To put together our deer-objective recommendations for the Wildlife Board, we will be holding open houses at different locations across the state during the month of February. We hope to gather your input on two important topics…

Just the other day I drove through an agricultural area near St. George and saw something I’d never expect in Utah: a white-tailed kite, sitting in a tree and begging to be photographed.

As a wildlife photographer, I am always looking for an opportunity to get close to wild animals. Several years ago, when rumors started to fly about California Condors frequenting the Kolob area near Zion National park, I decided to investigate and see for myself.

Last year, I worked to restore an abandoned pipeline system. This system provided water to two separate drainages. Accompanied by local ranchers and dedicated hunters, we repaired approximately 15 miles of pipeline and restored water to areas that hadn’t seen moisture for years.

It didn’t take long to discover that stripers could reproduce without limit in their new environment. The striper population was out of control and very hungry. It was obvious that we couldn’t feed the millions of fish produced, and adding more forage was not the answer.

Usually, we don’t handle or move young animals because their mothers can smell our scent and become afraid of their offspring. In this case, we chose to move any fawns we found. We knew if they weren’t moved, they would certainly be killed by the swathers.