February is usually the coldest month, and March and April brings the precipitation. We're not out of the woods yet. The snow reports from Steamboat Springs are somewhat inflated; there aren't any deer on that mountain anyway.
In the early '80s we had two consecutive winters of high game losses. First, there was so much snow that, especially with deer, food was inaccessible. Both deer and elk just moved onto the roads. The second year the temperatures were high enough that every new snowfall developed a 1" crust within a day or so. Deer hooves would break through, leaving them struggling at mid-chest depth. Many died from the exertion of crossing a field. Coyotes were light enough to stay on the surface and picked off the weaker deer.
Those two winters reduced the deer herds to less than half the numbers from the '70s. Since then, DOW has emphasized pronghorn in some traditional deer areas. And, a state referendum passed, banning certain traps. We have since had an explosion of the mountain lion population and they each supposedly take a deer per week. Guess they got tired of lamb. So... the deer herd is about half what it was 20-25 years ago. DOW claims to be happy with that, but they're alone.
So far, we've had some snow, but there has been no crust until the warm spell last week.
A lot of the winter range has bare ridges due to the wind, so feed is available. From what the wonks at F&G are saying, the deer were in very good shape going into the winter, so let's keep our fingers crossed. The crust has me worried a little, but we get some every year. FWIW, Dutch.
The herds have not come back since the winter kill of 92-93, and they just keep pounding them..I think the whole state needs a rest. Hunter success is way down, licenses are not selling out anymore for the first time. Idaho Fish and Game needs to get the damn politics and money grabbers out of the picturef, one gets the impression that the less deer we have the easier they are to manage and the more money to spend on new trucks, buildings and salary increases and not they have gone up on non-resident licenses until it's unreasonable, and there "whistleing who'd a thought it" and begging for the legislature to give'em a tit!! Absolutely disgusting....
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Ray Atkinson
It will be March before we know if we've made it. Feb is a hard month and the Icy rains of March do a lot of damage.
Just thankful Mother Nature gave us a rest since those nasty Nov. storms.
I was in Gardiner Mont yesterday and they are in the middle of their late elk season outside Yellowstone. Talked to several people that had tags and they stated most of the elk were still in the park and that the weather hasn't driven them out yet. There was only about 4 inches of snow on the ground. I hunted bison outside Bozeman Mont on Saturday and other than a cold wind blowing, it was nice out. No snow, just cold wind. In Wyoming, I saw scattered snow but no real accumulation. Lots of wind though. In Colorado, where I'm from, we haven't had any winter to speak of.
This doesn't cover the entire Rocky Mountain region of course, but I saw a lot of country and I didn't see anything that worried me. But then, Feb is usually the month that kills us down this way.
Mac
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When hunting and fishing get in the way of your job, it is time to quit the job!