Nevada Department of Wildlife

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Sept. 17-23, 2014.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife on Monday named Brian Wakeling as Game Division Administrator. The position oversees the division responsible for management, protection, research and monitoring of wildlife classified as game mammals, upland and migratory game birds and furbearing mammals.

Wakeling has over 25 years of experience in increasingly responsible roles with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. In his most recent position there, Brian served as a Wildlife Management Branch Supervisor for Arizona, similar to the function he is now fulfilling for Nevada.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife has seven openings for entry level game wardens, most of which are in rural Nevada duty stations. This is the largest recruitment of game wardens in NDOW’s history.

“The agency has experienced several retirements and some turnover in the last few years,” said Tyler Turnipseed, Chief Game Warden at NDOW.

Forget all of the fluff, let’s just cut to the good news: This year’s Nevada Chukar Hunting Forecast, an annual report put out by the Nevada Department of Wildlife that takes habitat conditions and statewide survey results to estimate chukar populations, was recently released and predicts good chukar hunting for much of Nevada.

"We were hoping the spring and summer rains we had would provide good conditions for chick survival and they did," said Chris Healy, public information officer for NDOW.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Sept. 10-17, 2014.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Sept. 3-10, 2014.

The state’s Board of Wildlife Commissioners is currently seeking nominations for the 2014 Wayne E. Kirch Nevada Wildlife Conservation Award.

The award is given annually to recipients who have demonstrated significant results towards conservation, management or enhancement of wildlife. An individual, non-profit organization, outdoor sports club, or business can be nominated for the award.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of August 27 through Labor Day.

Climate change is hurting reproduction of the endangered Devils Hole pupfish, threatening the survival of this rare species that has numbered as few as 35 individuals, new research by the University of Nevada, Reno and Desert Research Institute shows.

Scientists report that geothermal water on a small shelf near the surface of an isolated cavern in the Nevada desert where the pupfish live is heating up as a result of climate change and is likely to continue heating to dangerous levels.

For nearly five years Jiggs Reservoir, approximately 30 miles south of Elko, has been a reservoir in name only with no water to speak of. However, the Nevada Department of Wildlife in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, Elko County, Barrick, Newmont and private landowners is now in the process of improving this once popular reservoir and dam so that it will once again hold water.

Tyler Turnipseed was named chief game warden for the Nevada Department of Wildlife Monday. He is only the fifth Chief Game Warden in NDOW’s history, a position that oversees all game wardens in Nevada.

Game wardens enforce wildlife and boating safety laws across the state, in rural areas and on Nevada’s waterways. Turnipseed is relocating to Reno from Winnemucca where he spent 10 years as the sole game warden for that growing community.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Aug 20-27. Varying conditions exist due to extreme drought conditions.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Aug. 13-20, 2014.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of Aug. 6-12, 2014.

The month of July ended with the Nevada Department of Wildlife dealing with 20 black bears in the 31 days.

“That is a faster than normal pace,” says NDOW biologist Carl Lackey, “but it is really the calm before the storm with potential nuisance bear activity in western Nevada. This is the time of year that the bears expand their search for food and during that search bears and the activities of people often come in to conflict. August, September and October should be very busy with our bears.”

Fruit trees throughout western Nevada blossom in the spring and will produce ripened fruit in mid-summer. As the fruit develops, the black bears in western Nevada are sure to take notice.

Armed with a sense of smell that is 2,100 times better than a human’s, black bears can tell when it is time to venture down the hill into places like west Reno, Washoe and Pleasant Valleys, Carson City and the western edges of the Carson Valley including Minden, Gardnerville and Genoa.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California and the Sierra. This report is for the week of June 30 through Aug. 5, 2014.

As July closes so does Nevada Department of Wildlife's month-long BEAR Logic campaign, designed to teach residents and visitors how to live and recreate in bear county. This week NDOW advice provides tips if people should have a bear encounter.

Keep in mind that bears exhibit stress behaviors that indicate their anxiety and preference to avoid conflict with you. These are not necessarily signs of an aggressive bear.

— Moaning and woofing while avoiding direct eye contact with you.
— Clacking of their teeth and smacking of their jaws.

Two black bears trapped Tuesday were released back into the wild by Nevada Department of Wildlife wardens. So far, 11 bears have been safely released back into the Sierra since July 1.

Both bears were tagged, tattooed and micro chipped in order to identify them in the future should they come back in to contact with humans. Neither bear had previously been handled by NDOW.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of July 23, 2014.

July is BEAR Logic Month, a time to teach residents and visitors how to live and recreate in bear county. When a bear in its own habitat is exhibiting normal bear behavior, it’s unlikely to be a cause for concern. NDOW cautions people to never to approach or attempt an interaction with a bear. Of course the best option is to never have a bear encounter in the first place.

A male black bear was euthanized Friday in Genoa for killing livestock, Nevada Department of Wildlife officials said. It is the first bear killed this year determined to be depredating livestock. In 2013 two bears were euthanized for the same reason.

The bear, estimated to be six years of age, had been handled by NDOW personnel two other times before, earlier this week and in April.

Three five-month old black bear cubs were captured and released Wednesday along Kingsbury Grade near Stateline at Lake Tahoe. Nevada Department of Wildlife personnel captured the three cubs in a trap but the mother of the bears eluded capture.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada and Northern California. This report is for the week of July 16, 2014.

July is BEAR Logic Month, a time to teach residents and visitors how to live and recreate in bear county. As many of you already know, securing trash is the best way to prevent human-bear conflicts.

What many people don’t know is that they may be living or recreating in bear habitat. As drought conditions persist, bears continue to move into more urban environments.

Hunters wanting a crash course on how to safely handle game after its been caught can attend a number of workshops this summer offered through the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and the University of Nevada, Reno College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources.

In a collaboration with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the workshops aim to provide a hands-on experience for Nevada hunters on field dressing techniques, safe handling and transportation of meat, and conservation.

Tahoe Resource Conservation District watercraft inspectors stopped a boat with quagga mussels and an unidentified snail species hiding in the anchor locker, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency announced Thursday.

The boat, coming from Lake Mead, a known quagga-infested water body, was inspected Wednesday at the Spooner Summit inspection station on Highway 50 in Nevada.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, northern California and the Sierra. This report is for the week of July 9-15, 2014.

July is BEAR Logic Month, a time to teach residents how to live in bear country, including information on how bears are managed. BEAR Logic means to think like a bear and try looking at your property from a bear’s perspective. This will help you understand why bears are frequenting your property and how you can avoid these encounters.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife strives with every bear interaction to keep the bear wild and alive. In fact, the agency biologists and game wardens have a number of tools they deploy when handling a conflict bear, purposely designed to be non-lethal.

Two female black bears, captured in Incline Village Tuesday, were safely released into the Lake Tahoe backcountry Wednesday by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.