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Show , , Brian Shearer New DWR Officer Brian Shearer ESCALANTE He's not Santa Claus, but within the week new Division of Wildlife Resources Conservation Officer Brian Shearer will come bearing gifts to local hunters. One of his very first tasks at his new station in Escalante will be to receive the 1997 Big Game Proclamations, to be released Christmas eve and available to the public following Christmas. Shearer, 33, is one of five children born to Gordon Shearer, Hurricane. Born in Cedar City where his father worked for the United States Forest Service, he lived also in Hurricane and Jackson, Wyo. Attending college at Southern Utah University from 1987-1991, he graduated with a degree in zoology. He worked seasonally for the forest service as a wildlife (See New DWR Conservation Officer On Page 2A) New DWR Conservation Officer Brian Shearer From Page One technologist in the north Kaibab while living several years in the Jacob Lake area. Shearer also served nine years with the Utah Army National Guard. In 1985, he married Lucy Cox from northern Arizona in the St. George LDS Temple. She has worked as a fire fighter with the Bureau of Land Management and will continue working and commuting to Teasdale for a short time. Shearer began work as a wildlife biologist at fish hatcheries in Loa and Egan, while the couple lived in the Teasdale area. He trained in law enforcement at Peace Officers Standards of Training from Jan. -Apr. of 1996 to certify as a conservation officer. He has always liked the outdoors and with hunting and fishing as his favorite activities, being a conservation officer is not a difficult stretch. He has fished extensively in the Boulder Mtn. area and looks forward to now working in that region. Escalante was Shearer's first choice when the conservation slot opened up and he was selected from a field of 150 applicants. Shearer says being a conservation officer is 80 percent enforcement of fish and game rights, so he feels that it is right up is alley. His experience with DWR has included big game surveys, counting types and numbers of animals in Utah herds; conducting creel census at numerous lake locations and he has participated in the transplanting of fish and gill netting. He will be covering the areas of Escalante and Boulder, 50-Mile Mountain and Bryce Valley. Shearer says he looks forward to meeting new people over on this side of Boulder mountain. He hopes people realize that there is a new fishing limit on Boulder Mtn. It has changed from six to eight with only two of the fish being over 13 inches long. This excludes Lower Bowns and Wide Hollow Reservoir. Also, he reminds interested hunters that big game proclamations will be released Christmas Eve and available immediately following Christmas. This year, Boulder Mountain will go to a spike only elk hunt. The big game application drawing deadline is Jan. 31, 1997. |