Mule Deer Fanatic

If you live in Nevada, you ought to be interested in this. If you don’t, you still ought to pay attention, because something similar is probably happening in your state. Personally, I am less than delighted at how such a large amount of money ($2.4 billion) could be so well squandered. It is incredible. This amount of money could really help mule deer, and/or other game animals if it were put to best use. The “conservation use” mentioned is hugger conservation. So, Nevada is losing on both sides of this equation. More land for development and the money from the land sale is doing little to help wildlife.

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“……..In the real world, however, it’s the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act. Since 1998, the act has allowed the Bureau of Land Management to sell public lands within a specific boundary around Las Vegas. A large portion of that revenue—about 85 percent—funds conservation work in Nevada and Lake Tahoe. So far, the act has supplied around $2.4 billion for environmental projects in Nevada, with about 23,000 acres more to be sold.In this eighth and latest round, $78.9 million in funding has been approved for groups including the Nevada Fire Safe Council, Desert Research Institute, Nevada Land Conservancy and Washoe County Department of Parks and Recreation. Of that, $28.6 million is for projects in Northern Nevada.

This is down from the $132 million approved for Round 7 funding last year, and dramatically less than the $936 million approved during Round 6.

“The decrease is nothing more than a direct correlation to the land sales,” says Hillerie Patton, of the BLM Las Vegas Field Office. “Three years ago, we were doing land sales at $600 or $700 million. … Developers really aren’t building a lot of houses right now.”

Here’s a rundown of Round 8 earmarks:

• Fifty percent of it, or $14.3 million, is for fire prevention and fuels reduction in the Lake Tahoe Basin and Carson Range.

• Thirty-nine percent, or $11.09 million, is the “Washoe County Regional Parks and Open Space” project to protect about 121 acres of open space in the Ballardini Ranch area in Southwest Reno.

• Eleven percent, or $3.1 million, is for land acquisitions. One project is High Rock, 1,282 acres of Washoe and Humboldt counties near the Black Rock Desert. It’s noted for its scenic, historic and wildlife resources, including bighorn sheep, raptors, sage grouse, mule deer and pronghorn. The other acquisition project is Green Gulch, two miles north of Bordertown. Its 650 acres is within critically designated Mountain Quail habitat and is also habitat for about 500 deer during fall migration and sage grouse, according to its project summary.

Just because a group has funding set aside doesn’t mean the project will be necessarily carried out. There are still yards of red tape to cut through in terms of permits, environmental analysis, etc.

This is something Lynda Nelson knows well. She’s planning manager for Washoe County Department of Regional Parks and Open Space, whose application for $11 million for open space protection within Ballardini Ranch was chosen by the BLM as the No.1 priority project for parks, trails and natural areas.

“That money is secured,” says Nelson. “But it’s not a done deal by any means.”

An appraisal needs to be done, and landowners have to accept that amount for the project to move forward. The Ballardini Ranch area—of which the 121 acres is just a small part—has been controversial in Reno for years as developers also have been vying for the land.

“We’re moving forward,” she says. “But with lands deals—as I’ve come to learn—until that escrow closes, anything is possible.”

Mr. Michael Turk, of DC – yes that’s DC, formerly of New Mexico, wrote me to explain a deer tracking project using a GPS device and a free map service. One of the animals they are tracking is a buck named Thor. Thor looks a little like a whitetail, but is really a mule deer – you can tell by the size. He looks pretty suave with his collar, don’t you think? How would you like to track a big buck, like this, for a while?
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The man who invented this tracking approach identifies himself as “Siberian Tracker”. I think he is pretty clever. Here is what he says about it,

“Mail to Map/SMS-to-Map/Mail to GE service: new twist in (r)Evolution

The idea of creating a simple “Mail-to-Map” service came when I was tracking White-Tailed Deer in the suburbs of Pennsylvania. The GPS coordinates were send by the collared deer as a SMS/Text Message via GSM/cell-phone networks to a server in Sweden, and then relayed to my e-mail account. I was surprised to find out that there was no way for me to gain access to the server, so the creation of dynamic kml/kmz files straight from the server was out of the question. All what I was left with was a set of e-mails with 8 coordinates in each.

Here is my first attempt for a solution, which reads coordinates in e-mail and relays coordinates in real-time to the Google-Earth/Google Map service. I believe this is the fist successful solution of Mail-to-Map service which is based entirely on free web services.”

To see the map go here: http://www.potapov-nature.com/forBA/deer/deer-pert.html

As for Mr. Turk, he was a successful Mule Deer hunter in SE New Mexico, where his family owns a sizeable ranch, by harvesting this 10pt. (Eastern Count) buck mule deer. The buck has an extra cheater which is not visible in the picture. This buck was harvested in 2007. According to Mr. Turk, the herd numbers were down, but his party managed to harvest several nice bucks.

