OUTDOORS
Blue Mountain Eagle
A12
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
CWD found in deer near Oregon
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Contributed photo
Matt Frame shoots his sporterized Enfi eld rifl e at the range.
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
Another man’s treasure
C
onverted military
buckhorn style.
rifl es used to be a
According to my
research, the serial num-
household thing.
ber places it at 1901. It was
Before, during and after
the Great Depression every- his very favorite. One of my
body knew how to wring
cousins treasures it deeply
two cents out of every
to this day.
penny they brought home.
If you happen to come
When the Civilian Marks-
into possession of a sporter-
manship Program off ered
ized old military rifl e, trea-
the Springfi eld 1903, Enfi eld sure it. If you treat it with
1917 or Krag-Jor-
proper care and
gensen 1898 sur-
respect, you may
plus rifl es for only a
see an additional
few dollars includ-
century of service
ing ammunition, it
in your behalf.
turned heads.
Ammunition,
It wasn’t that
even for some of
these people were
the more obscure
Dale Valade
cheap, it’s that they
selections, can usu-
were broke; those are two
ally be found relatively eas-
very diff erent things. Many
ily. Prvi Partizan (PPU)
of the GIs returning from
is one of the most prolifi c
war brought home military
makers of the various stan-
rifl es of various kinds as tro- dard and metric military cal-
phies, and many of those — ibers of ammunition. Albeit
even in their metric calibers not as cheap as the old sur-
— were put to use fi lling the plus ammo of yore, this
family freezer.
European-based product
These days the walls in
is usually only 50-60% of
gun and pawn shops are
the price of economy line
lined with lots of these old USA-made hunting ammo.
sporterized arms, no doubt For those on a tight bud-
traded in for something
get, this is huge; their brass
newer somewhere along
is boxer-primed and can be
the line. Though it’s true
reloaded as well.
they are a bit more beefy,
As a project for my
not quite as polished in fi n- friend Matt who was just
ish nor on average as accu- getting started as a deer
rate as a factory sporting
hunter, we shopped around,
rifl e, many a larder was
eventually buying a sport-
fi lled with venison because erized Enfi eld 1917 .30-06.
Grampa, and quite often
We got it drilled and tapped
Grandma, knew how to
for scope mounts, replaced
make every shot count.
a few parts, refi nished the
Cheap military surplus stock and installed a recoil
ammo could be found
pad. All that said, we were
everywhere, sometimes
still into it for less than the
for only pennies per shot. cost of a quality new rifl e.
As the economy improved
As my friend is a
and bank accounts began
Marine, we dubbed the rifl e
to fatten, some were able
“Chesty” in honor of the
to adorn their secondhand great Gen. Chesty Puller. A
smoke pole with a cus-
pleasure to shoot for being
tom stock or a telescopic
over 100 years old, Matt
sight.
took his fi rst deer with a
The country store at
200-yard shot a couple years
Dale prominently displays
back. It’s far and away his
black and white pictures of favorite rifl e; one man’s
successful hunts from days trash is defi nitely another
gone by. They represent
man’s treasure!
a time and a people who
Do you shoot converted
didn’t throw anything away. military rifl es? Write to us
My own paternal
at shootingthebreezebme@
great-grandfather went to
gmail.com and check us out
the woods armed with an
on Facebook!
old military .30-40 Krag. It
Dale Valade is a local
had been sporterized with a
country gent with a love for
custom stock, and the sights
the outdoors, handloading,
upgraded to the popular
hunting and shooting.
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S273958-1
Gillin has been active in national eff orts
to monitor and slow the spread of CWD
for decades through participation in the
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Health Committee. He currently serves in
the leadership of the wildlife health com-
mittee and as a co-editor for national guid-
ance on AFWA Best Management Prac-
tices for surveillance and response of
CWD.
Furfey said the positive Idaho test
so close to Oregon makes it all the more
alarming because once it arrives in Ore-
gon, it may be here to stay.
“There’s no eff ective way to eradicate
it once it becomes established,” she said.
She said there’s also no cure or vaccine
for the disease.
