Water for Wildlife restores 13 guzzlers in East Mojave Desert

Water for Wildlife volunteers put the finishing touches on guzzler B226 near Flat Top Mountain in February 2016. The large concrete apron on the right collects rainwater, funneling it downhill into the storage tank on the left. Inside the crescent-shaped opening is a wildlife ramp that allows access the water inside. (Photo: Chris S. Ervin) 

By Jim Matthews
Victorville Daily Press

Cliff McDonald and his group of volunteers at Water for Wildlife announced the results of their efforts this winter and spring. In a nutshell, a total of 13 wildlife water sources (guzzlers) were restored and filled in the eastern part of the Mojave Desert over a total of four work weekends.

The volunteers invested over 1,500 hours of effort into the repairs and spent over $9,000 on materials and tools needed to complete the work, or just over an average of $725 per drinker.

Their efforts assure that a wide variety of desert birds, mammals, and even reptiles will have a permanent water supply this summer and fall, and since most desert species still need open water to survive, these man-made drinkers — often called guzzlers — are the only thing between life and death, especially during our ongoing drought.

These guzzlers all have similar features. First, they have an “apron,” which can be made of a variety of materials, that captures rain waters and funnels it into a storage tank (above or under the ground), and then access to the water is provided by a drinker box or simply an opening in the tank and ramp down to the water. Most of the guzzlers in the Mojave were made in the 1950s and 1960s by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (formerly Fish and Game), with little or no maintenance since then. While many still hold water, most are in various states of disrepair. They either hold no water or hold far less water than they could if functioning at their full potential.

Over the 10 years Water for Wildlife volunteers have been working on guzzlers in the East Mojave, they have now restored 75 guzzlers and five springs, and they repaired a number of water tanks and windmills on old cattle systems that now exclusively serve wildlife. This has involved over 7,500 volunteer hours and $50,000 in private funding.

The payoff is that over 300 species of birds and at least 45 mammal species have been documented using these important water sources, which increasingly serve as mitigation for natural water sources lost to development and ground-water pumping across the Mojave Desert.

So where’s the Sierra Club or the Humane Society in supporting this important work, making sure desert wildlife survives during this drought? Where are all the other conservation and environmental groups when it comes to actually doing things on-the-ground to help wildlife?

I’ll tell you where, they are MIA – missing in action.

They spend all their money on making sure you rejoin, fundraising, lobbists and attorneys. None of them spend a dime on actually doing anything that make a difference for wildlife. In fact, the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity have repeatedly fought against guzzler construction and restoration on the basis that they are “unnatural.” Well, human groundwater pumping and housing developments are “unnatural,” and they have led to the drying up of desert springs and seeps for decades. Guzzlers and other man-made water sources act as mitigation for these other losses. But loony fringe won’t hear of that.
Even the new superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve, Todd Suess, where Water for Wildlife would have directed all of its efforts this year, threw up a bunch of bogus reasons to stop guzzler repairs on the Preserve (even after the previous two superintendents endorsed and supported McDonald’s work). So the guzzler repairs were all done on BLM lands out of the Preserve again this year.

If you care about desert wildlife, know that water is the most critical factor in their survival. The only groups assuring that desert water sources are maintained for wildlife are groups like Water for Wildlife. I give McDonald’s group a lot of publicity because it amazes me how many volunteers come from so far to work so hard for nothing. But the High Desert (Apple Valley) and Ridgecrest Quail Forever chapters (and all the other QF chapters, for that matter) do as much work as McDonald’s volunteers in the west Mojave. The Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep focuses on the bigger “guzzler” projects primarily aimed at helping desert bighorns, and the Southern California Chapter of the California Deer Association works on springs, guzzlers, and other waters all across the southern half of the state. Leon Lessica’s Desert Wildlife Unlimited’s desert water work in the Imperial Valley may be the only reason we have a healthy desert burro deer and bighorn population there.

The one thing you need to know about all of these groups is that they usually can muster up enough volunteer manpower for their projects (although more, younger volunteers are always welcome), but they frequently have to scrape and beg enough money together to get the materials they need for this work. Donations are always appreciated. With other so-call conservation or environmental groups you might get a letter or phone call after you join or donate, but the letter or call is to ask for money. With these groups, the letter or call you receive is just offering heartfelt thanks and perhaps information on where you dollars are going to be spent so you can see the results of your donation.

