Government News Release: Deer Chronic Wasting Disease

News Release : May 29, 2009

Seven Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease During 2009 Spring Collections in Hampshire County, West Virginia

Test results have detected the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) agent in a total of seven white-tailed deer sampled during the 2009 spring collections in Hampshire County, according to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR).

These most recent deer testing positive for CWD were collected by Wildlife Resources Section personnel working in cooperation with local landowners, and they were all located within the Hampshire County CWD Containment Area (i.e., that portion of Hampshire County located North of U.S. Route 50). The CWD agent previously has been detected outside the containment area in the adjacent portion of Hampshire County, and the area of known infected deer does continue to slowly expand.

These collections have been designed to investigate and determine the prevalence and distribution of the disease in Hampshire County. In addition, wildlife biologists are carefully monitoring changes in the structure of the deer herd within the CWD containment area.

The first case of CWD in West Virginia was confirmed on September 2, 2005. Since then, DNR has been fully engaged in activities guided by its CWD Incident Response Plan, which is designed to accomplish the following objectives.

• Determine the distribution and prevalence of CWD through enhanced surveillance efforts.
• Communicate and coordinate with the public and other appropriate agencies on issues relating to CWD and the steps being taken to respond to this disease.
• Initiate appropriate management actions necessary to control the spread of this disease and prevent further introduction of the disease.

To date, CWD surveillance efforts conducted by the DNR have resulted in a total of 45 deer being confirmed positive for CWD in Hampshire County. Ongoing and extensive surveillance efforts being conducted by Wildlife Resources Section personnel throughout West Virginia have not detected CWD outside of Hampshire County.

CWD is a neurological disease found in deer and elk, and it belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The disease is thought to be caused by abnormal, proteinaceous particles called prions that slowly attack the brain of infected deer and elk, causing the animals to progressively become emaciated, display abnormal behavior and invariably results in the death of the infected animal. There is no known treatment for CWD, and it is fatal for the infected deer or elk. It is important to note that currently there is no evidence to suggest CWD poses a risk for humans or domestic animals.

“Landowner and hunter cooperation throughout this entire CWD surveillance effort in Hampshire County continues to be excellent,” noted DNR Director Frank Jezioro. “As we strive to meet this wildlife disease challenge and implement appropriate management strategies, the support and involvement of landowners and hunters remains essential. DNR is committed to keeping the public informed and involved in these wildlife disease management actions.

“Our well trained and professional wildlife biologists, wildlife managers and conservation officers are working diligently to effectively address this wildlife disease threat, and we are collaborating with nationally recognized wildlife disease experts at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens, Georgia,” said Jezioro.

Hoy Murphy, Public Information Officer (304) 558-2003 ext. 365 hoy.r.murphy@wv.gov

Contact:

Paul Johansen, Wildlife Resources Section (304) 558-2771 wildlife@wvdnr.gov

Humorus Stories from The Hampshire Review

The Nature Conservancy West Virginia

From the Nature Conservancy Website

For generations of North River Mills residents, summertime meant weekend pilgrimages to Ice Mountain. There, at the rocky base, they’d chip off chunks of ice to cart home as the critical ingredient in fresh, homemade ice cream and chilled lemonade.

Ice Mountain gets its name from the refrigeration effect that takes place inside its talus — a sloping mass of boulders at the foot of a mountain. In cooler months, dense, cold air sinks deep into the talus, and ice masses form inside. As the weather warms up, the cooler air flows out of vents among the rocks at the bottom of the slope. It’s here, at the foot of the mountain, that many local children would eagerly gather ice.

While it’s no longer necessary for people to collect the ice that forms there, the mountain’s base still sees its share of visitors who come to see the site’s rare plant community, native forest and the North River.

What You'll See

Ice Mountain Preserve, located in Hampshire County, protects a collection of boreal plants usually found much further north. Sustained by the cool air flowing from some 60 small holes and openings at the base of the talus, species such as twinflower, dwarf dogwood, Canada mayflower, and bristly rose all can be found here.

The 149-acre preserve also provides habitat for breeding neotropical birds such as warblers, vireos and thrushes, as well as a collection of birds and animals that are typical of the Central Appalachians. Lucky visitors may spot a raven nesting on the outcrops of "Ravens Rocks," catch a glimpse of an otter or mink fishing the North River, or hear a coyote howling at dusk.

Two trails traverse the preserve, taking visitors through the forest to either the rare plant area or the sandstone cliffs. The preserve is open for guided visitation most of the year, and visitors are asked to reserve a trip three weeks to a month in advance. Trips are usually held on Saturdays. To minimize impact, groups are limited to 15 participants. To schedule a tour, please call (30... or visit our trained volunteers’ web site.

Current Conservation Work

The Nature Conservancy has been working to combat threats to Ice Mountain Preserve through research and restoration efforts. These include:

• Working with volunteers to control invasive non-native plants, such as tree-of-heaven, garlic mustard and Japanese stillgrass, which compete with the preserve’s native and rare plants.
  
• Partnering with the US Forest Service and West Virginia Department of Agriculture to prevent the death o f hemlocks ( which shade and cool the ice vents) from an infestation of a non-native insect pest – the hemlock woody adelgid.
  
• Cooperating with West Virginia University geologists on research about the formation and conservation of the ice vents system.
  
