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.