For tens of thousands of Colorado’s big-game animals and the agency that looks after them, it is misery piled upon trouble.
Extreme cold and deep snow has caused wildlife officials to begin feeding deer and elk in the Gunnison Basin. If conditions worsen, this expensive effort to fortify deer will spread to parts of northwest Colorado as well.
The same snow that delights skiers and water users has caused havoc on game herds whose numbers have blossomed from a lagging hunter harvest last autumn caused, ironically, by warm weather and drought.
Snow ranging up to 50 inches deep along U.S. Highway 50 from Sargents on the east to Dillon Pinnacles near Blue Mesa Reservoir on the west caused the Colorado Wildlife Commission on Thursday to take emergency action. That body will use its $160,000 discretionary fund to jump-start a feeding program that eventually will cost an estimated $500,000 and could balloon to more than twice that.
By midweek, the Colorado Division of Wildlife will begin a feeding operation that also could extend to the Cochetopa and Powderhorn areas east and south of the town of Gunnison. The agency will feed deer with specially fortified wafers high in protein and highly digestible carbohydrates.
The initiative will be extended to feeding weed-free hay to elk currently holding at higher elevation near the deer. Traditionally, the stronger elk have superior survival characteristics and don’t need to be fed.
“This is intended to keep the elk from moving downslope to compete with the deer,” said Tom Spezze, manager of DOW’s Southwest Region.
Spezze said his agency will join with state and federal officials in closing key public lands areas to human access as a way of reducing stress on the animals. He compared the situation to Colorado’s most recent killer winter, in 1983-84, when many thousands of deer died in Gunnison county. Then, officials recorded 54 inches of snow in late February, with overnight temperatures similar to the lows of minus-30 recorded recently.
“The difference is that thus far, the body condition of deer is still fairly good. Rather than wait until they begin to deteriorate, we’ll feed selectively in a few key areas.”
In the northwest, deer are struggling in belly-deep snow in some areas, but officials aren’t yet ready to declare a crisis.
“The good news is that most animals are in good condition,” regional manager Ron Velarde said. “We’re tracking doe deer and fawns fitted with radio collars, and they’re not dying.”
Velarde and his lieutenants will closely monitor weather conditions, particularly in the areas around Craig, Meeker and Rangely, where the situation is most extreme. Another trouble spot is the Eagle River Valley, where resort development severely depleted winter range.