You can find out more information out Water for Wildlife at the group’s new website at waterforwildlifeemd.com. You can find all the local Quail Forever, Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, and California Deer Association chapters with searches on the Internet. If you have trouble, you can e-mail me and I can help you out.

Diseased bighorn sheep might have to be killed in Mojave National Preserve

Desert bighorn sheep gather at night on June 6 at a guzzler set up to provide water for the herd. A virus that is killing sheep in the largest herd at the Mojave National Preserve is described as "a grim situation" by spokeswoman Linda Slater.

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Wildlife officials in California might resort to killing desert bighorn sheep in an effort to contain an outbreak of a deadly disease now spreading through the largest herd in Mojave National Preserve, 100 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

At least 20 dead sheep have been found in the past month on Old Dad Mountain, about 15 miles southeast of Baker, Calif. Tests have confirmed that at least some of the animals died from a strain of pneumonia generally transmitted by domestic sheep and goats and usually fatal to bighorn.

“It’s really kind of a grim situation to be perfectly honest with you,” said Linda Slater, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-acre preserve.

Officials from the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are now considering whether to hunt down sheep showing signs of sickness. But even that might not be enough to halt the spread.

“To really get rid of the disease, you have to kill every animal, but that’s not practical or likely to happen,” Slater said. “There are no good management options.”

Wildlife officials in Nevada are watching the situation anxiously, hoping the sick animals can be contained somehow before they come into contact with sheep in the Silver State.

The diseased herd is “only a 45-mile trip as the crow flies” from mountains that harbor desert bighorn at the southern edge of Clark County, said Doug Nielsen, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

“We do have some right down there close to the state line. So it’s a concern, and it’s something that needs to be monitored.”

Slater said the afflicted animals are part of what she called “the biggest and healthiest herd” in Southern California. Transplants from the group have been used in the past to bolster struggling herds elsewhere in California, she said.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting newborn lambs in a cycle that can ravage the herd for up to a decade.

Biologists may never know for certain how the isolated herd of 200 to 300 sheep was exposed to the disease, but they have their suspicions.

Slater said a domestic goat turned up in the area about six months ago — a rare and unexplained find — but the animal showed no signs of pneumonia. However, tests for the disease are not always reliable, she said.

Biologists and veterinarians “seem really pessimistic that anything can be done” to keep the entire herd from being exposed, Slater said. The worry now is that the disease will spread to one of four other herds in the preserve, possibly by a ram sent wandering when rutting season gets underway in the coming weeks.

Volunteers from the Sierra Club and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep assisted with the initial search for sick and dead animals. A lack of resources and the remote, rugged location of the herd have hampered efforts so far to address the outbreak, Slater said.

Back in Nevada, wildlife officials are hoping that hot, dry weather this summer will keep the affected herd close to the water sources in its home range and away from other herds. Beyond that, Nielsen said, there isn’t much that can be done from the Nevada side of the state line but to wait and watch what happens.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but their numbers began to decline in the mid-1800s, as settlers and prospectors swept into the region, mostly in the north.

By 1960, disease, unregulated hunting and habitat loss had reduced Nevada’s bighorn population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of ranges, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Wildlife officials launched the Bighorn Sheep Release Program in 1967 to return the official state animal to its former glory.

Today, Nevada is home to more bighorn sheep than any other state — better than 10,000 adult animals in at least 60 different mountain ranges.

But disease always looms as a threat to those gains.

In 2010, pneumonia nearly wiped out a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the Ruby Mountains near Elko.

The most recent outbreak in Southern Nevada struck in 2002 in the Specter Range, along U.S. Highway 95 about 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

After several years of what Nielsen called “very low lamb survival,” the herd’s numbers finally began to rebound in 2009.

Solar energy firm drops plan for project in Mojave Desert

BrightSource Energy's decision ends a battle with environmentalists over a 5,130-acre site in a proposed national monument.

By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times

Ending a bitter feud in the rush to develop solar farms, BrightSource Energy Inc. on Thursday said it had scrapped a controversial plan to build a renewable energy facility in the eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument.

The proposal pitted companies queuing up to replace imported oil and facilitate a national clean-energy economy against environmentalists strongly opposed to the idea of creating an industrial zone within 600,000 acres of former railroad lands that had been donated to the Department of Interior for conservation.

The acrimony even triggered a nasty public squabble between Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior advisor at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which raised $160 million for Oakland-based BrightSource, and David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, which raised $40 million to buy the old railroad lands to protect them from development.

