Quote Originally Posted by Harvest the Land View Post
Why can't we walk and chew gum at the same time?

If we can find $8 billion to send the most corrupt country in Europe, then its absolutely possible to find X number of dollars to build a wildlife fence to prevent the devastating CWD from entering our province. (and I agree its most likely already here)

Do you think it might be a bit hyperbolic and not entirely accurate to say "we have no idea what blocking off all natural migration in and out of the province would do to our wildlife"? I have hard time believing that we have no idea what the impacts will be and no idea which populations will be affected - there has to be at least one Bio in the govt that has some idea; someone must have looked into this at some point. Why will study after study after study have to be done? Seems a tad overkill and its a large reason why some folks have negative opinions of government. Too many unnecessary "studies" and nothing gets done. Build the fence and constantly monitor those population dynamics of those animals who used to migrate across the border. Surely most will have no problem adjusting. And if after a year, 3 years, 5 years etc we're noticing major negative impacts on those migrating populations, then re-assess and adjust as necessary. If some populations struggle in the short term that would be unfortunate but a small price to pay to keep BC CWD free.

Of course time is of the essence but it doesn't mean that we still shouldn't start building fencing somewhere and do our best to mitigate/prevent/monitor CWD as best as possible in the meantime (walk & chew gum). At the very least we should install sections of fencing in high migratory deer areas. If the BC govt was genuinely taking this issue seriously they would have built those and a much broader fence a decade ago.

Thanks for taking the time to reply
I realize that I was a bit too vague on this but to clarify, I don't work for the government. Just assisting with the program. I've edited my original post to make that clear for future readers. Apologies for the confusion.

We can all agree wildlife protection deserves more funding. The CWD Monitoring Program only gets so much per year from the province and every last dollar has been used as effectively as possible to get it to where it is now. There are plenty of ideas on the backburner if the funds are ever there for them. Reaching out to local representatives is the best route if we want to see them pushing to prioritize wildlife in the budget.