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The Braselton News
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
State roundup
State wildlife officials prepare for deadly
deer disease ahead of Georgia hunting season
By Stanley Dunlap
Georgia Recorder
Georgia conservationists
are putting hunters on high
alert about the possibility of
a deadly deer disease cross
ing the state border after the
discovery of a case in north
Florida.
The Georgia Wildlife Re
sources Division will carry
out an emergency response
once the state has its first
detected case of Chronic
Wasting Disease. It can take
as long as two years before
an infected white-tailed
deer shows zombie-like
symptoms of listlessness,
droopy head, severe weight
loss, repetitive walking and
drooling.
In June, a road-killed
doe found 38 miles from
Georgia’s southwest border
made Florida the 31st state
to report a confirmed case of
a condition that has no treat
ment or vaccine and always
results in death of the infect
ed deer, moose and elk.
Public health and state
wildlife officials are con
ducting a public awareness
campaign to inform hunters
and others how to react if
they see deer in an area with
the disease, which is similar
to the affliction known as
mad cow disease that spread
in the 1990s.
The strategy for Geor
gia’s wildlife division is to
establish a 5-mile radius
where there is a confirmed
presence of CWD, with the
boundaries shifting as more
infections are discovered.
An outbreak can present
more challenges for game
hunting inside the infected
zones.
Hunters in the affected ar
eas are being recommended
to get their deer and buck
carcasses tested so the wild
life agency knows the lo
cation of the outbreak and
what percentage of animals
are infected.
Scientists have not found
any evidence that deer wast
ing syndrome can spread to
humans or livestock under
normal conditions. Howev
er, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
warns against eating veni
son and urges limiting con
tact with potentially infect
ed animals until the extent
of the health risks are better
known.
Prior to eating deer meat,
hunters are also advised to
store their venison in the
freezer and wait to see if test
results come back negative.
The public is also encour
aged to report roadkill deer
and deer displaying unusual
behavior to their local wild
life district office.
“There will be a response
plan that goes in place that
is geographic,” Wildfire
Resources Division Direc
tor Ted Will said at a recent
Board of Natural Resourc
es meeting. “It’s a 5-mile
radius, intensive sampling
within one mile and hunters
are probably bringing (deer)
heads to (service drop off)
sites. We’ve got it all laid
out.”
The biggest defense to
mitigate the spread in the
earliest stages of detection
involves intensive testing
and limiting the movement
of deer to other places. The
long-term affliction can
only be diagnosed by ex
amining the animal’s brain
after its death.
Lindsay Thomas Jr.,
spokesman for the National
Deer Association, said that
since it takes so long for
deer to show symptoms, it is
difficult to persuade hunters
that it is a problem.
“The people who are in
denial about this will say ‘I
don’t see a problem. This
isn’t something to worry
about,”’ he said. “That’s
the way it works. You don’t
walk in the woods and see
sick and dead deer laying
everywhere.”
“The message we give
hunters is this is not the end
of the world. It’s nothing to
panic about,” Thomas said.
“Hunting goes on in these
zones. It’s just a time for
hunters to plug in and get
informed and participate in
the effort to manage the dis
ease locally.”
Georgia has banned the
transportation of live deer
species from other states
since 2005 and has other
restrictions on how deer,
moose and elk carcasses are
handled.
Among the safety guide
lines are not moving deer
carcasses outside of a des
ignated CWD boundary or
leaving them to rot in the
wild.
In areas where the CWD
exists, public health offi
cials also recommend more
stringent deer processing,
which involves gutting,
skinning and aging meat
and removing a white-tailed
deer’s head to mount as a
trophy.
The tips include not using
a bone saw to cut up a deer,
wearing latex gloves, wash
ing hands frequently, and
for professional processors
to prepare each deer meat
separately from other ani
mals.
“This is not a bacteria or
virus,” Thomas said. “It’s a
prion protein and it’s very
durable in the environment.
If you take the deer to pro
cess at home and don’t leave
bones, hide, innards in the
woods. That’s a hotspot of
CWD prions that if healthy
deer come in contact with
then they can become in
fected.”
Georgia’s upcoming deer
hunting season for archers
begins on Sept. 10. while
hunters using firearms have
from Oct. 22 through Jan. 8
to bag up to 12 deer.
