Rough Winter for Mule Deer ID/Wy/Ut

[S.Clancy]

In a perfect world I agree but where I live housing has all but eliminated winter habitat making supplemental winter feeding almost necessary.

At what point are we not treating wild animals exactly like cattle? Wildlife management shouldn't equate to animal husbandry. We should be advocating for EVERYTHING animals need. We do not need to create evolutionary pressure that rewards mule deer that can sustain human supplemented diets. We need to think 30 yrs ahead, not year to year. Those deer where you live will either go away or figure out a way to scratch it out. It is what it is. Let's just make sure it doesn't happen everywhere.

 

[manitou1]

We had several areas of Western Wyoming that recieved 6' and 8' of snow in one three-day storm last week! Yes, that is feet!
In my area we have had snow on the ground continually since early November... and Dec-Feb are our driest months. March/April are our snowiest months.
Lots of sub-zero low temps here for days or weeks in a row with wind chills reaching -50 in our area.
Wife and I drive by a wintering antelope herd on our road daily. We have seen some bed down never to get up and yesterday the eagles and buzzards were eating them.

Not looking good this winter.

If there is a plus side, we do need the moisture.

As a side note: The Bighorn Mountains Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation is having their annual banquet at the Ramada Plaza in Sheridan Saturday, Feb 18th. Lots of great items and guns for the raffles and auctions this year.
Come out and help the mulies!

 

[Bobbyboe]

We had several areas of Western Wyoming that recieved 6' and 8' of snow in one three-day storm last week! Yes, that is feet!
In my area we have had snow on the ground continually since early November... and Dec-Feb are our driest months. March/April are our snowiest months.
Lots of sub-zero low temps here for days or weeks in a row with wind chills reaching -50 in our area.
Wife and I drive by a wintering antelope herd on our road daily. We have seen some bed down never to get up and yesterday the eagles and buzzards were eating them.

Not looking good this winter.

If there is a plus side, we do need the moisture.

As a side note: The Bighorn Mountains Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation is having their annual banquet at the Ramada Plaza in Sheridan Saturday, Feb 18th. Lots of great items and guns for the raffles and auctions this year.
Come out and help the mulies!

Does this include the big piney, La barge areas? What are we looking at for the g/h wintering areas?

 

[Rich M]

We had several areas of Western Wyoming that recieved 6' and 8' of snow in one three-day storm last week! Yes, that is feet!
In my area we have had snow on the ground continually since early November... and Dec-Feb are our driest months. March/April are our snowiest months.
Lots of sub-zero low temps here for days or weeks in a row with wind chills reaching -50 in our area.
Wife and I drive by a wintering antelope herd on our road daily. We have seen some bed down never to get up and yesterday the eagles and buzzards were eating them.

Not looking good this winter.

If there is a plus side, we do need the moisture.

As a side note: The Bighorn Mountains Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation is having their annual banquet at the Ramada Plaza in Sheridan Saturday, Feb 18th. Lots of great items and guns for the raffles and auctions this year.
Come out and help the mulies!

How are they gonna help the muleys?

Less winter range, rough winters, droughts, NR hunters shooting all the dinks. Some supplemental feeding, even in backyards could sure help the deer. You know F&G will still issue doe tags…

At what point do people step in? Use snow machines to break trails and deliver some protein and supplemental feed???

Being back east, a couple buckets of acorns, a bushell of apples and a chain saw to fell a few trees goes a long way in a deer yard. That and shooting any coyotes seen nearby. I know a couple that gets a deer yard in their back yard during hard winters, the deer never had it so good.

What can be done out there?

 

[MuleyFever]

We had several areas of Western Wyoming that recieved 6' and 8' of snow in one three-day storm last week! Yes, that is feet!
In my area we have had snow on the ground continually since early November... and Dec-Feb are our driest months. March/April are our snowiest months.
Lots of sub-zero low temps here for days or weeks in a row with wind chills reaching -50 in our area.
Wife and I drive by a wintering antelope herd on our road daily. We have seen some bed down never to get up and yesterday the eagles and buzzards were eating them.

Not looking good this winter.

If there is a plus side, we do need the moisture.

As a side note: The Bighorn Mountains Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation is having their annual banquet at the Ramada Plaza in Sheridan Saturday, Feb 18th. Lots of great items and guns for the raffles and auctions this year.
Come out and help the mulies!

Where are you located?

 

[manitou1]

South of Buffalo

 

[manitou1]

How are they gonna help the muleys?

Less winter range, rough winters, droughts, NR hunters shooting all the dinks. Some supplemental feeding, even in backyards could sure help the deer. You know F&G will still issue doe tags…

At what point do people step in? Use snow machines to break trails and deliver some protein and supplemental feed???

Being back east, a couple buckets of acorns, a bushell of apples and a chain saw to fell a few trees goes a long way in a deer yard. That and shooting any coyotes seen nearby. I know a couple that gets a deer yard in their back yard during hard winters, the deer never had it so good.

What can be done out there?

Well, it is a difficult dilemma.
1) Disease and drought: Nobody can change drought conditions and CWD is still a mystery as far as controlling or eradicating it.

2) Predation: Predators take a portion each year but are hard to control, especially in light of protections offered to certain species.

