8 months ago
Swift News
The province is introducing a deer hunt around Cranbrook for a few weeks in January in order to collect additional samples to help monitor the prevalence of Chronic Wasting Disease.
Anyone with a valid hunting license and appropriate whitetail and mule deer tags can hunt between Jan. 5-31, 2026 in a designated area around Cranbrook that is identified with a map in the online hunting regulations.
During the hunt, hunters in the designated Cranbrook zone will be allowed to harvest one additional deer, in addition to the regional "bag limit" of two. The additional deer will only be allowed to be harvested during the January deer season.
The hunt will allow the harvest of both antlered and antlerless mule deer and white-tailed deer. It will be open to any licensed B.C. deer hunter. Hunters play an important role in B.C.'s ability to contain CWD, as their participation and submission of harvested animals for testing is crucial to disease detection and control.
The province says the hunt intends to lower deer density in the surrounding area near Cranbrook to reduce the opportunity for spread and remove potentially infected animals from the landscape.
According to the province, reducing deer numbers will help protect wildlife health, hunting opportunities and the cultural, recreational and food resources communities rely on.