hey guys dan pickar here with eastmans hunting journals for today's tip uh we're going to take
a look uh at onX hunt app and we're going to look at a new layer that is offered it's the cwd layer
there's two different layers within that that you can activate and that's the cwd positive counties
and the cwd zones and locations which you click on those areas and it'll take you to an external
site where you can see testing locations and specifics on the area area that you click on
as everybody knows cwd is prevalent around the west and states are very proactive for
the most part about testing and finding cwd so it's taken very seriously uh and the the
big thing that i want to stress which is kind of new with different agencies around the west
and it will tell you this on the app as you click on these layers and you see
these cwd positive counties it'll take you to each state specific regulations
on what to do when it comes to transportation of your big game animal and this is kind of new
not a lot of hunters really know what to do or what you can and can't do but the big one is
it is illegal to transport a spinal column or brain matter outside of the state that you're
hunting they want you to leave the spinal column and the brain matter either in your hunting area
or you bring it to a residence and you dispose it in a certified county landfill or somewhere
where it's going to be disposed of safely and properly and the town deer or the neighbor's
dog or whatever isn't going to be in contact with that spinal or brain matter that's a huge
one a lot of guys and even for me too you got to pay attention to this because usually you're
out hunting whether you kill a deer or an elk and you're in a different state you load up maybe you
go gutless method and you have your quarters but you have the head and you're bringing brain matter
across state lines that's a no-no so the thing to do when you're transporting an animal home
is remove the brain matter you can skull cap the animal and remove the brain no big deal but maybe
you're going to mount the animal you don't have time to skull cap it or whatever that might be
so you have a whole head from a deer or elk you want to be sure that you remove that brain
so whether you take a screwdriver a wire or whatever that might be to remove the brain
it's imperative that you do that because you'll get chewed out and different states
have different regulations on whether or not they're fining hunters that are bringing brain
matter across state lines i haven't heard if they are actually writing tickets but you will
get chewed out so make sure that spinal column and that spinal matter and the brain matter is removed
from your carcass before you cross state lines or even county lines too as you can see as we kind of
scrub through the app here and we're scrolling down through colorado and eastern wyoming and
south dakota here most of these counties and most these states cwd has been detected and
probably the only reason they're they haven't been detected in some of these counties is they're
not testing just like with anything as they test more and more they're going to find more and more
pretty common cwd has been in the west for a long time and specifically in 1985 cwd was found in
wild elk in colorado so you can imagine over 30 years that it's spread and and agencies haven't
really been testing or haven't been watching for it
are we gonna see bigger problems with our deer and elk herds
i don't know it's hard to say but what we do know now is the current regulations transporting
game across state lines is there and you have your positive cwd counties and links to take you to
specifics on testing locations and positivity uh percentages in each county and state depending on
what state is is testing and what they do to keep track of statistics
not all states have mandatory testing actually none of these states out west
and you can click on these areas none of these states out west have mandatory testing
that i've encountered in montana idaho wyoming there's no mandatory testing going on
but as as you go to other states here we can click on this and it'll tell you
colorado testing units and it has all these informations testing informations more cwd
information it'll even take you to the national deer association site
and additionally i can click on this link here and it'll take me directly to car colorado parks page
on cwd where's it found where's it spread the background of it how they're expanding testing
direct statistics like we talked about so a pretty cool tool just one more bit of information and a
cool layer that you can toggle on and off on the onX hunt map so be sure to take a look and be
aware when you're crossing state lines with that brain matter to get rid of it before you go home