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Show S, It's Your Wildlife I 1 ov'rn Ih y Garth Cer 1 AAAA.... The second article in a series of four wildlife-drought related topics is "The Drought and Utah Waterfowl." The author, Brent K. Hutchings, is the superintendent at Desert Lake Waterfowl Management area. Brent transferred to the southeastern region from a waterfowl position in northern Utah. Besides taking time to help get wildlife news to the public, Brent is very active in working with his management area to produce maximum yields in waterfowl as well as other game and non-game species, gkc The Drought and Utah Waterfowl Waterfowl species in years of drought conditions probably suffer more immediate adverse ad-verse effects than any other bird or animal, the exception being that of the aquatic wildlife. As water flows and pond levels decrease the temperature tempera-ture will rise allowing oxygen levels to decrease and stagnation stagna-tion to increase. The environment environ-ment then becomes right for a form of botulism lethal to waterfowl. In the past botulism botu-lism has killed as many as fifty thousand ducks along the Great Salt Lake marshes during a single summer. At present such stagnant conditions condi-tions have already cost the lives of several small shore and wading birds. This, however, is only stagnation and not botulism. Many of the aquatic plants are overcome and killed by the salt and alkali build-up in the water. This eliminates an important food source for the ducks, especially the bay or diver ducks, such as redheads and canvasbacks. The receding reced-ing water line and dying vegetation causes a reduction of available nesting sites. Also, the way is opened for predators that would otherwise other-wise avoid the nesting areas. These two elements alone will reduce the production of young considerably. Young that do hatch are lost or will ultimately die in areas where the ponds or sloughs completely com-pletely dry up before they have had a chance to grow their flight feathers. As more and more birds congregate into the small remaining marshlands, an overcrowding stress factor comes into effect. This causes eggs to be infertile, nests to be abandoned and the weakened to be pushed aside to starve and die, or become the victim of the ever present predators awaiting such an opportunity. With food production on the wetland areas down, waterfowl water-fowl are forced to find other sources. Many of these new sources are private ponds and crops. This causes a sharp increase in the depredation problem. Crops have been eaten and trampled, also stock ponds have been stirred up to become muddy and undesirable. undesir-able. These are just a few of the most prominent problems that will cause the Utah waterfowl to decrease or to leave the state for areas more abundant in viable wetlands to survive, --bkh- . The big game animals as well as most other animals are giving birth to young presently. present-ly. The annual wildlife-human problems seem to arise every year at this time. Often it seems as though mother nature puts the young wildlife in dangerous positions. pos-itions. Such as the young fawn deer that gets separated or the young owl that falls out of its nest. If you happen to come upon such a situation leave the young alone. The maturing process often involves many dangerous situations to wildlife, wild-life, but human intrusion (the majority of the time) does not help matters, in fact, it often negates the possibility of the adult wildlife re-accepting the young. gkc Last year the antelope fawn crop on the Hatch Point antelope unit was drastically low. We hope to better monitor fawn survival through the coming year. In doing so Conservation Officer Rick Schulze and myself would appreciate any data from observers that is possible. Data should include: date, location seen, total number of animals, total number of bucks, does and fawns and the observer's name. Please notify us if you can obtain the preceding data. gkc Fishing has dropped off on the LaSals. Catch rates are still excellent bat bait, time and efficiency of the angler vary catch rates. Oowah Lake is producing stocked and hold over trout to both bait and fly fishermen. Don's and Hidden Lake are also producing some good catches to bait and fly fishermen. The south end of Dark Canyon, Blue, Beaver and Medicine Lakes are undergoing a tremendous fly hatch, thus bait fisherman will have to work hard for catches while the skillful fly fisherman may hit the jackpot. Because of low water level in Blue Lake, it will not be stocked this year, although it does contain holdovers from last year. I strongly encourage sportsmen to fish Beaver Lake as the water level will mostly become too low for fish survival and we should harvest as many of the fish as possible. gkc Have you ever been out in the hills or desert and become stranded for one reason or the other? The fellow that just happens by and helps you get rolling is a lifesaver, isn't he? While patroling the south end of the LaSals last week I bent the flywheel cover in my outfit. Although it didn't put my vehicle out of commission it called for on the spot repair. As I started to crawl under my vehicle the Sportsman of the Week Jim Stover insisted on lending a hand. It's nice to have sportsmen in the woods, that are willing to help others. Like Jim said, "Nothing makes me madder than to see a guy in trouble and have others just drive on by!" Thanks, Jim. |