"I commend BrightSource Energy for this action," Feinstein said in a statement. "It's clear that conservation and renewable energy development are not mutually exclusive goals -- there is room enough in the California desert for both."

Of particular concern was BrightSource's proposal to develop a 5,130-acre solar power plant on a portion of the donated lands known as Broadwell Dry Lake, which lies within Sleeping Beauty Valley.

The scenic, near-pristine region near Ludlow is home to a significant herd of bighorn sheep and framed by the Kelso Dunes Wilderness and Bristol Mountains Wilderness on the east and the Cady Mountains Wilderness Study Area on the west.

Scientists continue to catalog plants and reptiles uniquely adapted to the scorched terrain in what remains a biological frontier.

For example, botanists recently discovered a species of lupine that features showy purple blossoms in the spring.

Biologists are also studying unusually dark lizards that appeared to have genetically adapted to the volcanic terrain.

On Thursday, BrightSource spokesman Keely Wachs said, "We have ceased all activity at the Broadwell site. . . . We will not build inside of a national monument."

The company's announcement came as a welcome surprise to environmentalists.

"This creates an open playing field for the monument to be built," Myers said. "It also could herald a sea change in the solar energy industry in that people will better understand that that there are good and bad places to build."

Elden Hughes, former chairman of the Sierra Club's California-Nevada Desert Committee, described the company's announcement as "fantastic news."

"Broadwell is one of the most beautiful vistas in the desert," he said. "I've seen it covered with yellow flowers to the horizon in all directions."

BrightSource's proposal was one of 19 filed with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

BrightSource's project would have relied on hundreds of mirrors known as heliostats to focus the sun's rays on the tops of 200-foot towers, where water boilers would produce high-pressure steam and run electric turbines.

Wachs said BrightSource ceased activity at the Broadwell site "a few months ago." Around the same time, the company began seeking alternative sites for that project "in and outside of the state," he said.

"That's the best thing I've heard in months," said Gary Thomas, project coordinator for the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep.

"Of all the solar projects being proposed, this is the one that would have driven a stake through the heart of a herd of at least 200 bighorn sheep," he said. "We would have died on the mountains out there to stop it."

Separately, BrightSource is pressing ahead with plans to build a massive solar energy facility in the Mojave Desert's Ivanpah Valley, near Primm, Nev., just south of Las Vegas.

State and federal regulatory and land-use authorities say construction of the Ivanpah Valley project could begin as early as March.

Water dispensaries keep mountain bighorn sheep alive

The Kerr Drinker. George Sutton peers into one of the two 1,600-gallon water collection tanks in the Old Dad Range of the Mojave National Preserve, which are filled by members of the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep. The group spends hours each month maintaining and repairing the tanks for sheep in the summer. (Mark Zaleski/The Press-Enterprise)

By JANET ZIMMERMAN
The Press-Enterprise

A herd of desert bighorn sheep deftly scramble up a rocky hillside in the Mojave National Preserve as the rumble of approaching trucks breaks the silence.

The pickups, each hauling plastic tanks filled with water, come to a stop in a cloud of dust. Soon, the drivers stretch fire hoses from the truck to two big holding tanks that feed a manmade watering hole -- a lifeline for the bighorn and other wildlife that lay claim to this inhospitable landscape.

There are 72 "drinkers" built and maintained across the desert from Interstate 10 north to Death Valley by volunteers with the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep. The group is a mix of conservationists and hunters whose efforts started 50 years ago when the founders began helping the struggling sheep population.

The work has grown more critical in recent years, they say, as desert springs dry up from drought and from a dropping water table as supplies are siphoned away by development in outlying areas.

"The sheep live on these drinkers from June to September," said Gary Thomas, 70, of Upland, who monitors and fills the watering holes. "Ideally, they would be naturally replenished (with rainfall), but that hasn't happened."

And so the group has resorted to trucking in water during summer months when the moist, green vegetation that sustains bighorn the rest of the year dries up.

In extreme cases, members pay for helicopters to haul water to the most remote locations and have hand-carried water in five-gallon bottles to areas where vehicle access is prohibited. Earlier this summer, the Forest Service donated use of its chopper to ferry supplies and sheep society members nine miles into an inaccessible area of the Santa Rosa Mountains south of Palm Springs to rebuild a drinker.

Threats to desert bighorn go beyond water shortages, however.

