Steve Bates, a wildlife biologist on Antelope Island, has dedicated his career to conservation, driven by a childhood passion. He’s tackled habitats across the United States, especially Antelope Island.

“I grew up in the home of a wildlife game manager,” Bates said. “[I] knew that’s what I was going to do from the time I could walk, and did what I had to do to get there.”

Bates began at Utah State University Eastern, where he completed his associates program, before transferring to Utah State and finishing his bachelors in Fish and Wildlife Management. He finished his masters at BYU, after doing a field project on black bear.

After college, Bates moved his family to Florida, where he took a job for the Florida State Parks, managing threatened animals. During this time, Bates began doing a lot of prescribed wildfires, a controlled burn that targets overgrowth.

“[We] burnt a lot of acreage in Florida,” Bates said. “We were trying to get our parks to mimic natural conditions.” 

Bates left his job with the Florida State Parks after Hurricane Andrew. 

“I actually ended up as a manatee biologist for 10 days,” Bates said. “Then my wife and I just looked at each other and said ‘let’s head west.’”

After six and half years in New Mexico, his brother sent him a job announcement for Antelope Island, where he has been for about 25 years and six months.

Bates said the important project was installing a 100,000 gallon tank, gravity fed down to four drinkers. Two mimic small creeks, and the others are like circular pylons. The lower are for the bison, and the upper feed mule deer and bighorn sheep. This project coincided with a major drought cycle, giving the animals more options in the hard years.

“Since I’ve been on the island I’ve just watched the water retreat back up the mountain. So this was just a security measure and to get us through tough drought years,” he said. “It’s working really good – full and self-sustaining, and that was a real big get out here just to have consistent water supply.”

Bates has also installed 10 guzzlers across the island, which are usually like big water troughs. The guzzlers are mainly for the bighorn sheep, causing them to distribute to water supplies and expand their range. In 2018 these sheep contracted domestic sheep diseases.

“Nobody knows for sure what happened, but odds are we had a sheep wander off the island, contract the disease, and then come back,” Bates said. “They brought that to the remainder of the others on the island. They all pretty much succumbed to the disease.”

Two years after the eradication 11 miles of fencing was built around the southern end of the island, as a deterrent for sheep leaving the island, and the reintroduced sheep from Arizona and Montana, were all collared. 

“There’s a few [sheep] now that don't have collars, but you can see where they go to the fence and then turn back,” Bates said. “So it’s working as intended, keeping them here.”

The icon of animals on the island, and the reason the island was founded in the first place, are bison. Tourists from all over flock for the opportunity to see the staple of American history.

“When I started out here, bison weren’t really managed for anything but the enjoyment of the public,” Bates said. “Which is rightly so, it is the top priority.”

Bates converted the bison to a cow calf production unit, and people see more than they ever did before. A cow operation allows for more reproduction every year. Bulls are more fun for tourists to look at, but cows are far more important for birthing ratios. 

“We used to get about a hundred animal bumps every year,” Bates said. “Now we’re over 250 every year.”

Bison from Antelope Island have fed countless conservation efforts across the country. Bates has done a massive amount of work with what was once a ragtag herd of bison, from habitat restoration, to genetics, there has been a noticeable uptick in the health of the herd. 

These successes have defined Bates’ career.  His influence on the island is there with men like John Freemont, Kit Carson, and John Dooly. The difference for Bates, unlike the others, is that there is no questioning his impact on the island was positive.