The Nevada Wild Podcast

In honor of Bat Week and Halloween, this week's Nevada Wild looks at some of the projects NDOW is working on to learn more about bats, extremely misunderstood, but important animals to the ecosystem! Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Wildlife Diversity Biologists Mackenzie Jeffress and Michael West to talk about the different bat surveys they're working on. This includes a new eff...

Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller, hosts of The Nevada Wild Podcast teamed up with Tim Akimoff and Beth Quillian, hosts of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Beaver State Podcast at the 6th International Human-Bear Conflicts Workshop in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. We take you on a journey around North America to look at solutions to human-caused problems for bears in places like Arviat in Nunavu...

Upland game hunters have a lot to look forward to! Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 15, statewide chukar and quail seasons open! In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW's Upland Game Staff Specialist Shawn Espinosa, who breaks down the 2022 Chukar Forecast, explains the best locations for hopeful hunters, and gives us an update on other upland game species. Buy your...

In this week's Nevada Wild, we introduce you to NDOW's new Western Nevada Fisheries Biologist Sam Sedillo. Sam fills Nevada Wild hosts, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller, in on his background and passion for fish! He tells us about the projects he's been working on since beginning his position at NDOW in March. He also highlights a major project near Wall Canyon Reservoir to protect a unique Nevada...

In celebration of Elk Week, we're featuring special guest, Randy Newberg! At his core Randy is a hunter, an advocate for public land, and uses a variety of platforms to advocate for hunters and public land access! Some of his platforms include Fresh Tracks (TV/YouTube), Hunt Talk Radio (Podcast), RandyNewberg.com (Website), and Hunt Talk (Web Forum). In short, Randy is a leading voice for public l...

Tomorrow, Saturday 24, is National Public Lands Day (NPLD), a celebration that brings out thousands of volunteers to help restore and improve public lands around the country. In this week’s Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with Bureau of Land Management Archaeologist Alicia Jensen, who fills us in on an NPLD cleanup volunteer opportunity at the Fernley Swales. This site a mile...

In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with Nevada Department of Wildlife Veterinarian Nate LaHue to talk about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a transmissible neurological disease that is always fatal to animals in the deer family. Currently, CWD is found in 34 states and provinces but not in Nevada. Nate explains the state's efforts to prevent the disease from enteri...

With dove season opening yesterday, we thought it was the perfect time to sit down with NDOW Migratory Game Bird Staff Biologist Russell Woolstenhulme to get an update on populations and tips to be more successful. In this week’s Nevada Wild, we cover everything you need to know if you’re interested in hunting dove. We switch gears and talk about banding projects, including the state's first ever...

In this week’s Nevada Wild, we sit down with Miranda Crowell. As part of her PhD work for University of Nevada Reno, Miranda has been working on a collaborative project for over five years to learn more about pygmy rabbit populations in Nevada and how they are changing over time. She explains how she got involved in working with pygmy rabbits, the work she's doing for her study, and why it’s so im...

NDOW's Conservation Education Division has a wide variety of educational programming free for classrooms, homeschoolers, after-school programs, and really anyone interested in learning more about Nevada's wildlife. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Statewide Wildlife Education Coordinator Julie Bless to talk about a variety of education programs availab...

In this week’s Nevada Wild, Aaron Keller and Ashley Sanchez sit down with NDOW Biologist Heather Reich to talk about bears! Heather corrects some common misconceptions surrounding Nevada’s black bear populations and explains some steps to take as bears get more active due to hyperphagia, the phase they go through to build up calories before spending the winter in their dens. She also tells us why...

Take your best guess! How much money do you think big game and upland game hunters spend on hunting in Nevada per year? In this week’s Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez, Aaron Keller, and Bobby Jones dive into the dollars and cents details of hunting in Nevada with UNR Research Scientist Alec Bowman. Alec lets us know just how much Nevada hunters support our state’s economy using an in-depth report he w...

