Mendocino Blacktail group presents long-term wildlife monitoring, points to bears as major fawn predator

Paul Turett, leader of the Mendocino Blacktail Association and a former District 3 commissioner, told the Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission that a long‑term camera‑trap monitoring project on Mendocino National Forest lands is producing baseline data the group hopes will inform regulatory recommendations.

Turett said volunteers and fundraising have paid for the work and that last year the program deployed camera coverage across roughly 400 square miles and collected about "758,000 photos last last year." He said the association shares its data with the Forest Service and with Region 1 (the California Department of Fish and Wildlife regional office) and is using AI tools to speed image processing.

"It was determined that the black bears were responsible for most of the mortality of the fawns," Turett said, summarizing results from earlier studies the group provided to state biologists. He said the monitoring is…