3) Weather: A few hard winters can wreak havoc. Even one bad winter can cause a multi-year setback. In recent history, Western WY suffered "the perfect storm" which killed 100% of the mule deer fawn crop in that region that year. Reaction to such an event is difficult to pre plan for, but I suspect we could do much better. Regardless, if weather is that bad even supplemental feeding would be hindered by access issues. Even if feed were distributed the deer can see limited benefit if their travel is restricted.

4) Over grazing and competition for food sources: We have all seen it, but it is somewhat of an "elephant in the room".
Ranchers carry a lot of clout and in many instances, are the lawmakers or have heavy influence on the lawmakers. There are supposed to be protections in place to prevent this but they are not followed or enforcement is blind to them. A dilemma for sure. This is not all-encompassing and there are many conservation minded folks on both sides of the table.

We do what we can with resources available by the use of matching grants and partnerships with like-minded entities. Enhanced road crossings, removal of old fencing and establishment of wildlife friendly fencing in migration corridors are some of the projects we attain to. Also mitigation of noxious/invasive plants that compete with mule deer forage is performed. Supplemental plantings of mule deer food sources in critical areas are also projects performed.
Much of this is performed by volunteers and the vastness of the affected areas takes a lot of resources, so protective/conservation organizations can use all the help they can get in the manpower, funding and public education arenas.

I am not a game manager or biologist but I agree with your statement about killing does and dinks.
If I were king, less tags would be sold and hunting pressure would be more reduced to help stabilize numbers. Those are easy things to say when we as individuals do not have to contend with issues in the "Big Picture" such as: state budgets, political pressures, and public opinion.

Regards...

 

[Kwmountainman]

What’s the conditions on the areas that the G and H deer winter?

 

[GetWestern]

Hopefully we don’t get any nasty storms the last critical months of March and April, that would put the nail on the coffin for many that due manage to weather out these tough conditions right now.

Talked to two Utah biologists at the expo this weekend that said feeding the deer up north is pretty much just a PR stunt to make the public happy, does more harm than good apparently. Wish I would have asked the details of the harmful effects of it.

 

[Kwmountainman]

Hopefully we don’t get any nasty storms the last critical months of March and April, that would put the nail on the coffin for many that due manage to weather out these tough conditions right now.

Talked to two Utah biologists at the expo this weekend that said feeding the deer up north is pretty much just a PR stunt to make the public happy, does more harm than good apparently. Wish I would have asked the details of the harmful effects of it.

Harmful effects are death by starvation due to their gut microbes not being able to adjust quick enough to the new food. Takes a couple weeks for their microbes to adjust. You’ll hear people feeding corn and alfalfa to deer that aren’t used to it and they’ll die with full stomachs.

Other harmful effects are increased chance of disease spread. Potential for more predation.

 

[S.Clancy]

Harmful effects are death by starvation due to their gut microbes not being able to adjust quick enough to the new food. Takes a couple weeks for their microbes to adjust. You’ll hear people feeding corn and alfalfa to deer that aren’t used to it and they’ll die with full stomachs.

Other harmful effects are increased chance of disease spread. Potential for more predation.

Exactly, feeding generally doesn't work for mule deer. Long term, unless we change the way we do things as humans, mule deer are gonna have a tough go of it.

 

[manitou1]

And now it is snowing and sleeting here!

 

[S.Clancy]

This is on the CPW website but is a pretty interesting little read on the history of mule deer....

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is a nationally recognized leader in conservation, outdoor recreation and wildlife management. The agency manages 42 state parks, all of Colorado's wildlife, more than 300 state wildlife areas and a host of recreational programs. CPW issues hunting and fishing...

cpw.state.co.us

 

[Indian Summer]

What’s the conditions on the areas that the G and H deer winter?

 

[Andrew12gauge]

At what point are we not treating wild animals exactly like cattle? Wildlife management shouldn't equate to animal husbandry. We should be advocating for EVERYTHING animals need. We do not need to create evolutionary pressure that rewards mule deer that can sustain human supplemented diets. We need to think 30 yrs ahead, not year to year. Those deer where you live will either go away or figure out a way to scratch it out. It is what it is. Let's just make sure it doesn't happen everywhere.

Yea, great plan, just give up, because there isn’t a piece of mule deer winter range left to be developed.


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[Kwmountainman]

P not c

View attachment 512963

Thanks. Doesn’t seem bad now. How has it been up to this point? Snow depth?

 

[mntnguide]

Thanks. Doesn’t seem bad now. How has it been up to this point? Snow depth?

Not good. Deep snow and was in the -30s last week after feet of snow fell. This is shaping up to be a big winter kill for the g&h deer herds again. We were just coming around from the winter 4-5 years ago, but this could be the same or worse depending on the next couple months. I have more snow at my house in the valley than i have had in years

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[Kwmountainman]

Not good. Deep snow and was in the -30s last week after feet of snow fell. This is shaping up to be a big winter kill for the g&h deer herds again. We were just coming around from the winter 4-5 years ago, but this could be the same or worse depending on the next couple months. I have more snow at my house in the valley than i have had in years

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Can’t catch a break! Thanks for the info.

 

[Indian Summer]

Can’t catch a break! Thanks for the info.

30 inches in a couple days last week. Can’t see the top of the fence posts anymore.

 

[svivian]

Looks like Utah made the right move and shut down shed season until May 1st due to this winter