Just when you thought NDOW had used up all their Mother Nature excuses for the decline of our deer, they have come up with another pitiful excuse. In the January 1998 "Mining and Wildlife", a quarterly publication of the Nevada Division of Wildlife, an article states the following: "For the past several decades, NDOW has recognized the long term loss in productivity of major deer winter ranges associated with the Ruby deer herd. The maintenance and /or enhancement of winter range is the key factor in maintaining the long term productivity of this deer herd which remains one of the largest in the state. Two factors have been responsible for this loss of productivity on winter ranges, fires and long term increase of the pinion-juniper woodlands."

The most obvious questions here are: Do forest fires kill pinion-juniper trees? Apparently not, or the trees would not be part of the problem. The second question would be, are there any mountain lions or coyotes associated with the

Ruby deer herd? The answer again is apparently not because they were not mentioned in the factors explaining the loss of productivity in the Ruby deer herd. This goes right along with Administrator Molini's often stated remark that we don't have a predator problem.