An invitation to work together from MDC Director Jason Sumners: Our shared responsibility for the future

Last December, I wrote to you about the challenges of managing Missouri’s deer herd in the presence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) and our decision to pause targeted removal while we engaged with the public and considered the path forward. I promised your voices would matter. Over the past several months, we’ve had conversations with hunters, landowners, and conservation partners across the state. While we didn’t agree on everything, there was overwhelming agreement on one thing: we all want a healthy deer herd and a strong future for deer hunting. 

Ensuring the future of deer hunting has never meant more to me than it does now. Over recent years, I’ve had the honor of reliving early hunting experiences through my son’s eyes. There is nothing more magical than watching the woods come alive in the morning alongside a curious child eager to understand the natural world.  I often reflect on my first experiences in the outdoors with my family and close friends, and how those early experiences shaped me not only as an outdoorsman but inspired me to become a wildlife biologist. Over the course of my career that passion has broadened to ensuring future generations inherit the same healthy deer herd and hunting traditions that mean so much to me. As Missouri’s deer biologist, I was there when CWD was first detected in our state. Today, as MDC’s director, and as a father introducing my son to the outdoors, I think about this issue from a different perspective. My responsibility isn’t just to today’s hunters, but to future generations who deserve the same opportunities I had. 

Our recent conversations with the public reinforced why Missouri’s conservation model has endured for nearly a century, because Missourians care. We clearly heard that the public not only want to know what decisions are made but also understand why. They want to be heard, and they want to be partners in the work. After one community conversation, a longtime MDC staff member pulled me aside and said, “We missed it. We were so focused on doing the work that we didn’t spend enough time having these conversations with the public.”   

The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is built on science as the basis for decision making. It tells us what is likely happening and what management actions are most likely to make a difference. As an agency entrusted with managing wildlife in Missouri, it’s our responsibility to apply that science with transparency and respect for the diverse opinions of the people we serve. To everyone who has reached out to chat, attended a community conversation, asked a question, or shared your perspective, I say, thank you. These conversations reminded me that respectful, face-to-face in-person dialogue remains the most effective means of clear, honest, and transparent communication.   

As a wildlife biologist, I don’t view targeted removal as a silver bullet to manage CWD. It’s simply one tool designed to accomplish a management objective of decreasing disease transmission to ensure the deer herd remains healthy. Its value comes from efficiently reducing deer densities, and the negative impacts of CWD, in localized areas where the disease has been detected. 

Over the last several months we’ve heard hunters and landowners express their preference and willingness to work together to manage deer and CWD through the regular hunting season. Given the distribution of CWD across the Missouri landscape, managing both the deer population and the disease at the scale required makes a shift in approach necessary. This gives us an opportunity to achieve the same conservation goal in a way that builds trust, encourages participation, and strengthens the partnership that is at the core of conservation in Missouri.

As a result of engagement and our continued evaluation, we have decided not to conduct targeted removals this winter and currently have no plans to resume this approach.

Instead, we’ll work alongside hunters, landowners, and other key partners to develop a localized approach in which hunter harvest is the primary tool to manage the deer herd and CWD during the regular deer season. Additionally, over the next few months we will be sharing more information about CWD and the science guiding management decisions.

Science tells us that once CWD becomes well established, management actions to sustain a healthy deer herd become more difficult. Keeping infection rates below 5 percent represents our greatest opportunity to slow the disease and protect the long-term health of the deer herd. With prevalence rates still below that level in most areas, we have a window of opportunity, but it won’t stay open forever and may already be closing in some areas in our state.

We’ll continue investing in research, monitoring, and adapting as new science emerges. And you have my continued promise that we will do this alongside hunters and landowners because success will be measured by how we work together to keep Missouri’s deer herd healthy for generations to come. 

To be clear, we are not giving up on managing the deer herd or CWD. With our shared goal of maintaining a healthy deer herd and strong hunting culture, there is no other choice than to work together to manage the state’s deer herd. My future grandchildren and so many other Missourians are counting on us.

After traveling across Missouri these past several months, I’m optimistic, not because we all agree on every aspect of deer management. It’s because conservation has always been built by people willing to work together for something larger than themselves.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.” 

By continuing to listen, relying on the best available science, and working together toward a common goal, I’m confident we can leave Missouri’s deer herd and the hunting traditions strong for generations to come. 

In gratitude,

Jason Sumners

Director, Missouri Department of Conservation