The images from an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) are disturbing.
The kind of thing that sticks with you.
Jeff Pals, apparently more than anybody else, has done an excellent job of documenting the EHD outbreak in the south suburbs.
Pals is an avid bowhunter and conservationist. You may also remember him as the guy who scored Chris Kiernan's world-famous 37-point buck.
Well Pals sent me a long e-mail on Monday about the EHD outbreak and it became the basis for my outdoors column today in the Sun-Times. Click here for the column.
The outbreak is far bigger and more devastating than originally reported. Pals put the dead deer in the hundreds (he has documented something like 70 already) and the area is broader than just Crete.
In some ways, the images speak even louder than the words.
Dale: I found a dead doe in the woods in front of my Crete home yesterday. I call the DNR and they said to report it to the wildlife bilogist for Will County. The contact is Joe Rogus 815-476-2523.He is tracking the EHD in our area. To have it removed if it is close to the road call the Crete Township road super. Tony Recupito at 708-672-7732. Ed
Hi Ed.
Dale, How can Will County still go through with the culling of 137 doe's in Goodnow (Plum)Grove when so many deer have been naturally taken by EHD in this area? I am not saying Im against population control but it seems to me the forest preserve dist. may be working from old numbers and a new survey may be in order. I hunt a property directly adjacent to this area and can tell you that the deer numbers are almost nothing. I have never seen so few deer.