The elusive animals historically have been compromised by disease, hunting, habitat loss, competition with livestock and fragmentation of their ranges by fences, highways and canals that cut off wildlife passages between mountains, said Conrad Jones, a wildlife biologist and desert water coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Game.

Conservationists fear the onslaught of alternative energy developments that they say will denude the land and further impede the animals' movement.

The sheep need to travel between ranges and other herds to prevent in-breeding, keeping the animals more resilient to environmental extremes.

Dwindling rainfall is a concern. A 2004 UC Berkeley study found that rain levels have decreased about 20 percent in the Southwest during the past century and cited predictions that precipitation will drop another 10 to 20 percent by 2100. In that case, fewer lambs would survive because of less vegetation, the researchers found.

Desert bighorn in the peninsular ranges -- the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park -- are on the federal endangered species list. The isolated populations there plummeted from an estimated 1,170 in 1971 to about 230 when it was listed in 1998; now there are about 800, said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Carlsbad.

In all, an estimated 3,500 to 5,500 desert bighorn sheep live in California, up from fewer than 2,000 in the 1960s and '70s, Thomas said.

"Now we have a viable population," he said. "That's directly related to building big-game drinkers."

Bighorn sheep watch as members of the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep drive water to the Kerr Drinker at the Old Dad Mountain range in the Mojave National Preserve. (Mark Zaleski/The Press-Enterprise)

Limited range

After an early stop in Baker to take on 2,300 gallons of water donated by the local Community Services District followed by a 15-mile drive on a rough dirt track, the volunteers prepare to refill the Kerr drinker near Old Dad Peak, home to one of the Mojave's healthiest herds. The watering place south of Baker is named for Chuck Kerr, a society founding member whose son George continues his work.

Above the drinker, vultures circle over the spot where two camouflaged water tanks are nestled in a ravine. The volunteers spot a ram, its horns curled like an old toenail, lying motionless near a small stainless trough.

The animal is about 10 years old, almost the end of its life span, and has probably been dead a couple weeks, says George Kerr, a Fish and Game commissioner for Ventura County.

"A lot of times rams will find a place they know" when they are ready to die, he says. "It could be habitat stress."

At least nine bighorn with their characteristic white rumps keep watch from the canyon's rocky slopes. Sheep aren't the only wildlife that benefit from this water; golden eagles, badgers, bobcats, coyotes, skunk, deer, birds and bees also drink here.

When the group built this guzzler in 1985, they formed a dam at the bottom of the slope to catch rainwater and ran pipe from there to holding tanks. The tanks feed the stainless trough, intentionally small to reduce evaporation.

The society knows when the Kerr drinker needs filling, because a solar-powered sensor on the tank transmits water levels daily via satellite. The remote monitoring is one of the many advances the group has made.

In several sites, including the Ord, Newberry and Rodman mountains, battery-powered, infrared cameras track the number of animals visiting the drinkers. The information, combined with helicopter survey results, gauges population density.

"A sheep will not tend to stray more than two to three miles during the heat of the summer from one of these drinkers," said Jones, the Fish and Game biologist who helps on re-fill missions.

Another group, Desert Wildlife Unlimited in Brawley, has installed and maintains more than 120 drinkers from Interstate 10 to the Mexican border. That means there are less than 200 drinkers south of Bishop, Jones said. "That's not much."

Thomas said thousands of guzzlers would be ideal.

There is controversy

The conservation groups use money from grants, membership and fundraisers to pay to build the drinkers, which cost from $15,000 to $40,000. Refilling them costs about $1,000 per trip.

Jones called the volunteer groups a critical element in bighorn survival, citing a study published this year by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Kathleen Longshore, who found a correlation between artificial water sources and survival of the remaining bighorn populations in Joshua Tree National Park.

But such water developments are not without controversy. Some environmentalists say the drinking holes can spread disease and provide easy access to wildlife by predators.

Thomas, of the sheep society, said their 3-month-old camera monitoring program has not captured any mountain lions, the bighorn's main predator, attacking the animals at watering holes.

Joshua Tree resident Elden Hughes, a member of the Sierra Club's California/Nevada Desert Committee, opposes guzzlers because of their impact on pristine areas.

"They are usually putting them in wilderness areas, which means putting in a road and construction in wilderness. Those two are enough for me to oppose it," Hughes said.

Desert protection laws have made it more difficult to access many guzzlers, and the groups must get permits to drive into restricted areas. The sheep society builds two new drinkers a year, said Steve Marschke, the group's president.

