TWRA committee previews changes to chronic wasting disease rule; recommends rule draft to full commission
Loading...
Summary
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s wildlife committee reviewed a draft amendment that would add a statewide deer-carcass disposal requirement, ban feeding in CWD-positive counties with limited exceptions, and shrink the CWD management zone by removing two counties with single detections; the committee voted to send the draft preview to the full commission for rulemaking in March.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s wildlife committee on Thursday reviewed proposed amendments to the agency’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) management rule (referred to in the transcript as Rule 16 60 0 1 - 34), including a statewide carcass-disposal requirement and a prohibition on feeding in counties where CWD is detected. After discussion and questions from commissioners and staff, the committee voted to recommend previewing the draft rule to the full commission ahead of a formal rulemaking hearing scheduled for March.
Joe Benedict, the agency’s chief of wildlife and forestry, told commissioners the agency is proposing three principal changes: 1) a statewide disposal requirement for cervid carcasses and parts so that non-kept parts be placed in the normal household waste stream or left at the harvest property, 2) a prohibition on feeding (not just baiting) in CWD-positive counties with limited exceptions (feed within 100 feet of a residence, methods that reasonably exclude deer, certain wild-hog management baiting authorized by the agency and normal agricultural practices), and 3) an adjustment to the CWD management zone that would remove Wayne and Lewis counties from the zone because each currently has a single confirmed positive detection.
“The first one is to add a disposal requirement for deer carcasses,” Benedict said during the presentation, describing language the agency adapted from other states to simplify transport restrictions while preserving processors’ existing waste streams. He said the change is intended to let hunters continue to access processors and reduce county-specific transportation regulations that could otherwise restrict harvest and testing.
Commissioners pressed staff on how the proposal would work in practice. Commissioner Moody asked whether county landfills would accept carcasses disposed of in household trash; Benedict said some hunters already follow that practice but acknowledged county landfill policies vary and that only ‘aligned’ (approved) landfills would be authorized to accept high-risk materials in some jurisdictions. Commissioner Box asked why counties with no detections remain in the existing management zone; Benedict replied the zone’s longstanding transport and processor relationships mean established practices have already adapted to zone regulations and that rapid changes could disrupt hunters and processors.
The commission’s scientific staff discussed prevalence thresholds and surveillance. The CWD coordinator (introduced in the transcript as Dr. Dan Grove) explained that wildlife-disease impacts are often observed as prevalence rises: “at roughly 5 percent is when you've already started to impact your populations,” he said, and that between about 5 and 10 percent counties often show a more rapid demographic shift. He also cautioned that historical surveillance expansion affected early detection timelines and that year-to-year surveillance maps are the best way to track spread.
Several commissioners proposed alternative approaches to simplify rules (for example, extending no-feeding rules across larger “Zone 1/Zone 2” areas). Benedict and staff said they considered broader zone-based approaches but remain cautious about loosening transport rules for counties with higher prevalence (notably parts of west Tennessee) because doing so might unintentionally move carcasses from high-prevalence areas farther east.
The committee’s procedural action at the end of the session was to vote to recommend previewing the draft amendment to the full commission (this is a recommendation for rule preview and is not final adoption). If the commission concurs, general counsel will file a red-line draft with the secretary of state and staff expect a formal rulemaking hearing in March where public comment and a final vote would occur.
What’s next: the committee’s recommendation will be presented to the full TWRA commission. If referred, the agency plans to file a draft rule with the attorney general’s office and hold a formal rulemaking hearing in March. The agency also said it will provide updated maps and annual or season-end surveillance maps to help commissioners and the public track county-level CWD detections.