Thank you for the information, Mr. Turk.

Agencies want reasons to close land. Wintering mule deer offer that opportunity. I predict we will see more of this.
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The harsh weather this past winter has forced the Bureau of Land Management to leave the the St. Anthony sand dunes closed for an extra month.

All of the dunes should be ready to open on May 1.

Old news, but the hard winter has hit Idaho too:

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The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has closed the 33,500-acre Boise River Wildlife Management Area east of Boise to help mule deer survive the winter. The high snowfall this winter has forced deer into lower elevations, and Ed Bottum, manager of the area, said humans disturbing deer can cause them to use up energy they need to survive until spring.

“Their strategy is to minimize the amount of energy they use so their body reserves will last as long as possible,” Bottum told the Idaho Statesman. “It’s kind of a race to see if their body fat will last until spring greens up.”

Bottum said that not disturbing the deer on the management area means they will be more likely to stay there, where they won’t be hit by vehicles, chased by dogs, or eat shrubs near homes.

Fish and Game tries to track the health of deer herds in the state by placing radio collars on some animals. It currently has collars on 850 deer. On average, Fish and Game officials say, about 85 to 90 percent of does survive. Usually, about 50 percent of fawns survive, though that can drop to 20 percent during tough winters and rise to 80 percent during mild ones.

Fawns usually start dying in late February, officials said, and those deaths are tracked throughout the winter.

So far, Fish and Game has not started emergency winter feeding in southwest Idaho, though that is being done in some other parts of the state.

Summer and fall forage conditions also influence deer survival during the winter, said Brad Compton, Fish and Game big-game manager.

He said a mild, wet fall allowed deer to find more food, and that big snowstorms didn’t start in southern Idaho until the middle of December. He also said temperatures have not been unusually cold.

If deer can survive the winter snow, he said, the additional moisture this spring will mean they’ll likely have plenty of food.

“There’s a strong correlation between deer populations and precipitation,” Compton said. “We may take a hit this winter, but in the long term, we end up with healthier, more productive deer populations.”

Story from I don’t know where, but good reading:

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Good Morning,

I just wanted to share with you an amazing end to a great 2007 hunting season. Yesterday I was sitting in my stand on a small food plot just off Colly Swamp in Bladen County . I was enjoying a beautiful sunset and hoping that I might get one more opportunity at a doe to take to the butcher for processing. Then I spotted some movement in a corner of the food plot that was partially blocked from my view by some trees. I was able to tell that a mature doe with two button bucks entered the food plot but I did not think that they would move into an open area for a shot before dark. Suddenly all three deer became alarmed and began looking toward the woods where they had entered the field. The doe then blew at whatever was approaching and turned and bounded into the middle of the field followed by the two smaller deer. Well this gave me a clear line of sight at the doe so I put my crosshairs on her. I started to squeeze the trigger but then I began to wonder if it could be a big Buck that was making the deer nervous. Then the three deer all blew and ran a little further across the food plot, stopped again and looked back on full alert. Well I decided that it was most likely not a buck that had them startled so I shot the doe. When I shot, the two button bucks ran away while simultaneously a 20 pound bobcat ran into the field and put the death lock on the neck of the doe I had just shot. Amazed by what I had just seen, I shucked another (also my last) shell into the chamber. I could not believe that the bobcat was still there after the sound of the shot and me reloading but he had locked onto a big meal and did not intend to give it up. I put the cat in the crosshairs and squeezed off my last round, he did not flinch. I thought I had missed him. I sat still for a little while and then I yelled at the cat to see if he was still alive, I got not reaction. I climbed down from my stand and approached the two animals in the field. The Bobcat still had a death grip on the doe and was looking right at me as I approached, with an empty gun. What I saw amazed me. The Bobcat was stone cold dead but he still maintained his grip on the doe. I called everyone at camp to come look and take pictures. When it was time to load the doe in the truck we had to load both the doe and the bobcat because I could not separate them. 

Texas is not known for mule deer like it is for whitetailed deer, but Texans know how to manage deer. Apparently, panhandle mule deer are on the increase.

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Proposal to Expand Panhandle Mule Deer Season: This proposal would consider adding Sherman and Hansford counties to the northern Panhandle mule deer season, and Gaines, Martin and the eastern portion of Andrews counties to the southwest Panhandle season. Wildlife biologists believe these counties have mule deer populations sufficient to allow the harvest of a few buck mule deer. A buck-only harvest would not affect the overall population, the biologists say. Opening these counties will increase hunter opportunity.

Before the winter even started, five years of drought helped stack the deck against western Wyoming mule deer, said Game and Fish biologist Ron Lockwood.

The extended drought could take a significant toll this year on the Wyoming Range herd — the state’s largest — which winters around Pinedale, Big Piney, Kemmerer and Cokeville.

