·S2 E16
Inside Mendocino’s Blacktail: Habitat, Predators, And The B‑Zone Project with Guests Paul Trouette & John Wagenet
Episode Description
A number on a page says California holds 500,000 deer. Our boots say otherwise. We sat down with Paul Trouett and John Wagenet to map the ground truth of blacktail across Mendocino and the B‑Zones—why herds feel thinner, how habitats shifted, and what it takes to bring the Pacific Ghost back into the open.
We start with lived experience: families who learned safety by feel, close shots in thick manzanita, and the art of reading wind, seeps, and sign. From there we move to evidence. The Mendocino County Blacktail Association built a grassroots model—local dollars funding local projects—then partnered with biologists to study what really changed. The findings are blunt: decadent browse with low protein, vanishing canopy that once offered thermal cover, and heavy bear predation crushing fawn survival. Lions are present but less dense than rumor suggests, while kleptoparasitism and scattered enforcement complicate the picture. Add the fallout from years of illicit grows—poisons, pressure, and missing data—and you get decline by accumulation.
Hope looks practical, not flashy. Oak release and targeted thinning revive acorns and understory nutrition. Prescribed fire and mastication reset habitat quality. Water matters at micro-scale; hidden seeps and mud pockets support both deer and ethical ambush sites. Better bullets improve recovery. Better data reconnects policy to reality. And better access management creates small sanctuaries where a six-year-old buck can make it to seven. We share field stories, study results, and a blueprint any county can adapt: measure, fix habitat, understand predators, and keep the work local.
If blacktail hunting, conservation, and real numbers matter to you, hit play and join the effort. Subscribe, leave a review to boost the mission, and share this with a hunter or landowner who can help turn the next acre into healthy deer ground.
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