What's happening to mule deer, and why should anyone west of the Mississippi care? In this episode of Connecting with Conservation, hosts Jon Gassett of the Wildlife Management Institute and Jim Curcuruto of Outdoor Stewards of Conservation sit down with Greg Sheehan, President and CEO of both the Mule Deer Foundation and the Blacktail Deer Foundation, for a wide-ranging conversation about one of the West's most iconic, and quietly troubled, big game species.
Greg brings one of the most distinguished careers in American wildlife and land management to the table. After 25 years with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, including five as its director, he served as Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before returning west as Utah State Director for the Bureau of Land Management, overseeing roughly 22.8 million acres of public land. Today, leading both the Mule Deer Foundation and the Blacktail Deer Foundation, he's channeling that experience directly into species he's hunted and cared about his entire life. The conversation covers the multi-decade decline in mule deer populations, an estimated 50 to 60 percent drop across western states, and why there's no single simple answer. Habitat fragmentation, invasive plants like cheatgrass, suppressed fire regimes, migration corridor loss, surging road traffic, predator-prey dynamics, and severe winters all play a role, and Greg makes a compelling case that solutions require the same complexity as the problems themselves.
The episode also touches on the North American Model of Conservation and what makes it unique globally, the importance of treating Pittman-Robertson excise tax revenue as an investment rather than a burden, the growing challenge of wildlife ballot initiatives bypassing science-based management, the lesser-known Blacktail Deer Foundation and the species' coastal rainforest habitat from California to Alaska, and why nonprofit conservation organizations can say things in public that government agencies simply cannot. Jon draws a thought-provoking parallel between mule deer declines and the emerging turkey population struggles in the East and raises an important question about whether the wildlife management profession has the right experience base to manage declining species after a century focused almost entirely on restoration success.
For more information, reach us at:
Wildlife Management Institute: https://wildlifemanagement.institute
Outdoor Stewards of Conservation: https://stewardsofconservation.org
Mule Deer Foundation: https://muledeer.org
Black-Tailed Deer Foundation: https://blacktaildeer.org
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