“The cumulative effect of five years of drought has definitely decreased forage production in mixed mountain shrub habitats, and therefore deer are going into winter in poorer condition,” Lockwood said. “The snow depth and the cold temperatures are going to increase mortality, especially in fawns.”

But the rates of mortality will be determined, ultimately, by how harsh the remainder of the winter is, he said. Before the wintry weather arrived, the deer looked to be in pretty good condition, considering they have been dealing with the drought.

Gavin Lovell, a biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, said the BLM, in cooperation with Game and Fish and other agencies, has been working on improving the habitats where the Wyoming Range herd roams, and they’re starting to see improvements there. But those improvements aren’t going to help deer this winter, as long as the foliage stays buried.

“You can make all the habitat in the world, but once the snow gets deep enough, the wildlife can’t get to it,” Lovell said.

Mild winters

Wyoming’s mule deer population has been increasing for the last couple of years, Schmidlin said, mainly because the animals have endured relatively mild winters.

That trend could change this year.

The Game and Fish regional office in Lander is getting reports of fawns that are too small, that look ill or are underweight as a result of diarrhea, Schmidlin said. Fawns in that condition will have a hard time surviving a harsh winter.

Many of the deer in cities and towns supplement their diets with foliage found around houses and buildings, such as bluegrass and lilacs, especially when other food sources are scarce. This type of vegetation is not as nutritious as the native sagebrush and bitterbrush are for the deer, and might be the cause of, or at least contribute to, the digestive problems in fawns.

Mule deer evolved as browsers, which means they rely predominantly on bushy material for sustenance. Elk, on the other hand, are grazers, and eat more grass.

But elk are also more adaptable than deer, and can switch between different types of vegetation more successfully. Because of this — and because elk are generally hardier animals — Schmidlin doesn’t expect them to struggle as much as deer could this winter.

In the short run, Game and Fish expects some losses to the deer population in the west, but if the cold weather moderates, the rest of the winter could be easier on the herds.

Utah Bear Management – Good for bears, Bad for Mule Deer.

Utah Bear Management Plan (excerpt)

Bear management in Utah is guided by the state’s Black Bear Management Plan. The three major goals of the plan—keep the percentage of female bears taken by hunters below 40 percent; keep the average age of bears taken by hunters above 5 years old; and keep the adult survival rate above 78 percent—were all met in 2007.

When these goals are met we know that Utah Bears are healthy.

This winter has brought cold weather and deep snow to much of our Mule Deer country. Some of the states are refusing to feed the deer for good reason, and, I might add, taking flack for it from the likes of the Mule Deer Foundation. I could go into a list of reasons why Mule Deer shouldn’t be fed, but instead, I will talk about the feeding program in Colorado.

There are supposedly 21,000 mule deer in the Gunnison Basin. Of those, about 7,000 are being fed. So far, 11% of the ones being fed have reportedly died. More on the way. I don’t yet know mortality rates for the ones that aren’t being fed. The local economy depends heavily on hunting, so between local businesses and the Mule Deer Foundation, the governor has been pressured into allocating $1.7m (without counting donations and volunteerism) for feeding mule deer. How many deer will they save? We’ll see. It is at times like this when special hunts should be considered.

This much is certain: Colorado’s deer herd has been a long time making a come-back, and is still not fully recovered. It would be a shame to save wintering deer and then have them eaten by predators before they could be hunted. Even if some of the deer can be saved from exposure, many of them will be eaten by predators. The older/mature bucks will be hit the hardest. If $1.7m were invested in predator eradication – particularly if it went to hunter/trapper bounties, it would be far more effective in preserving a local economy and a deer herd.

From the Denver Post:

It isn’t easy being pink – unless you’re able to stick a broadhead into a trophy mule deer.

This pink thing has a distinct focal point in the flamboyant personage of Keli Van Cleave. The first thing one notices about Van Cleave, who alternately resides in Superior and a suitcase, is that color. Her company, Pink Outdoors, pretty much says it all about a schtick that starts with a unique pattern of camouflage clothing and continues right down to the shafts of her arrows

“It may sound crazy,” she says of the seeming incongruity of pink camouflage, “but it works because animals are colorblind. Camo is just a breakup.”

Once an observer gets past the color thing, it’s evident Van Cleave is the real outdoor deal. She has taken the largest typical mule deer in velvet ever in Colorado by a woman with a bow. The rack scored 202 1/4.

Of course, she was wearing pink camo at the time. She added, “I’ve shown you can be in the outdoors and still look good.”

Growing up close to nature in Grand County, Van Cleave came by her skills naturally. She began bow- hunting at age 12, in large part because that’s what you do in an outdoor family that didn’t allow television in the house.

“My father had us in the outdoors all the time. I got my hunting genes from my father, but my pink genes from my mother,” she said of what has been a dual path to national attention.