Cattle moochers that run animals on public land are just as guilty as anyone when it comes to spreading disease and transmitting invasive species. In one drainage I hunt there’s at least 10 salt blocks dumped in the same spots every. Single. Year. And the elk, deer and moose hammer them just as hard as the cattle do, every day. That’s not helping a dam thing or any better than a guy dumping salt or apples infront of a camera he’s set up. Until you point an equal finger at the moochers running mountain maggots and doing the same thing as the guys baiting deer and elk, you can’t start accusing anyone of spreading CWD and being responsible for it in any areas.
I don’t care either way. Ban it. Elk still need water. Deer still need water. Deer and elk both need to eat. Guess what else they eat besides wild grass and other growth... hay. Piles of it. Every year. Moochers will still salt their animals in their grazing areas. Guys will still sit water. Guys will still sit hay fields. Guys will still kill animals, using “legal” tactics. You wanna tell a guy he can’t shoot an elk headed to a salt block he didn’t place there, on public land? Then you wanna try to convict him for it? Good luck with that.
all this is doing is creating more tension and emotions than what we’ve already got between hunters who have different methods of hunting. This isn’t solving problems, it’s creating new ones. I guarantee, this year, some utard that has not clue what’s going on, is gonna screw with some dudes trail cam and salt, because he thinks it’s “illegal” because he heard about it on Facebook. Then it’ll tie up limited officer resources, which we don’t have enough of as it is, creating more work for them, and taking their focus off the more important things. What a great job we’ve done here. And All over what? A few big deer shot on apples on some CWMUs that most of us will never be able to afford to hunt in 3 lifetimes? Because you don’t think it’s “fair”?