In response to the discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a captive deer in northwest Kent County, all deer harvested in a nine-township area, known as the CWD Surveillance Zone, must be brought to one of four DNR check stations that have been set up in the zone. This hunter brought his deer to the Rockford Sportsman's Club. (DNR photographs by David Kenyon) Unlike some states, which require hunters to bring their deer to a check station, Michigan has always made deer checks completely voluntary, with one exception this year.

With the discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a captive deer in Kent County, hunters in nine townships of northwest Kent County must check in their deer at one of four Department of Natural Resources' deer check stations set up at these locations: Howard Christensen Nature Center, Rockford Sportsman's Club, Red Flannel Rod and Gun Club, and at the Rockford rest area on southbound US-131. The townships are Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon, known as the CWD Surveillance Zone.

The DNR has employed 17 additional temporary staff this fall to assist with mandatory deer registration at the four special check stations set up in the Kent County CWD Surveillance Zone. Tom Frontjes (left) and Jennifer Pond are two of the non-career wildlife assistants assigned to the Rockford Sportman's Club check station. In the rest of the state, visiting a check station continues to be completely voluntary, but DNR officials encourage hunters to bring their deer to one of more than 90 deer check stations across the state that will be open at some time during the deer hunting season.

The DNR maintains three traditional roadside stations on major highways (at the Mackinac Bridge in St. Ignace, on US-131 at Big Rapids, and I-75 at Clio) during the busiest days of the November 15 through November 30 firearms season and at a variety of temporary stations at road corners and businesses during the firearms season. A hunter also can check a deer at most DNR field offices during posted business hours during any deer season. A list of check station locations along with posted hours may be found on the DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnrhunting.

In the CWD Surveillance Zone, the DNR has placed refrigerated trucks at the check stations, allowing hunters to store their deer in those trucks while waiting for CWD test results. Once the hunter receives notification from the DNR Wildlife Disease Lab that their deer is negative, the deer may be picked up at the check station. Wildlife Division workers collect information from both deer and hunters at check stations. Hunters are first asked to provide the harvest location by locating the township, range, and section on a map. Next, the deer is examined to record the sex and age, as determined by tooth wear. If it's a buck, they examine the antlers, counting points (a minimum of one inch in length) and measuring the beam diameter one inch above the skull, data the DNR has been collecting for decades.

The beam diameter is an important measurement, since it gives biologists an indication of the overall nutritional health of the deer herd.

As an incentive for having their deer checked this fall, hunters will receive a 2008 Deer Management Cooperator Patch. The colorful patches, which have been given out to successful deer hunters since 1972, have become something of a collector's item. "We track the average beam diameter for bucks by age-class and region of the state," said Rod Clute, DNR big game specialist. "On an individual deer, that information is not very important, but when we can average hundreds of bucks for the year it does tell us the nutritional condition of the herd compared to previous years."

For example, in southern Michigan, the average beam diameter of one-and-a-half-yearold bucks is 22 millimeters (mm). If that measurement comes in larger on average, biologists know there was better-than-usual nutrition that year. If it's smaller, nutrition was not as good.

In the Upper Peninsula, the average beam diameter is between 16 and 17 mm, but it can vary by two to three mm annually, depending on environmental factors like a long, hard winter, a difficult spring, or a mast crop failure.

"We record the number of antler points because it's easily collected and a measurement that many hunters relate to; however, antler points provide limited biological information," Mr. Clute said.

"We also make note of broken racks to see if there is an inordinate number of them. Although broken antlers can be caused by aggressive fighting - this is not that common - they often are another indicator of nutritional stress."

Check station personnel make note of whether female deer are lactating. This is especially significant for the one-and-a-halfyear olds, as older does many times force their young to stop nursing well before deer season arrives. But with young does, it is an indicator of whether the doe raised a fawn and helps determine regional reproductive rates. More young-of-the-year does are bred in southern Michigan than in the northern parts of the state.

"Check stations also give us an opportunity to collect heads for disease testing," Mr. Clute said. "Sample collection will be extremely important this fall as we increase CWD surveillance statewide.

"But the most important data we collect is the sex and age of the deer. That information and the mail survey of hunter success are used in a standard sex-age-kill model to estimate the size of our deer herd," Mr. Clute added. "We're very careful about aging deer; every year we have a refresher course for personnel on aging deer. If we can't look at a deer's teeth, we don't guess its age. We need good data for the aging model to work well."

Contrary to what some hunters think, check station data is not used to estimate the deer kill. Harvest estimates are done by the mail survey. Years ago, DNR personnel used to make note of the percentage of deer that were hidden (inside vehicles, under tarps on trailers, or in a covered pickup truck bed, etc.) compared to those that were visible. Then, in conjunction with traffic surveys, personnel could get a rough idea of how the season was going. But those numbers were never used to make management decisions.

"It's one indicator we used to provide to the media, who often are surprised that we can't tell them how many deer were killed by the evening of opening day," Mr. Clute said. "But we no longer collect that information. With more SUVs and pickup trucks with caps, fewer deer are visible when transported. Over the past five years, the majority of our harvest occurs in southern Michigan. Northern Michigan highway surveys wouldn't provide an overall picture of the deer season."

One of the most important aspects of the check station, Mr. Clute said, is that it gives wildlife personnel a chance to chat with hunters, to see what is on their minds.

"Getting hunters' opinions is invaluable to us," Mr. Clute said. "For that reason, we encourage unsuccessful hunters to stop at a check station and tell us what they're thinking, too."

Wildlife officials appreciate the sportsmen and sportswomen who take the time to bring their deer to a check station, and show that appreciation by giving each successful hunter a 2008 Deer Management Cooperator Patch.

"Last year we checked roughly 45,000 deer out of 476,000 harvested," Mr. Clute said. "That's a fairly typical annual ratio. We usually look at about nine percent of the deer killed. For the 2008 seasons, we would like to increase that percentage with even greater hunter participation."