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NM Game and Fish asking hunters for heads
Silver City Daily Press
9/18/02
The leaves are beginning to turn, the nights are getting chilly and school is back in session.
That means it is hunting season, which has prompted the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to concentrate on chronic-wasting disease, the West Nile virus threat, educational programs, and the enforcement of hunting laws.
Hunters are being asked to submit the heads of freshly killed deer and elk to be tested for chronic-wasting disease, which so far has been detected just once in New Mexico (in a deer at White Sands Missile Range in June).
As an incentive, those who do so will be entered in a drawing for a permit to hunt oryx or Valle Vidal elk.
Game and Fish officers will take samples in the field while on patrol, and check stations are scheduled in deer-hunt units in the northwest and southeast regions of the state.
In the Gila National Forest area, hunters may have elk and deer heads tested at the fish hatchery in Glenwood.
To be tested, an animal must not have been dead longer than 48 hours. The procedure takes only a few minutes and does not damage the heads, according to the department.
"The hunt-incentive program includes elk, but the focus is on deer because the disease occurs more frequently in deer in the wild," said Barry Hale, a deer biologist with the department.
Hunters can expect to encounter uniformed and plain-clothed department officers in the woods. They will be checking for licenses and hunting tags, making sure game was taken legally, enforcing off-road-driving regulations, ensuring that hunting is not taking place in the wrong units or on ranches, and enforcing bag limits and criminal-trespass laws.
New Mexico State Police, county sheriff's departments, the Forest Service and other law-enforcement personnel are planning roadblocks during the hunting season to check for drivers' licenses, vehicle registrations, wood-cutting permits and drunken drivers.
Wildlife-decoy operations also are planned.
The department announced that a free workshop for teachers is scheduled for Sept. 26-29 in the Gila National Forest "to explore new educational programs about New Mexico's watersheds."
Presenters from the department, Project WET, Watershed Watch, the Earth Works Institute and the state engineer's office will lead programs and provide resource materials.
Topics are to include watershed restoration, xeriscape curriculum and Gila trout programs. Hands-on activities like riparian survey techniques, bird walks and herpetology studies also are on the agenda.
The workshop is designed for "formal and nonformal educators," with one professional development credit available through the University of New Mexico.
For more information about the event, call the conservation education division of the Department of Game and Fish at (505) 476-8119.
The agency has issued a warning to hunters regarding the West Nile virus.
"Although very few individuals become seriously ill from the disease (carried by mosquitoes)," the officials wrote in a news release, "hunters may take some simple precautions to avoid mosquito bites."
The department recommended using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, avoiding shooting birds that exhibit erratic behavior, wearing rubber gloves while cleaning and handling animals, and thoroughly cooking meat.
West Nile virus symptoms are similar to those of the flu, and usually are not severe for healthy people, according to the department. There is no vaccine for humans, but most veterinarians have one for horses.
Hunters who find dead birds — especially if they are ravens, crows, grackles, jays or blackbirds — are asked to call the state Health Department at (800) 879-3421, or the Game and Fish Department.
Silver City Daily Press
9/18/02
The leaves are beginning to turn, the nights are getting chilly and school is back in session.
That means it is hunting season, which has prompted the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to concentrate on chronic-wasting disease, the West Nile virus threat, educational programs, and the enforcement of hunting laws.
Hunters are being asked to submit the heads of freshly killed deer and elk to be tested for chronic-wasting disease, which so far has been detected just once in New Mexico (in a deer at White Sands Missile Range in June).
As an incentive, those who do so will be entered in a drawing for a permit to hunt oryx or Valle Vidal elk.
Game and Fish officers will take samples in the field while on patrol, and check stations are scheduled in deer-hunt units in the northwest and southeast regions of the state.
In the Gila National Forest area, hunters may have elk and deer heads tested at the fish hatchery in Glenwood.
To be tested, an animal must not have been dead longer than 48 hours. The procedure takes only a few minutes and does not damage the heads, according to the department.
"The hunt-incentive program includes elk, but the focus is on deer because the disease occurs more frequently in deer in the wild," said Barry Hale, a deer biologist with the department.
Hunters can expect to encounter uniformed and plain-clothed department officers in the woods. They will be checking for licenses and hunting tags, making sure game was taken legally, enforcing off-road-driving regulations, ensuring that hunting is not taking place in the wrong units or on ranches, and enforcing bag limits and criminal-trespass laws.
New Mexico State Police, county sheriff's departments, the Forest Service and other law-enforcement personnel are planning roadblocks during the hunting season to check for drivers' licenses, vehicle registrations, wood-cutting permits and drunken drivers.
Wildlife-decoy operations also are planned.
The department announced that a free workshop for teachers is scheduled for Sept. 26-29 in the Gila National Forest "to explore new educational programs about New Mexico's watersheds."
Presenters from the department, Project WET, Watershed Watch, the Earth Works Institute and the state engineer's office will lead programs and provide resource materials.
Topics are to include watershed restoration, xeriscape curriculum and Gila trout programs. Hands-on activities like riparian survey techniques, bird walks and herpetology studies also are on the agenda.
The workshop is designed for "formal and nonformal educators," with one professional development credit available through the University of New Mexico.
For more information about the event, call the conservation education division of the Department of Game and Fish at (505) 476-8119.
The agency has issued a warning to hunters regarding the West Nile virus.
"Although very few individuals become seriously ill from the disease (carried by mosquitoes)," the officials wrote in a news release, "hunters may take some simple precautions to avoid mosquito bites."
The department recommended using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, avoiding shooting birds that exhibit erratic behavior, wearing rubber gloves while cleaning and handling animals, and thoroughly cooking meat.
West Nile virus symptoms are similar to those of the flu, and usually are not severe for healthy people, according to the department. There is no vaccine for humans, but most veterinarians have one for horses.
Hunters who find dead birds — especially if they are ravens, crows, grackles, jays or blackbirds — are asked to call the state Health Department at (800) 879-3421, or the Game and Fish Department.
