DWR conducts 'unprecedented' number of winter range patrols

THE BOOKCLIFFS, Uintah County — The headless deer carcass on the side of the Kings Well Road is cause for suspicion.

An examination of the pelvis shows that this desiccated tangle of bones and hide was once a healthy buck.

For Clint Sampson, a conservation officer with the state Division of Wildlife Resources, the absence of a head means the deer may have been poached.

"Where these deer hang out in these canyons makes it really easy for them to be seen from the road and shot from the road, too, without many people finding out about it," Sampson said.

He donned black latex gloves and began processing the potential crime scene, taking photos, recording GPS coordinates and collecting DNA samples.

"We've made a lot of cases with DNA," Sampson said, noting that officers can match the genetic material recovered in the field to meat in a poacher's freezer, a deer head mounted on the poacher's wall or even a few tufts of deer hair in a vehicle.

For the past four months, Sampson and other state wildlife officers have been keeping a close eye on the winter range used by Utah's deer herds. The animals are at their most vulnerable from November to March and tend to congregate in areas that make them easier to poach.

Numbers compiled by the DWR show that officers worked nearly 7,000 extra hours between Nov. 1 and Feb. 1, conducting patrols on the ground and in the air. They made contact with more than 4,300 people and confirmed the illegal killing of 63 deer with an aggregate value of $116,400.

"I have a difficult time putting a finger on the number of 'poachers' that we've caught, but can tell you that we've made some very significant cases involving the illegal killing of deer since the effort began," DWR Capt. Tony Wood said.

"Many of these cases have yet to be filed in the court system and those that have are still being adjudicated," he said.

Still, the saturation patrols on the winter range appear to be having the desired effect. During the winter of 2010-11, DWR officers identified 82 deer that had been illegally killed, Wood said. 

"Our intention with this (saturation patrol) effort was to take a proactive stance and deter poachers from taking advantage of the deer herds' inherent vulnerability this time of year," he said.