“If there’s an area in Utah that attracts mule deer in the winter,” Wood says, “we’re watching it.”
Wood encourages you to get involved.
“This winter,” he says, “as you travel to areas where deer congregate, make sure 1-800-662-3337 is programmed into your cell phone. That’s our Turn-in-a-Poacher hotline number. If you see anything suspicious, call us. The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Patrol efforts
Wood says DWR officers are doing the following this winter:
– Patrolling winter ranges at night. Officers are conducting these patrols on land and from the air.
– Conducting saturation patrols that put several DWR officers on the same piece of winter range at the same time.
Wood says winter range patrols are underway across Utah. The patrols will continue until the deer shed their antlers this spring.
Poachers take a big toll
So far in 2014, wildlife officers have investigated the illegal killing of 152 mule deer in Utah.
Most of the deer were bucks. The antlers on seven of the bucks were big enough to place the deer in a trophy category.
“If you’re a hunter,” Wood says, “you would have been thrilled to take any of these bucks. Poachers took that chance away from you.”
The monetary value of the animals to Utah’s citizens is $114,000.
Contact: Mark Hadley, DWR Relations with the Public Specialist, 801-538-4737