The shotgun deer season is well underway and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is again monitoring for signs of Chronic Wasting Disease in the animals taken by hunters. D-N-R wildlife research supervisor, Willy Suchy, says they’ve been testing for C-W-D since 2002. “We’ve had a couple of positives now, one in a wild herd and a couple in captive situations, so we are doing enhanced surveillance in those areas to see if there’s anything on the landscape that we need to look for,” Suchy says.

The main effort will concentrate on portions of northeast and eastern Iowa near Wisconsin and Illinois, south-central Iowa near Missouri, as well as in Pottawattamie, Cerro Gordo and Buchanan counties. The one positive in the wild population came in Allamakee County in 2013.  “The good news is that we’ve sampled up there for 12 years and this is the first positive. We’ve had over thousand samples within five miles of where this deer was detected, and when we look at the genetics — Iowa State examined it — and it looks likely, you can’t say 100 percent for sure, but it looks likely that it was a Wisconsin deer that actually emigrated into Iowa,” according to Suchy. While C-W-D is fatal to deer, Suchy says it is not a concern for hunters.

“If a deer tests positive, the C-D-C does encourage people to not eat those deer, but there is no proven health risk,” Suchy says. The C-W-D sampling involves removing and testing the brain stem and lymph nodes of the deer. Hunters willing to provide samples may contact a D-N-R regional office to arrange collection. For more information, check the Iowa D-N-R’s website at: www.iowadnr.gov.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Kate Olson

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The state entered winter with groundwater levels up and no drought conditions reported in the state, but that has changed a little in recent weeks. Tim Hall tracks the water conditions for the Department of Natural Resources and says drought conditions in the Dakotas and parts of Minnesota have crept into Iowa. “That’s just sort of snuck into the northwest corner of the state, it’s not a big deal right now, we just want folks who live in that part of the state to be aware of it, and we’ll just sort of keep an eye on it over the winter,” Hill says. The area has been rated “abnormally dry” which Hall says is the rated that brings the least concern for drought conditions. November saw more snowfall than normal, but Hall says that doesn’t help the dry conditions at this time of year.

“The frozen ground prevents a lot of general soaking in of rainfall, plus we’ve got to keep in mind that there’s often a ten to one ratio between the amount snow we get and the amount of moisture that is in that snow,” Hall says. “So, a ten-inch snowfall — which is a big deal in Iowa — could be as little as an inch of rain, which isn’t as big a deal.” Overall though, Hall says Iowa’s waterways are in good shape right now. He says the state has battled abnormally low stream flow levels over the past couple of years. “Generally in the winter stream flow levels are pretty low to being with, and over the last couple of years we have seen abnormally low stream flows when it’s normally low anyway. This year going into winter, we are actually in pretty good shape stream-flow wise,” Hall says. He says most of the state has normal stream flow and western Iowa has some above-normal stream flows.

“That indicates there’s an abundance of moisture in the system and that spells good news potentially for spring planting as there is enough moisture out there,” Halls says. “That’s a significant improvement over where we’ve been over the last couple of years.” One other things Hall has noticed about the water systems this winter is that we’ve seen some of the earliest lake ice on record for Iowa’s northern lakes. Big Spirit Lake froze November 16th and West Okoboji Lake was close to being completely frozen on December 1st.

“Generally the onset of ice on the lakes isn’t a huge impact on the hydrology,” according to Hall. He says it is kind of interesting for “weather junkies” to look at and see how the icing of the lakes compares to past years. Hall says the ice on the lakes can help prevent some evaporation, but overall it doesn’t have a major impact on the water situation. And he says the changing temperatures will make the ice conditions vary quite a bit. For more on of Iowa’s water resource trends, go to www.iowadnr.gov.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report a Carroll man was injured Saturday when he was hit by a shotgun slug while deer hunting. 47-year old Eric Winker was part of a hunting group and was helping to drive deer when a shotgun slug fired at a moving deer from another hunter in the party hit him in the abdomen. The group was hunting southwest of Lanesboro in Carroll County when the incident occurred at approximately 2:30-p.m.

