S2 E13 - Nevada Department of Wildlife - Tony Wasley, Director and Brian Wakeling, Big Game Coordinator

S2 E13 - Nevada Department of Wildlife with Director Tony Wasley and NDOW’s game division manager Brian Wakeling

This week’s episode of Talking Mule Deer features that great state of Nevada. We talk to the executive director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Tony Wasley, and game division manager Brian Wakeling about what’s going on in the state. Wasley has also been co-chairing a national committee working to evaluate how to make conservation, hunting and fishing relevant in society when they appear to be declining in priority. He talks about a “Roadmap to Relevance” that partners are developing with specific recommendations on how to help spread awareness of our wildlife and outdoor traditions. We then shift gears and hear about the status of Nevada big game animals. Brian talks about current populations and tells us about habitat quality and the impacts of recent big fires on the sagebrush landscape. We also learn a little bit about the challenge of managing feral horses and burros in the state and how these rapidly growing populations are affecting public lands. Steve asks about the state game commission’s decision to regulate trail cameras around water holes and Tony talks about why this has been a growing issue and what the regulations are intended to do. We talk about Nevada’s efforts to conserve big game migration corridors and wrap up with an overview of the state’s new online licensing system.