The ODFW already has emailed tag
holders for ongoing and upcoming deer
and elk hunts in select Northeastern Ore-
gon units requesting they provide parts
from their deer or elk for testing if they
are successful on the hunt. Barrels placed
at various locations will make it easier for
these hunters to submit a head for sam-
pling by biologists and veterinarians.
Beginning in 2022, it will be manda-
tory for anyone transporting wildlife car-
Alarming news
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
BAKER CITY — Elk don’t
need calendars.
Dan Marvin is convinced of
that.
He can’t vouch for the ani-
mals’ ability to recognize, say,
Christmas or Independence Day
or any other holiday observed
by humans.
But elk certainly know when
December arrives.
Some elk, anyway.
Marvin can attest only to the
chronological acumen of the elk
that congregate each year at the
Elkhorn Wildlife Area.
That’s the series of 10
elk-feeding stations, ranging
from Old Auburn Lane in the
south to Shaw Mountain in
Union County, operated by the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
Marvin is starting his fourth
winter as the Elkhorn Wildlife
Area manager.
The publicly owned por-
tions of the Wildlife Area
(some stations are on private
land for which ODFW has
leases) close to public entry
on Dec. 1, and remain closed
through April 10.
Marvin said elk start to show
up at some of the feed sites —
most notably the meadow along
Anthony Creek, west of North
Powder — on Dec. 1.
And the animals stroll into
the meadow even in years, such
as the current one, when the fall
has been mild, snow is scarce
and the elk have no particular
need for handouts of alfalfa hay.
“These elk, they know
where that feed is,” Marvin
said on Friday morning, Dec.
10. “They have a phenomenal
memory of where they’ve win-
tered in the past, and they can
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
Rocky Mountain elk munch on alfalfa hay during a previous
winter at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area feeding site along Anthony
Creek west of North Powder.
migrate for many miles over-
night to be here at the feed site
the next morning.”
To be clear, Marvin and his
crew distribute several hun-
dred tons of alfalfa to elk each
winter not because the animals
wouldn’t survive without the
supplemental feed.
Elk are tough and hardy,
capable of digging through
deep snow to get at the meager
winter forage.
Even a nasty winter, the
sort that can kill hundreds of
mule deer across Northeastern
Oregon, typically takes only a
minor toll on elk.
ODFW started the Elkhorn
Wildlife Area in 1971 for a very
diff erent purpose — to stop elk
from marauding cattle ranchers’
haystacks in the Baker, North
Powder and Bowen valleys.
The idea, which has proven
largely eff ective over the past
half century, is to set up feed-
ing stations where daily distri-
butions of alfalfa will, in eff ect,
intercept the elk, satisfying their
hunger and discouraging them
from migrating into the valleys.
During the ensuing decades,
Marvin said, the elk have
become habituated to these sea-
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NATIO
the elk return to the mountains,
waiting for Dec. 1.
This fall was quite diff erent,
with little snow until this past
weekend.
Nonetheless, about 150 to
170 elk arrived at the Anthony
Creek feeding site Dec. 1, and
they’ve been showing up daily
since, Marvin said.
Elk numbers have been
much lower at the other sites,
however.
That’s pretty typical, Marvin
said, even though the Wildlife
Area crew set out hay at each of
the sites on Dec. 1.
The elk that congregate at
Anthony Creek tend to be the
most consistent when it comes
to the Dec. 1 arrival, Marvin
said.
“They’re very habituated
elk,” he said.
Elk that migrate to the other
feeding sites, by contrast, often
don’t show up in large numbers
until snow begins to pile up.
With the fi rst major win-
ter storm of the season bring-
ing heavy snow to the Elkhorns
this past weekend, Marvin said
he expects the elk numbers will
rise at all the sites soon.
“Peak numbers are usually
in January when it’s the cold-
est and the snow tends to get the
deepest,” Marvin said.
During mid-winter, the
Wildlife Area crew feeds more
than 1,000 elk, including about
500 at the Old Auburn Lane site
and 250 or so at Anthony Creek.
A few of the feed sites also
attract deer.
The Auburn and Anthony
Creek sites are the two publicly
accessible properties with main-
tained roads where people can
park and watch the big herds of
elk, which usually include mul-
tiple mature, branch-antlered
bulls.
One solution for oxygen at home, away, and for travel
’S
T
sonal off erings, their instincts so
keen that their arrival, as the cal-
endar turns from November to
December, is quite reliable.