Mike Worley, president
and CEO of the Georgia
Wildlife Federation, said
that CWD poses a threat to
the state’s healthy and stable
deer population if not taken
seriously enough. The state
spent upwards of $300,000
on testing for the disease
last year.
“It’s a big deal because
virtually all our conserva
tion is paid for by hunters
and anglers,” Worley said.
“By far the most popular of
our game species is white
tailed deer.”
“We have a lot of deer and
our deer quality is good,”
Worley said. “We have peo
ple coming from around the
country to hunt, particularly
from Florida.”
NEW PROTOCOLS FOR
HUNTERS AS DISEASE
SPREADS EAST
Originally reported in the
western United States in the
1960s, CWD has slowly
spread to the Southeast in
recent years leaving Geor
gia, Kentucky, and South
Carolina as the last states
in the region without docu
mented cases.
Chronic Wasting Disease
is similar to the fatal mad
cow disease that briefly
caused a public panic after
an outbreak in the United
Kingdom dining the 1990s
that eventually resulted in
the first North American
case in 2003.
However, in contrast to
CWD, mad cow can make
humans sick if they eat in
fected beef.
In addition to being spread
by an animal’s bodily fluids,
the current threat can also
remains highly contagious
for many more years in soil
and plants.
As part of Georgia’s ef
forts to minimize an out
break, lawmakers in 2022
gave the state wildlife of
ficials more power to lim
it the movement of deer,
moose, elk, and caribou car
casses around the state and
counties bordering Georgia
where positive tests have
been confirmed.
Currently, there is no plan
by the state to restrict feed
ers used by many landown
ers to attract hungry deer
near a CWD inflicted area.
“When we have a pop
(case), we go into a very
small area and try to act
quickly,” Will said. “ We
don’t want to break relation
ships with local buy-in and
helping us hopefully eradi
cate it or get it back enough
to drive down prevalence in
an area.”
Some state wildlife agen
cies will also look to reduce
the deer population within a
given area in order to keep
the spread of disease to a
minimum.
If certain harvesting quo
tas aren’t met within the
deer hunting season, then
state wildlife agents might
ask for landowners’ permis
sion to go onto their prop
erty to hunt more deer, said
Thomas, with the deer asso
ciation.
“It’s kind of a surgi
cal strike,” he said. “Even
though it’s a small number
of deer, it is ultimately prov
ing useful in maintaining
low prevalence rates. Mis
souri and Illinois are two
examples that have used
that approach and they’re
holding disease prevalence
in the low single digits
across years.”
Georgia DOT to test
mileage-based user fee
Rep. Maijorie Taylor
Greene tops Georgia
congressional fundraisers
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia Department
of Transportation (DOT) is
about to launch an experi
ment with a different form
of transportation tax de
signed to capture revenue
from drivers of electric ve
hicles.
The agency is looking for
150 volunteers to take part
in a federally funded pilot
project that will replace gas
oline and other motor fuels
taxes with a tax based on
the number of miles driven.
Three states - Washington,
Oregon, and Utah - already
have adopted mileage-based
user fees, while at least four
others are doing pilot proj
ects to test the concept.
“I’m glad we’re part of
this,” Georgia Commission
er of Transportation Russell
McMurry told members
of the State Transportation
Board July 19.
“I don’t think we have
a choice,” board member
Cathy Williams added.
“We’re going to have to go
to a mileage-based system.”
As Georgia motorists
increasingly switch from
gasoline-powered cars and
trucks to hybrids and EVs,
the amount of tax revenue
available for building roads
and highways dwindles.
Technological improve
ments that are yielding
higher gas mileage in cars
with internal-combustion
engines also are putting a
dent in transportation tax
collections.
A legislative study com
mittee formed last year to
look for ways to accommo
date an expected increase
in electric vehicles plying
Georgia highways recom
mended making any future
mileage-based tax the state
adopts comparable to what
drivers of gasoline-powered
vehicles pay in fuel taxes.
That equity issue came
to the forefront earlier this
year as the General Assem
bly debated and subsequent
ly passed a bill imposing an
excise tax of 2.84 cents per
kilowatt hour on electricity
used to power EVs starting
in 2025.
Electric vehicle owners
and other advocates of EV
technology complained that
the new excise tax -com
bined with a $216 annual
registration fee EV owners
already are paying and the
state sales tax on purchases
of electricity - amounted to
triple taxation.