Mike Smith, left, and Steve Marschke, of the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, carry several fire hoses up to the Kerr Drinker in the Old Dad Range in the Mojave National Preserve. (Mark Zaleski/The Press-Enterprise)

Hughes also objects to drinkers as a way to increase bighorn herds for hunting. Fish and Game issues a limited number of hunting permits based on the count of older rams, which are not crucial to the herd. The endangered populations are not hunted.

Proceeds from permit sales are dedicated to sheep work, including biologists and programs to collar, capture and relocate animals to areas where they have historically lived and to increase genetic diversity among other herds.

Many relocated sheep come from Old Dad Peak, where the sheep society wraps up its most recent refilling project at the end of a nine-hour day. Hot and dirty, they head home.

Despite the back-breaking labor and disputes about the benefits, Thomas vows to continue his work.

"We've manipulated the environment almost everywhere, so we now have to continue to manage it. You can't just sit back and say we're going to let it go back to nature, now that we have isolated them into tiny islands with highways," he said. "If you don't, they will disappear."

East Mojave Mule Deer Research Project

Kelley M. Stewart, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Reno

Vernon C. Bleich, Adjunct Professor, University of Nevada Reno

Debra J. Hughson, National Park Service

Neal Darby, National Park Service

California Deer Association

A mule deer doe released after capture. (Kelley Stewart)

Water is thought to be an resource for wildlife species in desert ecosystems. If water is limiting, then provision of water must increase survival or reproduction for individuals in areas with free standing water available all year. State and federal agencies in the western United States have used water developments as a component of management of wildlife habitats in arid and desert regions since the 1940s.

Considerable effort, from state agencies and sportsmen’s organizations, is focused on providing water in areas where it is believed to be limited and may benefit populations of wildlife. With increases in urbanization and demand for water by human populations, many springs that once were available for wildlife have run dry and no longer provide free standing water. For example, some springs near Las Vegas, Nevada that had provided water for populations of wildlife, have not done so for the last 10+ years.

Water developments are likely becoming more important for sustaining populations of wildlife in arid regions of the western United States. There is controversy associated with water developments. Some people claim that they do not benefit wildlife or are detrimental to populations of wildlife by concentrating animals and providing opportunities for predators.

Mule deer occur throughout Western North America and require relatively large areas for viable populations, especially in desert ecosystems where resources such as food and water are scarce and widely distributed. Certainly the distribution, abundance, and seasonal availability of water affect the distribution of mule deer across the landscape.

Mule deer are an important game species for sportsmen and have aesthetic value for those who enjoy observing wildlife. Mule deer also are good indicator species of changes in habitat quality and ecosystem health, which is in part why we selected mule deer for the species to study with this project.

Cattle have been grazed in the Mojave Desert for more than 100 years, and ranchers used a system of wells to provide water for livestock. Many of those artificial sources of water were present in the Preserve when it was created in 1994. From 1998 to 2002, grazing allotments in MojaveNational Preserve were purchased, retired and donated to the National Park Service. When those allotments were retired, numerous water sources for livestock were deactivated within the Preserve.

Many of those water sources had been available to native wildlife for periods in excess of a century. Loss of those water sources generated controversy among sportsmen’s and environmental organizations about how loss of those wells affected populations of wildlife.

In 2004, Safari Club International(SCI), in cooperation with California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), Quail Unlimited, California DeerAssociation, Mule Deer Foundation,Desert Wildlife Unlimited, and the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, proposed to reactivate 12 retired wells to provide water for mule deer and other species of wildlife. The National Park Service (NPS) undertook an environmental assessment to address whether to grant the permit to retrofit those wells. The result of the environmental assessment was for a science-based research project to determine the existence and extent of benefit for artificial water sources for mule deer and other species of wildlife.

The University of Nevada Reno answered the call for proposals for the research project. In cooperation with NPS, SCI, and DFG, we designed an experiment to address the effects of provision of water for mule deer and other wildlife. We reactivated six wells and included several developed springs in an area designed to have permanent water available to compare with another area where the wells were kept off. We will compare areas with and without permanent sources of water and examine movement patterns, reproduction, body condition, and food availability in each of those experimental areas. We also included a ‘control area’ that will be monitored, but remain unchanged throughout the study.

