Winter Kill, Starving Elk and Deer in a certain group of hunting units in Utah. The why and how-
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- Опубликовано: 14 ноя 2024
- There are some troubling developments that are being monitored in certain units in Utah. Adult female deer mortality is at an unheard of 70%, and it’s only March. This could be record breaking loss, exceeding the losses of 1984. Elk are also starving in unprecedented numbers. Is this just because of the harsh winter? I argue it’s deeper than that.
There are other neighboring units that historically do way worse in bad winters, but are somehow fairing better. Why? It’s not coincidence.
Biology and sound scientific practices can’t be ignored. For years, the Utah Division of Wildlife has been warning that there are too many elk on many of these units.
The ramifications are still unfolding, and it will still be several weeks before we know the true consequences of ignoring biology, biologist recommendations and managing wildlife in a fantasy land.
It’s 2023, 70% adult deer mortality should not happen in todays day and age. I’ll dive into some history and provide more details of what I believe is the cause of this tragic loss of wildlife.
A couple of notes/corrections- I made this video when I had a few minutes and referenced a couple hand written notes, I quoted some information wrong- I just noticed a couple things.
1) The blacksmith fork check station numbers I quoted were actually from
92-93 a Winter which also crushed our adult deer. Should have dove into that winter too, however it really doesn't change the overall message.
2) 1 also should have mentioned there was a recent high adult mortality in 2018/19 on Chalk Creek, on a winter much lighter than this one. Its not good stuff to see trend and further proves my point. 3) I also misquoted some of the years wrong, more than anything I just wanted to paint the picture of what is going on. Should have been better quoting data, I'll do a better job in an upcoming podcast when I can gather all the hard numbers.
Great info, Travis. Keep it comin'....
Nice job getting this report out on this. People need to be aware of what is happening in our own back yards.
I spent all my childhood growing up in front of the salt city county fairgrounds. I can remember the the standing water in the streets. I don’t remember the winter deer kill numbers for then a little to young but the winter of 1993 giver or take 1-2 years was outright devastating on the mule deer and elk populations along the wasatch front up into the high Unitas, Heber, kamas, soapstone, vernal Spanish fork skyline ect ect ect and not in that order
I live in central Utah, the last several years the government has done a ton of winter range improvements. The deer seem to be doing ok. I haven’t seen too many this spring hopefully they did ok. Also with the the droughts a lot of the lower elevations didn’t have the feed they normally would have.
Seriously dude? The government is CAUSING MOST OF THE droughts, flooding, killing off Animal, bird & plants.
Good info Travis. Chickens come home to roost per say. Hard winters will always show how much actual available habitat there is for a particular herd species in that particular area. Colorado seen it in the Gunnison in 2008 when deer herds were managed for exceptionally high buck ratios. The wyoming range deer herd in the late 80's and early 90's exploded only to be shown by mother nature in '93 that there was just too many deer on the landscape and those examples deal with public lands. I'm here in western wyoming and its brutal to watch this year since March didn't break and we are at least 5 weeks behind where we should be. We still look like the middle of February.
FACTS!! Well put!!!!
Thanks Travis, much appreciated
Not surprising. Here in Wasatch/Summit counties a lot of Elk and deer have come into town to survive, I have to say it's been a slaughter. The road kill on my road alone I would estimate to be 80 animals in the last couple months, span that over the whole of the Wasatch Back, who knows how many.
Is this something like CWD? At 6000' in Idaho we get snow that lasts till June and July in North and Central part of state
70 percent doe loss is insane, even if it's some areas of a few units. I NEVER thought about the impact of the fact that it was private and the over-target population. The metrics are really hard to find. I cannot even find what a normal mortality rate is in the state overall. It's super refreshing to hear someone else in Utah who believes in science. I just want to be clear to other viewers: Most of the state is FINE or GREAT. I'm not going to shed any years for the cartels of private owners that will have a few less elk they can charge 50g to shoot in a petting zoo.
Also what I tell people is if you were still watering your lawn with diverted surface water in 2022 and if you weren't doing anything about destruction of winter habitat in 2021 then you do NOT get to tell me I can't hunt 300 miles away from the Morgan unit in 2023. Overall in the state we're looking at 80 percent deer survival, 94 percent elk survival, and even pronghorn at 90. Many units are going to have slightly fewer fawns than normal competing for more feed than we've had in decades.
i can't blame you for being disgusted, but I just can't feel that way. This is the natural result of an anti-science rumor mill giving cover for decades to bad management on behalf of a consortium of profiteers throughout the state.
The Bear Lake side of Cache has 90% deer mortality . You don't even see tracks
The Cache valley is pretty much all below 5000'. On a winter like this there is nothing that can really be done. It has been abnormally cold and the snow very deep for 2 months straight. The deer that come down to the valley floor are in double jeopardy. The ones who get in hay stacks die from eating hay. Their only travel corridors are the roads. Even the elk had a hard time getting around we had so much snow. As the snow starts to melt and then freezes as hard as my head they still can't eat. I saw several deer bedded out in a field Saturday. When I drove back by Sunday they were all laying dead. I've never seen a feeding program have much success for deer. On a year like this there is ZERO winter range outside of town so it is die of starvation or die by traffic. As much as we think we are in control you can't neutralize mother nature. The previous bad winters mentioned gave us limited tags, management units, no doe hunts, etc. Nothing we can do will offset a year like this. We are going to just have to accept the idea that there should be far fewer opportunities for a few years. Read Wyomings adjustments in tag numbers. Mother nature by cycles, highs and lows. The 'balance' of nature is the great lie of ignorant people. The only 'carrying capacity' that counts is winter range. Living in Cache valley I would guess our adult deer survival at way under 50% Remember, on a year like this we all get to see every single deer that is alive. There are no nooks or crannies in the Cache Valley holding living deer.
In these areas, I've noticed that there's when your food and water. So something is going on and the government has a hand in it!
THEY BROKE THAT RECORD!
what about disease ,also killing them off and the spraying from the air chemtrails has not done any good for the enviroment
Nature will prevail.
Same thing in southern wyoming. They’re saying 50% die off and I’d be surprised if it’s not much more. Southern wyoming has the best elk hunting it has ever had the last decade but the deer are so far gone it’s not even worth buying a tag anymore. Our populations are double what the game and fish want. I love hunting elk more than anything but our area was a historic monster deer area and it’s not anymore. Most of the locals understand and the game and fish give away hundreds of late season cow tags but it isn’t putting a dent in the population. By the mounts in the background you’re obviously an avid deer hunter but you should probably make the point that a balance is important. You almost come off as a guy that wants elk gone. Just to be clear I’m in support of reducing elk to bring the deer back. I’d love to have that for my son
Interesting topic....but your presentation is like listening to a CD in the first days of CD players; skips eaverywhere! Wow!
You are blind and should hunt anywhere if you're going to turn a blind eye!