The end of the year will mark the end of yet another era in the West Virginia DNR. Longtime Biologist game biologist Tom Dotson will retire from his job in order to pursue more opportunities.
"I’m getting out now because I’m still in fairly good health and I can still hunt,” Dotson said on the December 8 edition of West Virginia Outdoors. "I figure I’ve got at least two more bird dogs to wear out before I’m done."
Bird hunting is a passion for Dotson who’s spent the last 35-years chasing deer, trapping turkeys, tracking wild boar, and cozying up to sleeping bears.
"I said in my retirement letter, it’s been a hell of a ride, but I think it’s time to get off,” Dotson said.
Dotson is one of the DNR’s old guard. The class of biologists from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s are slowly retiring away, giving way to a newer breed of game managers. Today’s graduates of wildlife management programs are not only well studied in the area of game biology, but have to add layers of public relations, communications technology, and a few lessons of political correctness to their degrees to hope to be effective. Dotson is part of a retiring breed that learned those lessons on the fly.
"I bet I’ve chemically tranquilized more animals than any biologist in the country,” laughs Dotson.
One of the more notable occasions was a deer that got loose in downtown Huntington. Dotson darted the animal causing it to fly into frenzy and crash through the window of an insurance agency office. The deer caused widespread damage before heading across the street to the famous Mack and Dave’s Store. A second dart helped very little to calm the enraged beast.
"I finally just tacked her and wrestled her to the ground,” said Dotson as he recalled the odd event.
Amazingly it wasn’t the only time Dotson had gone several rounds with a whitetail. During the early 70’s Dotson was intrigued while flying over Blennerhasset Island by the hour-glass design of land mass. Curious to find a way to trap and transplant deer from the island, Dotson figured a 100-yard net, stretched across the narrowest portion of the island would be idea.
"We drove them into that net and would then tackle them, tranquilize them and cart them off to McDowell County," recalls Dotson. "I don’t know if we did a whole lot to boost the deer population down south, but a lot of those guys down there volunteered and we had a great time taking them down."
Like most biologist of his time, Dotson has become a storyteller and his exploits have given him a treasure trove of material. However, few can eclipse his tales of dealing with nuisance bears.
His favorite is the lady from eastern Kanawha County who called on Christmas Day to say, "that heathenist bear has defiled Fred’s blanket with his nasty feet."
"I’ll never forget those words for as long as I live,” said Dotson recalling the event as if it were last weekend.
Fred was the woman’s late husband whose room had been sealed off since his death. A roaming bruin had determined Fred’s window provided the easiest access to the house and ultimately the kitchen.
Dotson’s ultimate story may have been the Good Samaritan of Cabin Creek. A man collected bread on the verge of being discarded from various bread stores in Charleston to ostensibly "feed the poor folks." The truth was the man was feeding the poor bears and had the bread stacked floor to ceiling in his basement. Dotson received the man’s call after a bear had broke out the basement window and crash landed four-feet from the man who was seated on the toilet.
"I was constipated, but that soon past,” the man told Dotson over the phone.
The bear immediately broke through a wooden store and left a trail of debris all the way across the highway and into the woods on the other side.
"It’s been a hell of a ride, but it’s time to get off."