The study has a 10-year duration, years 1 to 5 will include the comparison of areas with and without permanent sources of water, and those that have water available all year. During phase 2 of the project, years 6 to 10, we will turn on the wells in the area without permanent water and will compare effects on the mule deer herd before and after water was made available. With this study we hope to answer the question of whether provision of water in Mojave Preserve is beneficial to mule deer populations and provide both the National Park Service and California DFG with information regarding the value of continuing to provide artificial sources of water in the Preserve and other arid regions of the West.

Many western states spend many hours and dollars providing water for wildlife, and management agencies from several states are interested in the results of this project. Indeed, the Nevada Department of Wildlife felt that this research was relevant to its needs and provided funding for a portion of the project. Support also has been received from California Deer Association and the Golden Gate Chapter of SCI.

The first 5-year portion of the study began in 2008. Six wells were turned on in the “water available” study areas during September and October. The movements and reproduction of mule deer in those two study areas and the ‘control’ area will be compared. During January of 2008 and 2009, we captured mule deer with a netgun fired from a helicopter. Netguns are an effective way to catch mule deer, and in Mojave National Preserve the “gunner” has his work cut out for him when trying to catch deer while avoiding cactus and Joshua trees.

Using the helicopter, deer were brought back to base camp where we collected data and placed radio collars on them. The radio collars are used to determine movement patterns and use of water sources in the Preserve. We are using GPS-type collars in Mojave Preserve. Those collars obtain highly accurate locations of mule deer about 7 times a day, so we have very detailed data on movements of deer in the Preserve. The only drawback is that the collars store all of the locations on the collar, known as store-on-board collars, so we have to get the collar back at the end of the year to have access to that data.

Collars are programmed to drop off the deer at a specified time and then they transmit a signal so technicians are able to go out into the Preserve and find the collars. We have just recently obtained the collars from last year, and next winter we will locate the collars that we placed in January to examine movements of deer in relation to the recently reactivated water sites.

We have a remote camera located at each water site that is monitored with this study and several sites in the nonwatered area. Some of the cameras were purchased by NPS for their ongoing camera study, which we have incorporated into this project. Several of the cameras were purchased by SCI, and are currently in use on the Preserve for this study.

The cameras record use of our treatment areas by mule deer so we can use them throughout the year to identify our deer at the water sites. The cameras also record use of the wells by other species of wildlife, such as many species of birds, including hawks and owls, and several small mammals and reptiles. Another criticism of water developments is that they only benefit ‘game’ species, although to date many non-game species have been photographed using these water sources.

We examined captured deer for physical condition and pregnancy using ultrasound technology. Using ultrasound we are able to measure the amount of fat on several areas of the body, which is a good index to how good or poor condition the animal is in. Using ultrasound we also determined if females were pregnant and if they were carrying twins or single fetuses. We are able to get accurate measurements of fetuses to determine health of the offspring and determine the stage of gestation, similar to human women visiting the doctor for ultrasound during pregnancy. By determining physical condition and numbers of offspring we are able to assess the health of the mule deer herds in the different study areas.

In January 2008, we captured 18 mule deer: 15 does, 2 bucks, and a yearling doe. We captured 6 deer in the control area, 7 in the study area that will have water provided, and 5 in the no-permanent-water study area. Since the experiment had not yet been set up — water sources were turned on later in the year — we used the initial data to obtain an overall idea of demography. We checked for the pregnancy of those females and 94% (15 of the 16 females, including the yearling) were pregnant. Of those 15 females, 73% were carrying twins. Twinning is an excellent indicator of overall quality of the habitat and health of the population.

During January 2009, we captured 30 does, and 1 juvenile (born spring 2008). Several of those deer were recaptured from last year to remove old radio collars. We captured 27 new individuals, 9 does were captured in the control area, 10 in the watered area, and 8 does in the area without permanent sources of water. We tested 28 of those deer for pregnancy, and 93% of those females (26 of 28) were pregnant, but only 14% were carrying twins. We suspect that because 2008 was a very dry autumn compared with 2007, fewer sources of food were available for deer as they entered the breeding season, and possibly resulted in a lower twinning rate. We need to examine more years of data following future captures to determine the relationship between water developments, precipitation, and availability of food to understand those effects of pregnancy rates, twinning rates, and condition of deer in this population.

Since data on deer in 2008 were collected before the experiment was fully set up, we cannot compare the different study areas yet. We are looking forward to examining differences among deer in the different study areas next winter.

