A mule deer buck is brought in on the opening weekend of the 2013 general deer hunting season to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife check station in Okanogan County. (Washington Fish and Wildlife Department)
A mule deer doe and her fawn wander in to check out a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife check station in Okanogan County on the opening weekend of the 2013 deer hunting season. (Washington Fish and Wildlife Department)
A hunter brings in a mule deer for measuring at the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department's Okanogan check station near Winthrop on Oct. 20, 2013. (Washington Fish and Wildlife Department)
WSU wildlife student Sarah Tompkins takes pointers from hunter education instructor Jim Kujala on measuring antler growth on a yearling whitetail at the Chattaroy hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013, while WSU student Taylor Harrigan records the data. (Rich Landers)
Staffing the Deer Park hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013, are, from left, hunter education instructors Bob Peterson and Dean Kramer, with Washington Fish and Wildlife Department wildlife biologists Annemarie Prince and Dana Base, and hunter education instructor Tom Higgins. (Rich Landers)
Washington Fish and Wildlife Department wildlife biologists Annemarie Prince, front, and Dana Base, right, remove a tooth and take measurements on whitetail deer buck brought in to the Deer Park hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013. The deer was brought in by Matt Van Horn, back left, who is talking to hunter education instructor Dean Kramer. (Rich Landers)
Washington Fish and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist Annemarie Prince removes a tooth and takes measurements on a whitetail deer buck brought in to the Deer Park hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013. (Rich Landers)
Erin an Matt Van Horn of Shelton, Wash., pause at the Deer Park hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013, with a whitetail buck Erin shot during their hunting visit to the East Side. (Rich Landers)
Erin Van Horn of Shelton, Wash., pauses at the Deer Park hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013, with a whitetail buck Erin shot while hunting with her husband, Matt, during their visit to the East Side. (Rich Landers)
WSU students Jason Fontaine of Monroe, Taylor Harrigan of Phoenix and Sarah Tompkins of Snohomish, standing, worked at the Chattaroy hunter check station on Oct. 20, 2013, with, from left, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department research biologist Woody Myers, and hunter education instructors Jim Kujala and Greg Koehn. (Rich Landers)
Hunters can boost the state's knowledge for managing wildlife by devoting a few minutes after their hunting trips to a quick stop at a highway hunter check station. (See story.) These stations are staffed about four days each fall by Washington Fish and Wildlife Department biologists and hunter education instructor volunteers. The staffs collect data on the animals hunters have harvested. Even hunters who do not bag an animal can provide useful information regarding what they saw in the field. Students interested in wildlife fields often get their first hands-on work measuring animals and taking tissue samples by shadowing the professional biologists at these stations. And often the hunters who stop at check stations ask their own questions and learn new information about wildlife populations and hunting regulations.