Hazing deer a nighttime affair

This is the last of a two-part series about hazing deer in private alfalfa fields.

The hand-held spotlight scanned the alfalfa field beginning at the west end and continued to the east as the Death Ram continued along the dirt road as a snail’s pace.

Suddenly two eyes were visible, shining as if they were two white Christmas lights on the window of a house. The Ram slowed to a stop. Kim Weishaar stepped from the vehicle and so did I.

“I’m going to use the whistle,” she said as I rounded the front end of the Ram to the passenger side, following the eyes with my spotlight.

The sound coming from the whistle was piercing, high-pitched, penetrating and sharp all at the same time.

The deer took off running and I headed back to the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Get outa here,” Kim yelled at the top of her lungs.

The deer moved faster and so did I.

“Well, I was a PE teacher at one time,” Kim said.

We were hazing deer south of Sprague. The farmer lost a large amount of money last year when local deer ruined his third cutting of alfalfa.

“Last fall I counted 140 deer in my fields before the third cutting,” the owner said. “The damage was so vast, I couldn’t salvage any of it.”

This year Fish and Wildlife was using master hunters and master hunter applicants as a tool to train the deer to stay out of the fields.

Kim is a second grade teacher at the Ritzville elementary school and a master hunter applicant. She also taught at Lakeview Terrace Elementary in Moses Lake from 2011 through 2013. Now she was working toward the 20 hours of volunteer work required to earn master hunter status.

I have been a master hunter for eight years and was working toward my 40 hours of volunteer work required during the 5 years my permit is active in order to recertify for another five years.

Kim and I had never met, but were paired by Fish and Wildlife Conflict Specialist Candace Bennett from the Spokane Fish and Wildlife Regional Office in Spokane. There was no rhyme nor reason how Candace paired the 14 volunteers, but Kim and I became instant friends and enjoyed a few hours of visiting and chasing deer.

This hunter and her husband, Nick, have two future hunters, 3-year-old Tate and 18-month-old Titus. Nick is a middle school teacher in Ritzville and a longtime hunter.

Kim said she grew up in Randle. She tagged along on her father’s deer and elk hunting trips, but didn’t have an interest in becoming a hunter until recently. Now she has two-notched deer tags under her belt and is striving to become a master hunter.

The routine is to show up at a hay shed at dusk and read the journal left by other volunteers of the last few days. Then begin a series of drives around the various alfalfa fields.

When a deer is spotted, the vehicle is stopped and the deer convinced to leave the field. Sometimes there are as many as five head or more in a field. Candace said the animals will find the alfalfa fields more enticing as the surrounding sagebrush and grasslands dry up during late summer. This is why there were 140 deer in these fields last year.

At our disposal for hazing are whistles, a paint gun, air signals, spotlights and 12 gauge rubber buckshot. Kim has mastered the paint gun. She finally was able to get a good shot at a doe and connected, making the critter move faster. The shot was super.

We spotted a deer and she stepped from the vehicle, released the safety and fired. The deer was heading away and over a small hill. The shot followed the critter over the hill and connected on the other side. Mean to tell ya, the paint ball curved over the hill following the critter.

Candace has indicated the deer respond easily to the honk or a vehicle horn in the beginning, but later, the honking doesn’t faze them. The same goes for the rest of the tools used to move the animals out of the fields.

She said later on we may need to use lethal force, meaning we many need to kill one. If this sounds extreme, remember, the farmer’s loss may be in the thousands of dollars, perhaps as much as $10,000 or more.

Volunteering can be expensive. The alfalfa fields are 90 minutes from Moses Lake. Candace allows us to count travel time as volunteer time, because of the remote location. On a typical hazing night, I drive between 185 and 200 miles, costing between $35 and $45.

Time at the site varies. I usually arrive at 8 p.m. and leave between midnight and 1 a.m. My buddy, Jim Hergert, travels with me sometimes.

Helping the rancher is important for sure, but visiting with a friend, Jim, for three hours a night is great. Making a new friend, such as Kim, is super. Sharing the night sky, with them both, a sky full of stars in an area without any lights and watching the International Space Station pass over is precious.