University of Nevada Reno is primarily a place of learning and one of the attributes of this study is that students receive training on handling of wildlife, collection of data, and design of experiments. We are currently training a Master’s level graduate student on this project, and several undergraduates have accompanied us on our captures to gain experience handling wild deer in a field setting.

This project is the result of years of effort by concerned sportsmen’s groups to restore historical water sources to areas from which they had been removed. Safari Club International, California Deer Association, and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep have led this effort.

The project is necessary because restoration of historical water sources as described in the environmental assessment approved for that action must be fully evaluated in terms of the Grateful Nation responses of mule deer to the provision of water.

Deer Hunt Zone (D-17), in which the study area is located, produces on average the largest trophies (as determined by proportions of 3-point, 4-point, and 5-or-more-point bucks) of all zones in California. Hunter success is not the highest in California, but trophy quality is outstanding and the zone sells out on an annual basis. Restoration of water sources in the study area has important implications for conservation of mule deer, and maintaining high-quality recreational hunting in that area.

Finally, collaboration is the key to any successful venture and this project has evolved into a huge collaborative effort. Collaborators include state agencies: University of Nevada Reno, California Department of Fish and Game, Nevada Department of Wildlife; a federal agency: National Park Service; and Conservation Organizations: Safari Club International, Golden Gate Chapter Safari Club International, and California Deer Association.

Bighorn sheep herd growing

State of California not surveying nor issuing enough tags to reduce sheep numbers




Jim Matthews
Outdoor Writer
San Bernardino Sun








Arizona has more than 7,000 desert bighorn sheep and issues about 100 tags to hunters each year. Nevada has 5,000 desert sheep and issues 60 to 70 tags each year. California probably has more desert sheep than Nevada, but probably not quite as many as Arizona. So how many tags do you think we issue? California issues fewer than 20 tags most years. This coming fall, because our state game agency didn't complete aerial surveys this season, the state will probably only issue 16 or 17 bighorn tags, and two of those will be sold to the highest bidders.

California should have more bighorn sheep than Arizona. But even at today's sheep population levels, we should be issuing 60 to 80 tags for hunters each fall. That would require the DFG to do accurate surveys on all of the state's sheep herds, determine which ones could support hunting, and change how it determines how many tags are issued. The reality is this agency can't even survey the hunted herds because of budget constraints. This is a catch-22. The game programs generate money for the DFG, but when they are cut, revenue declines so they can't pay to do the work necessary to allocate more tags which would generate more money.

"If Cal Fish and Game was doing its job, we should have a minimum of 35 tags each year," said Gary Thomas, a volunteer with the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep. Thomas said that the added study necessary to increase tag numbers and give the state vital information on sheep herds in the state would require two or three people assigned to the desert sheep program.

The DFG has five biologists working on Sierra Nevada bighorn because they are in danger of becoming extinct, and there's federal funding for endangered species.

But there's not a single full-time staff position devoted to desert sheep. This is despite the fact that herds have been growing the last decade, and there are several herds that could support a tag or two each year, but they aren't hunted because the DFG doesn't have the data.

Thomas said Society maintains water sources and does informal surveys in desert mountain ranges each year, and they have noted growth in many herds. But the DFG has to have documentation on herd increase and can only issue one tag for every 15 mature rams (most states issue three to five tags for every 15 mature rams). They don't know how many sheep live in most desert ranges because they can't afford the expensive helicopter time required to count them.

Thomas said it's time to come into the 21st century and use trail cameras to make population estimates, correlating them with occasional ground and aerial surveys to assure accuracy. Both the National Park Service, on the Mojave National Preserve, and the Society are now placing cameras on desert water sources and the data flowing in is astounding. Thomas says it is simple to identify many individual animals and herd groups and he thinks accurate population estimates will be relatively simple once the techniques are tested and developed.

Then maybe we could see an increase in bighorn tag numbers.

But this is about far more than additional hunting opportunity. If 10 more tags are sold, the state would be able to fund the two to three biologists necessary for the DFG to monitor all the desert herds and fund additional habitat and relocation programs. How? If two of the "new" tags were raffle tags, each of those could raise $150,000 to $200,000 per year or more with a minor promotion program in the state's sporting goods stores.

That infusion of funding, if earmarked for desert sheep, could help restore bighorn populations back into dozens of historic ranges where they disappeared over 50 years ago, which was the original intent of having a hunting program - to fund restoration of the herds.

