September 28, 2007

NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
Eastern Region – 2315 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, WA 99216
Contact: Madonna Luers, 509-892-7853

WDFW receives cameras, decoys from Mule Deer Foundation

SPOKANE VALLEY – Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) enforcement officers today learned how to use high-tech video cameras for surveillance work with robotic deer decoys from the donors of the new equipment, local Mule Deer Foundation (MDF) members.

A national non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of mule deer, black-tailed deer and their habitat, MDF’s Spokane chapter donated the $3,500 worth of equipment to the department to help protect deer and other wildlife from poaching.

“These are the kinds of tools we need but usually can’t afford,” said WDFW sergeant Dan Rahn, “so we really appreciate this group’s contribution.”

The donation was just the latest from MDF, which has a long working relationship with WDFW and other natural resource agencies in mule deer management and habitat development in Washington.

MDF Washington state chair Mike Jones, who accompanied Spokane chapter co-chairs Leonard Wolf and Jerry Yamada and local members for the equipment presentation and training at WDFW’s Spokane Valley office, noted that about $100,000 in equipment and thousands of hours of volunteer labor have been donated by the state’s seven chapters and the national office since 1988. Through fund-raising auctions, banquets and other events, the Spokane chapter alone has donated about $15,000 in the last three years, he said.

The largest MDF contribution in Washington has been a total of about $40,000 since 2001 for the WDFW Eastern Washington Cooperative Mule Deer Study. Several grants covered radio and satellite telemetry equipment, aerial animal capture and surveying flight time, and construction materials and labor for captive mule deer herd pens at Washington State University, a cooperating partner in the study.

Other recent MDF donations to WDFW include:

• Equipment and supplies for controlled burns to improve mule deer habitat on WDFW’s Sinlahekin Wildlife Area in Okanogan County
• Native vegetation seed, planting machinery (disk harrow), and fencing for mule deer habitat restoration on WDFW’s Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area in Lincoln County and Revere Wildlife Area in Whitman County
• Robotic deer decoys and ongoing repair and replacement for use by enforcement officers in the Spokane, Okanogan and Yakima areas
• Surveillance cameras, metal detectors, range finders and map books for use by enforcement officers in the Spokane area

Jones said MDF Washington members are currently working to help restore the 5,200 acres of mule deer winter range that burned in the Wenatchee area wildfire this summer and to improve habitat on the Colville National Forest.

“Besides our fund-raising for donations, we’re about boots-on-the-ground to help mule deer,” he said. “A few people, each doing a little, can accomplish a lot.”