WILDLIFE RESEARCH -- The proof is in the poop for central Washington deer researchers studying the nutritional preferences of deer.

GPS units, compasses and tape measures in hand, a group of eight mostly volunteer scientists surveyed sagebrush and windblown wheat grass on the hills far above Wenatchee three days last week. They were looking for poop pellets that might reveal the mule deer’s preference for tasty fall and late winter browsing.

“Here’s a big old pile,” shouted veteran Chelan-Douglas Land Trust volunteer Diane McKenzie, as if she had found a stash of gold nuggets among the sagebrush and flowering balsamroot.

Read the Wenatchee World story.