Elk after fires

[sf jakey]

Well, unfortunately the place I hunt in Oregon is up in flames as we speak. My archery hunt this year is gone, and I’m wondering what the future holds. The ranch is pretty heavily timbered, with a lot of water and good feed. I’m worried the damage to the timber is going to negatively impact the elk for the foreseeable future. Anybody have any thoughts on how elk use the landscape after big fires? Do they come back and stick around, or do they usually move to adjacent land which isn’t impacted? I know it’s hard to say for sure, just looking for people’s experiences. It’s not my property, but I have spent so much time on it and learned it so intimately, it’s pretty hard to watch happen. Plus the owner is a good friend making it worse.

 

[TrailDog]

Around here (northwest Montana) elk seem to gravitate to recently burned areas, there is always a flush of decadent forbs and grasses after a fire before the brush and trees take over again. Several of my best spots for elk are the edges along recent burns and green/unburned timber.

 

[IdahoElk]

Well, unfortunately the place I hunt in Oregon is up in flames as we speak. My archery hunt this year is gone, and I’m wondering what the future holds. The ranch is pretty heavily timbered, with a lot of water and good feed. I’m worried the damage to the timber is going to negatively impact the elk for the foreseeable future. Anybody have any thoughts on how elk use the landscape after big fires? Do they come back and stick around, or do they usually move to adjacent land which isn’t impacted? I know it’s hard to say for sure, just looking for people’s experiences. It’s not my property, but I have spent so much time on it and learned it so intimately, it’s pretty hard to watch happen. Plus the owner is a good friend making it worse.

The landscape will go through a few vegetation changes until the dominate plant life takes over, give it a few years (3-5) and Elk will be back loving all the food and low canopy cover.

 

[Ncountry]

I'm leaving in a few days for my 4rth elk hunt. So not an abundance of experience here.
What I do know is that on my 1st trip we harvested a bull the 1st day. A lot of luck was involved. The area had been on fire for weeks and they had just finished putting out the fires. They opened the gate to the fs road we used to access the area the morning we arrived.

The bull literally fell in 3" of ash and his last breath blew a cloud of ash into the air.
The fire was a few thousand acres so the elk didn't have to move far and they were immediately back in.

 

[spike camp]

A few years ago after a super hot fire in Colorado, ‘they’ were tracking collared elk and it showed the elk moving in right behind the fire, before it was even really out.

 

[ElkArcher918]

Shot my best Wyoming mule deer in a 3-5 year old burn area last year. Funny thing, I had my back to the only unburned tree in the area when he and his buddy came by on the trail of a doe. The Tikka .270 and Barnes Copper 130 grs. "smoked" him at close range.

 

[insanelupus]

I've literally seen them on cameras walking by the stumps still burning a few days after a large burn. If they were there before and it wasn't completely burned off with some islands of timber in the draws, still s chance they are there. Good luck.

 

[Idaboy]

Have hunted where embers still hot and elk all over the place. They don't care imho

 

[Weldor]

Just watched a bull bed last week right in the middle of a prescribed burn. The green grass made a ton of smoke for a few days. After that they were right back in it. Like stated above milling around burning stumps and blow downs.