can you cut and paste the article please? I'm not turning off my ad blocker to read it.
North Dakota's Game and Fish Department is offering license refunds to more than 9,000 deer hunters due to an outbreak of disease in western North Dakota.
State wildlife officials in August began documenting deer deaths due to epizootic hemorrhagic disease -- commonly called EHD.
"Loss of deer to this disease appears to have extended into October and covers a large area of western North Dakota,” said Bruce Stillings, big game supervisor for the department.
Compiling hard data on case numbers is difficult because most of the evidence is anecdotal from landowners, but the department has received more than 100 reports, according to state Wildlife Chief Jeb Williams.
The agency is offering refunds to hunters with whitetail licenses in 12 hunting units in the southwest and west central regions of the state: 3D1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 4F. There are "moderate to significant" deer losses in those units, according to Stillings. Large areas of some affected units had no reports of deaths, however, and Game and Fish encourages hunters to check with people in their hunting area to find out the extent of mortality.
“The whitetail population has not been decimated, and in many areas a good harvest is still needed,” Stillings said.
