EP 2: Shed Hunting Closure in Utah with Greg Sheehan

He'll look freaking stud, heavy, big ol' eye guarded. Happened to be a great moisture year, I drew you in at 10. You know, there are hunt opportunities for almost anyone out there every year. Anything to do with western big game. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Here we are today with Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Director Greg Sheehan. How are you today, Greg? I'm good. Well, good. It's good to talk with you, Adam, and share some thoughts with your listeners today. Well, I appreciate your time, Greg. I know it's the busiest time of year with the legislature and whatnot going on, but yesterday, as you well know, you signed an emergency order regarding Utah shed antler closure. So could you just go into maybe some of the rationale, and I'm sure there's a lot of thought

that went into that because it's not something that you know probably wasn't going to be well received in some regards. But tell us some of the reasonings for that and what we're trying to do and accomplish. Sure. Well, first of all, you know, I did sign an emergency order yesterday that closed down shed antler collections on all lands in Utah, including private property. But that would take effect from what our normal opener is, would have been the first of February here, second of February-ish time frame, up until the end of, through the end of March. So the first time that shed honey would open again would be on April 1st. And the reasoning behind that is, in northern Utah, we've had quite a severe winter, a lot of frequent snowfall, repetitive storm patterns that just kept piling up the snow. It wasn't really giving it a chance to melt off or to, you know, subside a little bit so

that animals could move around. And the first action that we took, and this goes back to about mid-January, was up in Ridge County, up near the Idaho border there, we went into some emergency deer feeding. The deer were stranded. They couldn't get the food sources. The sources were covered up. And we knew we'd be losing a lot of deer if we couldn't help out. So we began some feeding there, and then these storms persisted. And eventually, we got into the point where we expanded our feeding to quite a few more areas in northern parts of Utah. As we came into the end of the month of January, we realized that soon we'd have people out participating in shed antler hunting at the first of February. And we really didn't want to have that sort of pressure be applied. We were just coming off from some hunts that were ending for the year.

We really wanted to give these animals a break and not have them be pursued. So we looked at sort of the top of Utah, these counties that were the worst off, and took some action to shut that down. And here, as we moved through the week, made a decision to shut the entire state down. We didn't want to be pushing individuals throughout the state who might be hunting antlers in one place and moving to another. We said, let's just give our wildlife a break. We've had heavier than normal snow packs all throughout the state of Utah this year. We sure need the water. It's going to be great for some of the habitat work that we're doing around the state. But at some point, we just need to let up on these animals and give them a little bit of a break. Yeah, I really agree. Obviously, we live down here in southern Utah, where we've had a lot of warmer storms.

The upper elevations have a lot of snow, but some of the winter ranges aren't quite as deep like you guys have up north. That was one of the concerns that I did have, or some people voiced us, I should say, after the initial northern Utah closure was, well, geez, now southern Utah is going to get hammered with everybody else. And so this kind of makes it fairly clear now statewide until April 1st. And I think it's a good change just to give them a break. Our deer herds have been doing real well. We haven't had any big winters for several winters, which has allowed us to grow fawns and grow deer. And we've finally got a winner now. Let's try to maintain the momentum we've had, I think. So we applaud the effort. And hopefully everybody just can relax. I know that's hard to do. Some people may have a lot of plans in place, all that for the spring.

But this is just one of those things that's better for the deer and elk, no question. Well, absolutely. And, you know, Adam, you being a professionally trained wildlife, I'll just understand as well as anybody that, you know, the extra drain that's put on these animals. Just for us to come up on some deer and watch them run up on the hill and think, well, they'll come back down after I'm gone. Well, that may be true. But in these heavier snows, just, you know, that extra bit of energy that's expended there, there's a price to pay for that on the fat reserves and the energy that these animals have. And, you know, they're already in a state every winter where they, you know, burn down the body fat that they've, you know, built up over the summer and fall months. So I think this is a good thing. And, you know, I've really appreciated the sportsmen have come back.

I thought, wow, they're going to be a lot of anger out there. And, you know, most everything we've had has been positive and saying, you know, just make sure you've got law enforcement people out there following up. And we've, you know, we've been working with our law enforcement folks. They get it. They understand it. And they're going to be out, you know, monitoring that really even better than our law enforcement people to be able to, you know, be everywhere at every time on landscapes. You've got a lot of other folks to kind of keep an eye on these treasures of ours and this wildlife. So we count on everybody to pitch in and keep an eye on these things as we move forward. Absolutely. Because our deer herds are better off in the last several years. I think that the deer hunts most recently have reflected that. And so hopefully they see the bigger picture on this.

One thing you obviously mentioned was some of the feeding efforts going on in northern Utah. And maybe you can talk about that just a little bit. I know there's plenty of people that try to do their part, think that they hear about it, see a blurb on the news or a news release that you guys put out about feeding. And so their initial inclination is, oh, I'm going to start helping and doing that. But that can actually do more harm than good in some cases. And tell us all, I guess, how you guys would like to see any volunteer help actually help out instead of, you know, people kind of doing their own thing and how that may complicate some of your efforts you guys got going on. Sure. You know, one of the things we hear a lot is, well, the wildlife are in trouble, so I'll help feed them. Maybe they're in their backyards or they see them somewhere. They all get food.

