Last Thursday, Oct. 10, was the general deer opener for the state.  This is always an exciting time of year for hunters, me included.

     My brother, daughter and I chased mule deer over in Unit 56, our traditional hunt area.  We saw beautiful bucks and does with fawns.  We flushed sharp-tailed grouse and gray partridges as we hiked, and we watched mountain bluebirds flit from sagebrush to sagebrush as we ate lunch.  My daughter was amazed that mountain bluebirds were really “that blue” — just like the pictures show in her fourth grade text book.

    After opening day, I had the opportunity to work the checkstation at the Port of Entry near Inkom.  It was a great time — listening to hunting stories, measuring antlers, taking data and seeing kids with their first deer.

    My favorite story was about a youth who got up early on Sunday to go hunting with friends.  For some reason, his buddies were not ready to go.  So, he grabbed his mom, and she — in her pajamas — drove him to his hunt area.  Sure enough, he shot his first deer.  And sure enough, mom — in her pajamas — taught him how to clean it.  She taught him another lesson that day, too: the importance of stopping at checkstations.

    All hunters and anglers who encounter check stations must by law, stop, even if no one in the group harvested game or fish.  Failure to stop may result in a citation to those who have spent the day in the field!

    Hunters and anglers who are just beginning the hunt or fishing trip for the day should also stop if they encounter a checkstation.  In fact, conservation officers can pull suspected hunters and anglers over if they pass by a checkstation.  So save the officers the time and headache and just take a few minutes to stop to let them know of your plans for the day.  They will quickly get you on your way so you can get to the fun of hunting and fishing.

    When at checkstations, Fish and Game sees some common mistakes hunters make.

    When transporting game like deer or elk, make sure that the tag is properly notched and attached to the animal. Wrapping the tag around the antlers with masking/electrician’s tape or with lightweight wire ensures that the tag doesn’t blow off in transit.  If you have not left the head attached to the deer, the tag must accompany the largest portion of meat.

    Make sure that if you remove the head from the harvested animal, and that you leave evidence of sex attached.  Even if you have skinned, cut up, and bagged your game, the evidence of sex must still be left intact on a portion of the meat to prove that the animal was of the correct gender for harvest.

    If transporting an animal for someone else who is not in the vehicle, you must have a proxy statement completed.  A proxy statement indicates that the game in your possession was not harvested by you, but that you are simply carrying it on behalf of someone else.  These forms can be found in the regulations.

    Stopping at checkstations after a day in the field is not just the law, it is important.  The information you provide to Fish and Game about where you were hunting or fishing and what you observed while in the field is critical to understanding and managing the resource.

    Plus, we can collect invaluable data from harvested game, which may include gender, weight, antler measurements, age classification and even lymph node samples which allow us to test for disease.

    At checkstations, we gather more immediate and comprehensive data than we do through the mandatory harvest report which may take months for us to receive.  And, it is this data and your observations that contribute to the season setting process which begins in just a few months.

    So, now back to my deer hunting story.  I didn’t get my deer on opening day, which is fine, really. I just loved being outside with my family, watching my daughter pick up “treasures” like the huge cow skull and femur she found in a drainage and then joyfully lugged it back to the truck.

    I was particularly thrilled that even during an early morning moment sitting on a ridge in the wind and rain, my daughter asked through chattering teeth how soon she could take Hunter Education.  And she asked me for the umpteenth time when she could get her very own shotgun for bird hunting, which she reminded me would be next fall — as if I somehow had forgotten.

    It is true that if I had harvested my deer, I could have dined on it throughout the next year.  But it is the memories made during that hunt that I will feast on for a lifetime.

Jennifer Jackson is the Regional Conservation Educator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, southeast region.