Have you ever been interested in learning how to shoot a bow or rifle? NDOW offers learn-to shoot classes throughout the state to teach safe and responsible shooting practices to youth and adults. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW’s new Statewide Recreational Shooting Coordinator, Adam Kavanagh to talk about the shooting programs NDOW offers. Adam also...

As animals get more active in the late spring and early summer, NDOW sees an increase in phone calls from community members asking questions about wildlife they come across in their neighborhoods, whether they've found an injured animal or they have an unexpected visitor in their yard. Those are the calls that keep our Urban Wildlife Coordinators busy. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez an...

In this week’s Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Wildlife Diversity Biologist Mackenzie Jeffress to talk about North America’s cutest mammal, the pika, and the new Nevada Pika Atlas. The atlas is a compilation of information from researchers across the west shows where pika can be found across the state! Mackenzie explains why this is important in helping us learn mor...

In this week’s Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with Wildlife Education Coordinator Julie Bless and Conservation Education Division Administrator Chris Vasey to talk about the Nevada Department of Wildlife's "Conserve Wildlife" license plate, which is available at any Nevada Department of Motor Vehicle office. They explain how proceeds from the sale of this license plate featu...

Nevada's Free Fishing Day is tomorrow, Saturday, June 11. This is the one day of the year you can fish any public water in the state without a fishing license. If you have never been fishing, Free Fishing Day is the day to get out and try it! In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Angler Educators Jan Nemec, Julie Gabrielson, and Abbey Czarnecki to talk abou...

Boating season is here! We encourage you to prepare before you head out on the water, so you can be sure to have a safe and fun boating experience with your friends and family. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW's Statewide Boating Education Coordinator Aaron Meier to talk about the steps to take to prepare your boat and stay safe while boating or paddli...

This week's Nevada Wild is shell-e-brating Wild Turtle Week! Hosts Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller talk to NDOW Wildlife Diversity Biologist Matt Flores and clear up some confusion around the difference between turtles and tortoises. He gives us an overview of Nevada species, and explains the threats they face. We're also joined by Christian Daniels, the creator of the Desert Balloon Project, a Fa...

In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Educators Zac Campbell, Jan Nemec, and Abbey Czarnecki to talk about carp fishing in Nevada! Abbey recaps the recent annual Carp Rodeo at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, and Jan fills us in on the Kids Carp Derby on Saturday June 4, at Lahontan Reservoir, along with other western Nevada Carp Derbies this summer. Fi...

Nevada's big game tag application period deadline is quickly approaching! In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller are joined by NDOW Conservation Educators Martin Olson and Julie Gabrielson to talk about frequently asked questions they've received about the application period, tools like NDOW's Big Game Application Seminar, and tips to follow when preparing to apply. Watch the...

This week's Nevada Wild goes on the road at Walker River State Recreation Area! Ashley Sanchez and Bobby Jones are joined by Nevada Division of Natural Heritage Botanist Janel Johnson as she leads a tour at the state recreation area to show NatureServe CEO and President Sean O'Brien around. This is one stop on Sean's journey across the country to visit with natural heritage agencies in different s...

NDOW has released a new hunt planning tool for hunters to use during Nevada's big game application period, which is now open at ndowlicensing.com. The tool, HuntNV, includes an interactive hunt unit map, harvest data, draw data, and bonus point data. The map can be filtered by many different hunt options. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with HuntNV creator, NDO...

For the opening week of Nevada's big game application period, and the conclusion of our Women's Month podcasts, we thought it was the perfect time to introduce two of our eastern Nevada game biologists. In this week's Nevada Wild, Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller sit down with NDOW Game Biologists Sarah Hale and Samantha Fino. The two explain how they recently became biologists at NDOW, their backg...

In this week's Nevada Wild, we continue our Women's Month celebration with guest Cynthia Scholl. Cynthia is the Education Coordinator at University of Nevada, Reno's Museum of Natural History, and the Associate Director of Nevada Bugs and Butterflies. Cynthia fills NDOW's Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller in on both of her positions, her passion for bugs (especially butterflies!) and natural history...