“The cows every year bring
their calves here, and they
learn, and then they bring their
calves,” Marvin said.
Although the elk know
when December comes, they
don’t always wait until then,
Marvin said.
In years when snow comes
early — 2020 was an exam-
ple, with a couple feet of snow
accumulating in the mountains
the fi rst half of November —
elk will wander into some of the
feed sites.
“Acting like they’re going
to starve to death,” Marvin said
with a chuckle during a 2020
interview.
But ODFW doesn’t start
bucking hay bales before Dec.
1, early snow or no.
The reason, Marvin said, is
that the Elkhorn Wildlife Area
remains open to the public,
including hunters, through Nov.
30, and he doesn’t want to, in
eff ect, set up bait stations where
elk would congregate.
Typically, as was the case
last year, early snow melts and
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Symptoms
As for symptoms of CWD, a cervid
may have the disease for months or years
before it becomes apparent.
“You can harvest a perfectly looking
animal and not be able to tell,” Furfey said.
Symptoms include staggering, poor
posture, a wide stance, apparent disori-
entation, lowered ears, an emaciated
appearance, consuming lots of water and
drooling.
“But again, it could take months or
years for those symptoms to show up,” she
said.
Furfey said anyone with questions may
call the ODFW’s Enterprise offi ce at 541-
426-3279 and talk to a wildlife biologist.
ODFW also has offi ces in La Grande and
Baker City.
Elk arrive right on schedule
2
AT&T
INTERNET 100
Terry Kreeger/Wyoming Game and Fish
This deer has visible signs of chronic wast-
ing disease. Two deer harvested in Idaho
in October just 30 miles from Wallowa
County tested positive for CWD recently.
“The news of an Idaho detection is
alarming, but we have been working for
years to keep CWD out of Oregon and pre-
paring to respond if it is detected here,”
said Colin Gillin, ODFW’s state wildlife
veterinarian.
RD
FEEL THE SPEED,
EVEN AT PEAK TIMES.
ENTERPRISE — Hunters and anyone
who comes in contact with a dead cer-
vid — deer, elk or moose — are asked to
bring in the heads for testing for chronic
wasting disease, a neurological disease
fatal to those animals.
Bree Furfey, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife district wild-
life biologist for Wallowa County, said
Thursday, Dec. 9, that hunters harvested
two deer in October in Idaho about 30
miles from the Oregon border. The deer
has since tested positive for CWD.
“It’s never been close to Oregon
before,” she said, adding that means
there has never been a case of CWD in
the state.
Furfey encouraged hunters or anyone
coming upon a dead cervid to drop off
the heads for disease sampling. A barrel
is outside the Enterprise ODFW offi ce
and the offi ces in La Grande and Baker
City. Information on where the animal
came from should be included.
According to an ODFW press release,
the Idaho Department of Fish and Game
has taken immediate steps to increase sur-
veillance to determine the prevalence rate
of the disease in the area including via a
special hunt. Oregon, too, is ramping up
CWD testing of deer and elk, especially
in Northeast Oregon, by asking hunters,
roadkill salvagers and others to help the
department look for any cases of the dis-
ease in Oregon deer and elk. There are
only a handful of moose in the state and
there’s no legal hunting of them.
casses or parts to stop at a check station if
they encounter one and to allow their ani-
mal to be tested.
A cervid parts import ban also remains
in eff ect: Oregon residents or those travel-
ing through who are returning from hunt-
ing out of state may not bring in certain
cervid parts that contain brain or spinal
cord tissues as these are known to be tis-
sues of CWD concentration in infected
animals. Several hunters have been cited
for violating this regulation, most recently
in Klamath County. Oregonians who hunt
in other states also need to be aware of and
follow that state’s regulations for CWD.
Furfey said that ODFW has been
closely watching for CWD since the late
1990s and has tested more than 23,000
samples since then. No tests have returned
positive, she said.
She said it is not believed that CWD
can be transmitted to humans, pets or live-
stock, but it is always fatal to cervids. She
said it comes from a protein that lives in
the environment and can for several years
while passing between animals.
She said if an animal tests positive, it is
recommended to not eat the meat.
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