Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2018

AUTHORS. Travis Bartnick, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission

ABSTRACT. The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) is an intertribal agency exercising delegated authority from 11 federally recognized Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These tribes retain hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in the territories ceded to the United States in the treaties of 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854. The significant threat that chronic wasting disease (CWD) poses to wild cervid populations also poses a serious threat to the continued exercise of treaty rights and the traditional lifeways they sustain. GLIFWC has been involved in efforts to address issues associated with CWD since the first CWD-positive deer were discovered in Wisconsin in 2002 from deer harvested in November 2001. GLIFWC staff initially engaged in efforts to encourage tribal hunters to get their deer tested, traveled to tribal communities to extract samples, and sent the samples to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory for testing. However, the relative interest in getting deer tested has diminished over time. As CWD has continued to spread, and after CWD was found both in the wild population and in private deer farms in the Ceded Territories, GLIFWC has increased education and outreach efforts and is continuing to encourage tribal hunters to get their deer tested for CWD. GLIFWC’s plans are to continue focusing on education and outreach, advocating for more effective captive cervid regulations, participating in CWD response planning efforts, and collaborating with local, state, and federal agencies with the goal of keeping CWD from spreading throughout the Ceded Territories.