The fall hunting rules have been approved and Earn-A-Buck is back.
Hunters had to shoot a doe before a buck in 21 of the state's hunting zones. This fall that controversial program will be extended to 35 zones as a way to control the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. Something's working.
Bob Michelson of the West Central DNR office says all 75-hundred samples tested in the 19 county region came back negative meaning CWD has not spread north from the southern third of the state.
But the DNR warns herd thinning measures like Earn-A-Buck are still necessary because CWD and other diseases can spread without warning. The DNR will announce plans next month to get more public input on how to keep the disease in check.