TRAVERSE CITY -- Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm Friday signed an executive order creating a task force to address the threat of chronic wasting disease in Michigan deer and elk.

Former state Department of Natural Resources director Howard A. Tanner will be the task force chairman. The vice chairman will be William Taylor, chairman of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University.

Granholm's announcement comes exactly a year after CWD was discovered in Wisconsin, where it sent shock waves through the natural resources and scientific communities.

Michigan officials since have scrambled to seal the state's borders to a disease that could devastate the free-ranging deer herd and cripple portions of the state's multimillion dollar hunting and tourism industries.

The disease also threatens animals in some 900 captive herds of deer and elk in the state.

"That's why we wanted to get on it right away," Granholm said. "There is no doubt we don't want to see any chronic wasting disease in Michigan.

The task force will include five yet-to-be named members to be appointed by the governor, as well as the directors of the departments of Agriculture, Community Health, Environmental Quality, Natural Resources, State Police and Transportation. The directors will be nonvoting members.

The task force will make its recommendations to the governor by Sept. 19.

Sam Washington, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation clubs, said the state can't afford to take the CWD threat lightly.

"I think CWD is the most serious threat to the deer herd in Michigan that there has been in my lifetime," Washington said. "If it were to become established in some of our more populated deer areas, it would hurt tremendously."

Michigan has not had any cases of chronic wasting disease among its 1.8 million deer or smaller number of elk.

But about 60 deer have been found to have the disease in Wisconsin, the first place the disease has shown up east of the Mississippi River. The disease, usually found in Colorado and Wyoming, also has been found in Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and two Canadian provinces.

"Even though CWD has not yet crossed into Michigan, it poses a threat to an important way of life for those in the hunting and conservation community," Granholm said.

"This task force will develop a comprehensive statewide plan to deal with this disease in a preventive way that limits the threat," Granholm said, adding that the task force may consider pushing for legislation to further regulate the private deer and elk industry, which currently is barred from transporting animals into the state.