• Monitoring natural forest regeneration in tornado damaged areas to inform forest restoration efforts

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Kent Mason (Ice Mountain); Photo © Kent Mason (Canada mayflower).

Another picnic photo

Another photo from the picnic. I was so busy zipping around, I didn't get work party photos, maybe someone else did.

MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC & WORK DAY

Memorial Day picnic was huge success. The work day started with a "breakfast" of cinnamon buns and coffee, then to work, fixing the two walk bridges and filling a few potholes. Then lunch was served and everyone went home for a nap. Dinner was at 6pm and many lot owners, permanent residents, local friends and other visitors were there. The weather cooperated, no one had a heart attack, so it was a great Ice Mountain day.

A visit to West Virginia’s Ice Mountain

(Suggested by Lew Townsend)

By Emily Corio

Listen Now (6:39)

December 31, 2008 ·

This story originally aired on July 31, 2008. It was rebroadcast on Dec. 31, 2008, as part of our "Best of 2008" series.

On a mountain in eastern West Virginia, plants that are normally found in arctic regions manage to survive. The place is appropriately named Ice Mountain.

That’s because ice is visible in small natural openings at the base of the mountain throughout much of the year.

The Nature Conservancy bought Ice Mountain in 1991 and allows guided tours through the preserve.

A tour of Ice Mountain starts in the community of North River Mills. Local resident, Terry Bailes, leads tours on behalf of The Nature Conservancy.

Bailes points out the rare plants and explains Ice Mountain’s cooling phenomenon.

In addition to knowing about Ice Mountain’s environment, Bailes also knows a lot about its history.

“They would talk about getting ice on the mountain for the Sunday school picnic, which they would have 200 people,” said Bailes. “And with that ice they made ice cream and lemonade. Everybody in the neighborhood talked about how good ice mountain lemonade was.”

West Virginia University Geology and Geography Professor Steven Kite is collecting temperature data at Ice Mountain. Inside some of the “vents,” or natural openings at the mountain’s base, Kite keeps thermometers, but he also brings a portable thermometer to take readings at the largest vent, the “Big One.”

“There’s a marked temperature contrast if you get over next to the vent, you can feel cold air coming out,” said Kite.

On the day we visited Ice Mountain the outside temperature was 80 degrees, but just inside the “Big One” vent, the temperature was only 44 degrees.

That’s actually one of the warmer temperature readings here. 35 degrees is the year round average. Why is that?

One common theory is that Ice Mountain’s deep rock, or talus, slope traps cold air, snow and ice.

The nooks and crannies in the rock slope are able to hold onto the cool air throughout the year, because cold air is denser and sinks.

The rock slope does not absorb the warmer outside air very well either.

But some have also wondered if Ice Mountain’s cooling effect comes from age old ice, buried in these rocks. Kite doubts that.

“There is certainly ice in the vents up until late May,” Kite said. “What’s going on underneath of the talus slope is hard to determine.

“Typically in the Appalachians we’re looking at six to 12 feet of loose boulders in a talus slope. Here, our geophysics suggests there may be 60 feet of loose boulders and a lot more void space for storage of ice and storage of cold air,” said Kite.

Kite says as many as 150 vents at Ice Mountain act as drains, releasing the cold air that’s trapped under this thick rock slope.

Unexpected plants grow where the cool air flows out.

“This is the Appalachian Woodfern, which grows on moss. It’s one of the rare plants that we’re monitoring on the mountain,” said Bailes. “They, at one point, thought that it was extinct, but as you can see, we have a number of ferns growing here near the cold vents.”

“Bristly Rose is the most widespread rose in the world, but occurs in the Canadian and Siberian Arctic,” said Kite. “It’s not that it’s a rare plant in the world, it’s a rare plant here.”

A tornado hit Ice Mountain in June and several trees fell onto the path. One of the vents that Kite has monitored for more than five years is now in direct sunlight. He keeps a thermometer inside this vent.

“I have it set up to record temperatures every hour,” said Kite. “My data files on temperature here at Ice Mountain actually will no longer plot using Excel, because there are too many data points.”

Even with all of these readings, Kite says it’s not enough information to notice a pattern of warming temperatures.

“People have been coming to Ice Mountain for well over 200 years, and I have six to eight years of temperature data,” Kite said. “So it’s hard to make big interpretations out of that.”

However, anecdotal evidence suggests Ice Mountain is changing.

“We have a journal from one of the ladies who talked about getting ice from the mountain,” said Bailes. “Her journal would say: Sunday, went on the mountain to get ice to make ice cream. That would be almost every week, and I never saw enough ice that we could have made ice cream after the end of May.”

Also, a 1998 Environmental Protection Agency report on climate change in West Virginia said the ice around the vents is disappearing earlier in the year. The report said this could negatively impact the plants found here.

“If we see the temperature conditions break down, then this area would become a free for all for other species to take up the niches that these plants are now occupying,” Kite said.

Bailes would hate to see that happen to this special place.

“If you go down on a hot day, you have the ice vents, which are blowing out at 40 degrees, and you have the river right there; it’s wonderfully peaceful,” said Bailes.

Table enclosure for the Common Area

What $800.00 worth of timbers, rebar, steel cleats, lag screws, landscape cloth, six Tiki Torches and 15.5 tons of pea gravel looks like when it is all put together. As usual, the labor is free.