When the hunting program began, the motto was "10,000 by 2000" - 10,000 bighorn sheep statewide by the year 2000 because of the additional funding it would generate. We could have been there if the DFG had done its job aggressively. But we've lost our way with bighorn and so many other state wildlife and fishery programs.

Needles man up for conservation award

San Bernardino Sun

Cliff McDonald, a tenacious Needles hunter-conservationist who almost single handedly beat back the National Park Service's attempt to remove all man-made water sources from the Mojave National Preserve, has been named one of four finalists for the Budweiser Conservationist of the Year award.

The award carries a $50,000 prize and just being a finalist means McDonald will win at least $5,000 to further his efforts.

Besides battling former Park Superintendent Mary Martin over the shutting down of over 100 water sources used by wildlife in the preserve, and eventually winning, McDonald has now been at the forefront of organizing manpower, equipment and money to refurbish and restore the water sources that were shut down and those that were degrading. It was also at his prodding that the Park Service agreed to study the importance and impact of these water sources of wildlife, focusing the study on desert mule deer.

"Thanks to Cliff's persistence and quality volunteer service, the National Park Service has not only withdrawn its resistance but has gradually become a participant and supporter of the effort to provide these important water sources," said Anna Siedman of Safari Club International. "In the East Mojave, Cliff is wildlife's greatest champion."

It was also announced this week that McDonald won the Californian of the Year Award given by the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) for his efforts in the Mojave.

Jerry Springer, a long-time California writer and hunter who runs the online magazine WesternHunter.com from his Fresno home, nominated McDonald for the OWAC award.

"This all started in the fall of 2002 when it became obvious to Cliff that something bad was going on in the Preserve," Springer said. "He saw empty water tanks and started asking questions and found out that the staff of the Preserve was allowing over 100 water sources to go dry.

"That's when McDonald started his one-man campaign of letter writing, testifying at numerous meetings and informing wildlife organizations, in his attempt to save the wildlife of the Preserve."

When McDonald first started his restoration efforts, it was just him and a couple of buddies from Needles filling gamebird guzzlers with water or making sure desert springs had pools of water where wildlife could drink.

Today, McDonald's e-mail list of helpers is over 400 individuals long, and he's pulled together groups and individuals to create a diverse coalition.

He's managed to have Quail Unlimited, California Deer Association, Safari Club, and Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep volunteers working together on "McDonald projects," as they've come to be called.

There was and really is no name for McDonald's "group." In fact, the group is doing a major work project this weekend at Camp Cady, a state wildlife area east of Barstow.

Since McDonald started the effort, the group has repaired and refurbished 52 guzzlers and six springs, contributed more than 3,200 hours of labor, and raised more than $22,000 worth of equipment and materials for these efforts.

The list for this coming year of work is already long, targeting 40 guzzlers for repairs on and off the Preserve. There are also plans hatching for the installation of new water sources for wildlife.

Five grand will be a big help toward that work. But $50,000 would be enormous. McDonald will turn either amount into about 10 times their value in on-the-ground effort. You can count on that.

The public votes on the four finalists on the Budweiser Web site, determining who gets the $50,000. While the site wasn't set up to accept votes yet or the process delineated, I'll keep you posted on when the voting opens.

Water For Wildlife Guzzler Repair
Mojave National Preserve
December 2007



This video is about Water For Wildlife, a group of volunteers who maintain the water guzzlers in the Mojave NP in CA. This repair was on the B-18 guzzler near Goffs CA.

The work involves prepping the pad, the big flat part that catches the rain first. Chippers are used to clean off the old sealant and then Quickcrete concrete bonding adhesive is applied to the cracks. 2 coats or Merlex are then applied over 24 hours to seal the pad so the water all runs down into the underground water tank. The tank is also cleaned out and tortoise nets are installed so the tortoises can get out of the tank.

These water guzzlers are vital to the desert wildlife like the deer, bobcat, coyote, cougar, quail, bighorn sheep and desert tortoise.

Great food was served by the group and a raffle was held Saturday night to raise money for supplies to maintain the guzzlers.

Temps were in the low 40s at night and 60s during the day.

Huge thanks go out to CDA (California Deer Association), QU (Quail Unimited) SCBS (Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep), SCI (Safari Club International), Bass Pro, DFG, BLM, PCOC (Predator Caller of Orange Co.), CA FNAWS and other groups that supplied gear, volunteers or other help.

We need more volunteers and it's a great campout in the desert.

For more info on Water For Wildlife please contact Cliff McDonald at 760-326-2935.