking the animals on their own. So that's the changes moving forward. Like I said, and I'll say it again, like we've got to support them. We don't have another option. Like they are the ones putting the money into it, they're putting the effort into it, they've got the professionals working on it. There's so much more going on behind the scenes than we realize. And like there's nothing else we can do. As an individual, we're not gonna fix CWD. We're not professionals at this. If you're like me, you're just a guy that loves to hunt and cares about the deer herd. Like I there's not a lot I can do besides listen to the MDC and support them however I can. One other change I wanted to mention that uh they've made is they're doing away with the mandatory sampling in the CWD counties, and they're moving it to a four-year rotation. So there's gonna be four zones. How they determine these zones, I'm not sure. It's split up different counties all across the state. Um, like zone one will have mandatory testing in 2026. I'm making these numbers up, but I think that's right. Zone two will have mandatory testing in 2027 and so on. Four zones. So every four years, your county will have to be mandatory testing. And this will help gauge um if it's getting worse or if it's getting better. So in four years, you know, after four years, you'll find out if CWD's gotten worse or gotten better. And of course, they can still do the voluntary sampling if you're interested in that. If you do the share of the harvest program, I believe all of those get sampled. So it's not like they're gonna stop sampling, they're just changing up their strategy there, which doesn't hurt my feelings any. Whatever they need to do. So, one last thing I want to read is hunters and landowners can help maintain a healthy deer herd. So chronic wasting disease is 100% fatal. Contagious disease that can devastate the deer herd if we're not careful. MDC's goal is to have a healthy, sustainable deer population. Managing CWD is essential to protecting deer and preserving our hunting culture. We are committed to working with hunters, landowners, and other partners to ensure deer continue to thrive now and in the future. You can help maintain a healthy deer herd by harvesting additional deer in areas that have CWD, participating in CWD sampling, following the carcass disposal regulation statewide and the prohibition of placing feed and minerals for deer in those select counties, and educating others about the importance of CWD management. And that's what I'm doing right now. I just want you guys to hear about it. I want you guys to know that there is something that we can do to help, and that's listen to the MDC. If you guys are still listening, I sure appreciate it. If you don't mind, follow, subscribe on YouTube, like this video. That helps a lot, and yeah, be safe out there. Get some pictures of some big deer this summer. We'll catch you guys next time.