Winker was transported to Steward Memorial Hospital in Lake City, transferred to Unity Point Health in Fort Dodge and then life-flighted to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. The incident is still under investigation by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Deer hunters are reminded to make sure where other hunters in their party are at all times and to never fire in the direction where other members of the group are expected to be. According to DNR Recreational Safety Officer Jeff Barnes “Most of [the] incidents happen when shots are being fired at moving deer so it is essential to always be aware of your zone of fire.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Global consumption of seafood is outpacing wild fish populations, so farmers are turning from roving the world’s waters to aquaculture. Increasingly, that includes growing fish in large indoor tanks in the Midwest — hundreds of miles from any ocean, bringing the surf to America’s turf.

Experts say fish farming in tanks — or closed containment systems — nearly eliminates fish manure runoff and waste through use of water recirculating and treatment systems. It also eliminates the chance of spreading disease or genetic mutation to wild populations.

And such tank systems can be placed almost anywhere — from Minnesota to Florida — because temperature and water quality can be controlled in an indoor environment. Recently such operations have popped up in Nebraska and Iowa — typically cattle and corn country.

The Cass County Extension office is once again hosting continuing instructional courses (C-CICs) for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December. Kate Olson, Extension Program Coordinator in Cass County, says “We know year end is a busy time for all, but we don’t want anyone to miss the
opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short.”

Olson said “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first served basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up!” Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or emailing lander@iastate.edu<mailto:lander@iastate.edu>.

For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, visit
www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/ComAp.html.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say a man from northeastern Iowa was charged after allegedly threatening hunters near his property in rural Cresco. 61-year old Ralph Leroy Flugge, was charged Friday, with two counts of threats of terrorism against hunters, both Class D felonies. He was later released on $5,000 bond.

During execution of a search warrant at Flugge’s home on Friday, law enforcement officers seized 30 different firearms. The search warrant was executed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and
assisted by the Iowa State Patrol Tactical Unit, the Howard County Attorney’s office and the Howard County Sheriff’s Department.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Aside from increased demand for corn to make food sweeteners and a boost in soybean exports, few adjustments are found in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest crop update. The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not change in Wednesday’s report the number of corn acres planted this year, as some analysts expect it may.

The agency will likely wait until January to make adjustments, because there is still corn in some Michigan and Wisconsin fields. Currently, the number of acres reported in federal program applications exceeds USDA estimates by about 5 million acres, a larger discrepancy than usual.

Farmers in 22 states including Iowa and Nebraska expect record corn yields this year as part of the anticipated record 14.41 billion-bushel crop. Soybean farmers expect a record 3.96 billion bushel harvest.

A wildlife research supervisor with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says hunters have reported harvesting 19-percent more deer in Iowa during the first shotgun season compared to last year. Willy Suchy credits the relatively mild weather. “Last year was a tough shotgun opener with really cold weather and strong winds,” Suchy said. Today (Wednesday) is the final day of the first shotgun deer season. Suchy anticipates the first season’s harvest will be around 37,000 deer.

“We’re similar to where we were in 2011-2012,” Suchy said. “We’re down substantially from the peak in 2006. Deer numbers are down.” Around 150,000 deer were killed in Iowa in 2006, the first year of so-called “mandatory harvest reporting” in the state. Prior to 2006, the DNR conducted a harvest “estimate” which was calculated based on a postseason postcard survey. Last year, hunters in Iowa killed fewer than 100,000 deer for the first time since the mid-1990s. Suchy isn’t sure yet if the harvest will be below six-digits again this year.

“A lot will depend on this next weekend, the second shotgun season. We still have a lot of licenses to be issued,” Suchy said. “Sometimes, when we have a good opener in the first season, a lot of hunters don’t go the second season so maybe there are (fewer deer killed). But, if we have good weather like we’re looking at, we may have somewhere around 100,000 animals reported.” The deer harvest during the first shotgun season increased over last year, despite 3,000 fewer licenses being sold this year compared to 2013. Suchy notes the license sales decline was primarily due to fewer antlerless licenses being available, which was by design.

Iowa’s second shotgun deer season opens this Saturday (December 13) and runs through Sunday, December 21.

(Radio Iowa)