“I’m thrilled the DOT is
doing this pilot project,”
said Anne Blair, Atlan
ta-based senior director of
policy for the Electrifica
tion Coalition, a nonparti
san nonprofit working for
the widespread adoption of
electric vehicles. “Maybe
we can get to something
that’s more equitable to
more drivers.”
Josh Waller, director of
policy and government af
fairs for the DOT, said the
agency will spend the next
several months signing up
volunteers for the pilot proj
ect. He said the four-month
pilot will begin late this year
and include a survey of the
volunteers to gauge how
they compare paying a mile-
age-based fee to the costs of
gasoline.
“It’s really about the ex
perience for the user of the
mileage-based approach,”
he said.
Waller said the test peri
od will be followed during
the first half of 2024 by a
preliminary analysis of the
results. A final report is ex
pected later in the year.
Waller said the pilot proj
ect will include both GPS
and non-GPS options to
keep track of the miles the
volunteers drive. The GPS
option will determine how
many miles a volunteer
drives inside of Georgia
compared to outside of the
state, which is important for
taxing purposes.
“Participants will choose
what works best for them,”
Waller said.
The idea of tracking
where people are driving
has raised privacy concerns.
But Waller said worries
about privacy have become
essentially moot with the
advent of cellphone tech
nology.
“Our cellphones are going
with us anywhere,” he said.
“There are a lot of pieces of
information we’re giving
away.”
Nonetheless, Waller said
the pilot project will include
safeguards to protect the
privacy of the drivers.
Waller said he doesn’t ex
pect the various pilot proj
ects states are conducting to
lead to widespread adoption
of mileage-based user fees
anytime soon.
“This is a major change
in how you fund transpor
tation,” he said. “[The pilot
projects] are really to un
derstand how people react
with it. ... At this point,
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
U.S. Rep. Maijorie Taylor
Greene. R-Rome, is prov
ing to be the most prolific
campaign fundraiser by far
among Georgia’s congres
sional delegation.
The conservative fire
brand raised $1.7 million
toward her bid for a third
term in the House during
the first half of this year,
according to a report filed
with the Federal Election
Commission. That dwarfs
the $604,158 raised during
the first six months of 2023
by Rep. Drew Ferguson,
R-West Point, the closest to
tal to Greene’s haul.
Greene has built a nation
al following among right-
wing campaign contributors
with her strong support for
former President Donald
Trump and backing of his
attempts to overturn the re
sults of the 2020 presidential
election.
Athen-Democratic House
majority stripped Greene
of her committee assign
ments early in 2021 be
cause of her embrace of
various conspiracy theo
ries, including questioning
whether the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks and school
shootings were staged.
Most recently, Greene
was booted from the conser
vative House Freedom Cau
cus after voting with House
Speaker Kevin McCarthy to
raise the nation’s debt limit
and making disparaging re
marks about a fellow House
Republican. After the move,
she declared she owes alle
giance to no one in Wash
ington, D.C., and her prior
ities he with her constituents
in Georgia’s 14th Congres
sional District.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Sa-
vannah, raised $597,518
during the first half of this
year to finish third in fund
raising among Georgia’s 14
House members. He was
followed by freshman Rep.
Rich McCormick, R-Su-
wanee, who raised $565,941
from January through June.
Rep. David Scott, D-At-
lanta, was the top fundrais
er during the same period
among Georgia’s Democrat
ic House members, bringing
in $403,172. Rep. Sanford
Bishop, D-Albany, the lon
gest serving lawmaker in the
Georgia delegation, raised
$385,830.
Freshman Rep. Andrew
Clyde, R-Athens, brought
up the rear, raising only
$129,302 during the first
half of2023.
Here are the totals for the
other seven members of
Georgia’s House delegation
during the first six months of
the year:
•Rick Allen, R-Augusta:
$348,078
•Austin Scott, R-Tifton:
$300,380
•Lucy McBath, D-Mari-
etta: $258,499
•Nikema Williams, D-At-
lanta: $207,710
• Mike Collins, R-Jack-
son: $202,442
• Barry Loudermilk,
R-Cassville: $145,929
• Hank Johnson, D-Litho-
nia: $142,807
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