Columnist Paula Del Giudice: Commission to set tag quotas

Thursday, May 9, 2002 | 9:30 a.m.

Paula Del Giudice's outdoors column appears Thursday. She can be reached at desertdenizens@aol.com.

The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners will set big game tag quotas and discuss proposed wildlife-related legislation during a public meeting on Friday and Saturday at the Nevada Division of Wildlife in Reno.

Commissioners on Friday will discuss management of resident Canada geese, approve projects to be funded during 2003 from the state's Wildlife Heritage Program and consider a request to support Elko County's effort to have bull trout removed from the Endangered Species Act.

Other agenda items include presentation of reports on the Antelope Species Management Plan, Overton Wildlife Management Area, private lands wildlife and commercial collection of wildlife. There will also be reports on mountain lion tags concurrent with hunting seasons, compensation tags for all weapons hunts, wilderness proposals and wind power generation for Clark County and elk management plans for Elko County and central Nevada.

On Saturday, commissioners will discuss proposed legislation affecting the Nevada Division of Wildlife, including a revised license fee structure for licenses. Other legislative proposals include changing NDOW from a Division to a Department, Wildlife Commission approval of NDOW's budget, accepting advertising in agency publications and use of private firms for printing NDOW publications.

The setting of quotas for big game animals and harvest objectives for mountain lions for 2002 will be set at the meeting. This year Commissioners will be looking at the possibility of significantly reducing the number of deer tags that will be issued to Nevada hunters.

Based on surveys conducted by NDOW biologists, the number of deer in the state has dropped from last year's estimate of 129,000 to a current population of around 108,000 animals. These losses have occurred due to drought, the impacts of extensive fires in the deer's winter range and a hard winter. This has resulted in NDOW biologists recommending that resident deer tags for the popular 1131 hunt (the any legal weapon buck hunt) be reduced from 13,794 tags in 2001 to 10,549 this year.

Populations of antelope, bighorn sheep and mountain goat are similar to last year while the state's elk population is growing. The growth in elk herds can be seen in a recommended hike of in tags from 351 last year to 545 this year for the 4151 any legal weapon bull hunt. The NDOW has reached its objectives as set in the Elk Management Plan and will be relying on hunters as a control.

Wildlife Commission meetings are open to the public. Public input periods are scheduled both days.

The effort -- one of the first in the nation to place tracking devices on fetal fawns in an effort to determine exactly how many are carried full term -- is ironically taking place on Colorado's Uncompaghre Plateau, one of the few places where mule deer populations have actually increased the last three years.

The Mule Deer Foundation provided nearly $8,500 last week to help kick off the study, which officials estimate may cost between $80,000 and $85,000 by completion.

Scientists will place radio tracking devices after tranquilizing pregnant does. The device will then be monitored by biologists to determine the percentage that survive until birth. In those cases where cause of fetal mortality can be identified data will also be compiled.

For more information call (888) 375-DEER or visit www.muledeer.org.

But that's exactly the case, and according to Ron Mills, wildlife area supervisor, draining the lake combined with work efforts that will be done while the lake is dry will make it a productive sport fishery and waterfowl hunting area for many years to come.

Mills said the draining should help rejuvenate the lake by unlocking nutrients that have become locked up over the years. NDOW purchased the management area, including the lake, in 1959 and it hasn't been fully drained during that time.

NDOW hopes the lake will become dry in the next few weeks, but there are some unknowns that may arise. One is whether there are springs beneath the lake or other water sources that may prevent it from drying completely.

Once the lake is dry, or close to it, NDOW plans to burn the dry layer of peat and other vegetation that cover the lake's bottom. Heavy equipment will then be brought in to work on scraping the lake's bottom and build nesting islands for waterfowl. Holes may also be blown into the lake to provide deep channels for boating and fishing.

Mills said that one of the noticeable results of the project will be the enhancement of boat launch facilities on the upper end of the lake. This should improve boating access for anglers as well as waterfowl hunters.

Actual work on the lake will not take place until the summer of 2003 because the lake will not be dry until that time. NDOW anticipates it will begin refilling the lake in late fall or early winter of 2003.

Game fish will be returned to the lake soon after the lake is refilled.