Starting next week, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will be hosting public meetings across the state which will address chronic wasting diseases (CWD).
CWD is a contagious brain disease affecting deer, elk and moose that usually leads to death. It is found across the majority of the state. Game and Fish has partnered with the Haub School of Environmental and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming to develop a revised CWD management plan.
Janet Milek, the public information specialist for the Casper region with Wyoming Game and Fish, said the goal is to revise the current plan in use.
"The management plan that was developed in 2016 has a lot of different disease information and surveillance concepts and [we're] working to update that," she said.
More specifically, the department would like to get public input to include in the updated management plan.
"We're going to listen to a lot of what the public has to say," said Milek. "We're going to have breakout groups where we discuss what the public might want to see with the CWD management plan."
After this series of public meetings, the responses will be presented to the CWD working group. That group will update the current management plan according to the public input and science. Public meetings will be held in different cities across the state. An online meeting will also be posted at a later date.