And I think for, you know, many years we've said don't go feeding these deer hay in different things because it really can hurt them. You know, they have a very different digestive system than an elk or than cattle do. Even though they will eat hay, it doesn't mean they can live off hay. Anyway, we run into, you know, just last year we had a landowner approach us and say, you know, I've had all this hay out, the deer have been in there, and I had a whole hillside of dead deer. We went and looked at those. And it's just simply because these deer cannot adapt on hay like, say, an elk can. So there is a special blend of food that we use, and it's really developed for deer who are in a stress situation that come in the winter has the right blend of proteins and other elements that a deer can instantly digest appropriately and then also allow it to move on to spring feed as soon as it's time.

So the second part of the challenge is people say, well, can I go by the feed and feed them myself? And certainly, you know, if you're going to have feed out there, we'd rather that you have the proper feed out there. But I would say this, and I think most people understand this, but just to reiterate, there's other risks with feeding. Even if we can feed somewhere and keep some animals alive, we only do it on very severe winter. We haven't pet any deer since 2008. When you start feeding deer, one, you habituate them to an area, and they're going to want to come back, just like the best female out there. That causes problems because then they want to become dependent on that. They'll congregate in these areas. They'll do, you know, range damage in particular areas because they won't leave an area. And then the second thing is we worry about disease issues.

You know, if there's diseases moving around, whether it's the more severe TWDs or even something a lot less, you know, risky to a big population, when you get all these animals rubbing noses and hanging out together, it's easy, just like with humans, to spread a disease. So we'd rather keep them spread out on those hill sides instead of all standing there together. So that's another thing that we worry about. And then lastly, I guess, we worry about the risks associated with creating urban deer situations. You know, these deer migrate out of the mountains in a heavy winter. We start feeding them in and around houses. And spring comes, and they think, you know what, the food's good here, the neighborhood's not bad, and they don't want to go back in the mountains. And then we end up having to kill them or they're never available for the public, you know, during hunting season.

And so there's a lot of reasons. We just don't want people to do feeding. And where we do it, we're doing it away from, in most cases, away from people and houses and those sorts of things so we don't create the wrong sense of what's going on out there. That's a lot of very good information there, Greg. And if there are cases that the Utah DWR or other sportsman groups, you know, I've read here the Mule Deer Foundation, Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, have all, you know, been helping biologists, obviously from a financial standpoint as well as maybe, you know, labor. But are there ways, should I, is the best way to maybe just contact either one of those organizations or one of the central and northern region offices of the Utah DWR resources? Yep, absolutely. You can look up our phone numbers depending on where you're at in the state.

We've got regional offices throughout the state. You can call us. You can call those groups. They're all familiar with what's going on. And I really want to take a moment and do a shout-out to those groups and other individuals. But Mule Deer Foundation, Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, they're all out on the ground. We've got great volunteers that are coming out every day where we are doing that feeding, and they're helping out. They're using their own time and gas. And certainly we're providing the food. But they really have done a great job. And the other shout-out that I'd like to do is to the private property owners and ranchers that really help accommodate and house a lot of this wildlife on their properties at this time of year. You know, they'll get into a lot of times hay or just create different sorts of frustration.

And I don't think most people out there really realize how much these private landowners are willing to take, you know, during the course of the year to help these animals out. And then they're back out on the mountains, you know, at times when it's hunting season and all. But we really rely on those folks. And like I said, our volunteers have done such a good job of helping us out when we need it. You know, we can always count on the sportsmen to be there first when we need a hand. Very good stuff, Greg. And I guess lastly, the Utah Big Game Once-A-Lifetime application period is open right now. Well, deadline of March 2nd. I assume you probably, with the Western Hunting Conservation Expo coming up, the Utah DWR normally has a pretty good-sized booth there to maybe answer questions as well. Are you guys going to be there again this year? Absolutely. We'll be there.

We'd love to have people stop by and, you know, share information, answer questions. And, you know, we try to be there. And a lot of the other smaller shows and expos around the state as well. So we're always glad to talk to our public. You know, sometimes the worst problem we have is the rumor mill is so wrong out there. And giving us a chance to help set it straight really is a great opportunity for us to straighten the record on a lot of things because misinformation just sometimes gets people confused or wound up when they maybe don't need to be. So, yeah, it is that time here to apply for the draw. And, you know, we've been talking about the hard winter and all, but I think most of our wildlife in the state is going to come through pretty good. I think we've addressed the right risks and threats out there where they existed to help, you know, knock the edge off some of that.

And between everybody pitching in, I think we're going to have another great hunt next fall. I would encourage you to apply for those permits and, you know, enjoy the wonderful resource that we have here in Utah. Well, Greg, I really appreciate your time today and really appreciate the clarity you've been able to offer on the shed antler closure and some of the feeding efforts going on in the state because, like you said, I'm sure this has caught a lot of people off guard at some extent and really shed some light on the reasons for it. We applaud it. We think it's a good move. And I guess last but not least, good luck in the draw yourself this year. I know you're an avid hunter and sportsman and appreciate all you do for Utah's wildlife. Thanks a lot for being on with us today. I am, and, you know, I have 19 elk points, so one of these days I better draw something as well.

But there's a lot of opportunities, even with a lot less points than that. So I hope people will take advantage of, you know, get in our odds book, look around. You know, there are hunt opportunities for almost anyone out there every year. So take advantage of those. And thank you so much, Adam, for having me on your show and give me a chance to talk with some of your listeners a little bit about what's happening with our wildlife here in Utah. All right. Thanks again, Greg. I really appreciate it and take care. Okay. We'll see you. Thanks. Bye.