For big-game animals on Colorado’s Western Slope, the bad news just keeps comingone snowflake at a time.
In an almost bizarre continuation of a precipitation pattern that has piled the snowpack to legendary levels, the plight of deer and pronghorn in the Gunnison Basin has worsened, despite frantic feeding efforts by wildlife officials and volunteers.
More moderate temperatures — 15 below zero overnight rather than 30 or 40 — haven’t helped much.
“Deer conditions are worsening and antelope conditions are grave,” said Tom Spezze, manager of the Division of Wildlife’s Southwest Region.
With the help of volunteers who have contributed their own vehicles and snow machines, the agency is feeding approximately 5,000 deer and 630 pronghorn in a program that already has cost $400,000 on the way to what likely will be an eventual million-dollar price tag.
Next week, at the 30-day anniversary of the onset of feeding, DOW will conduct a review to determine whether it will gear up for another 30 days of relief efforts.
“Without preempting the discussion, I don’t see how we can not go on feeding for the next month,” Spezze said of a situation that grows more desperate by the day.
“We’re losing animals. We know we’ve lost a lot of fawns and some mature does and bucks. We just don’t know what percentage.”
Widespread mortality would reverse what has been one of DOW’s best success stories in recent years. Aided by more restrictive regulations and a long series of relatively mild winters, the Gunnison country had emerged as one of the top producers of trophy bucks in the Rocky Mountain West.
What happens next depends largely on weather patterns that continue to batter the region like rhythmic sledgehammer blows. The most recent storm actually was almost kind to the Gunnison Basin, leaving just 6 inches of snow compared with 2 or 3 feet farther west toward Pagosa Springs and Durango.
“We actually have more snow in the Pagosa area, but with oak brush and other tall shrubs well above the snow, the animals still have something to eat,” Spezze explained. “In the Gunnison area, there’s total snow cover over everything. It’s 100 percent white.”
Conditions are even more depressing for two stranded pronghorn herds.
“They’re not going to survive,” Spezze said.
In yet another distressing turn, continued heavy snowfall in northwest Colorado has officials on alert regarding the possibility of pinpoint feeding programs. Regular aerial surveys, combined with electronic- collar monitoring, show that animals remain in comparatively good condition in most locations.
Regional manager Ron Velarde reports a trouble spot for deer in the upper Eagle River Valley. Otherwise, the agency is striving to lure elk away from ranches where they cause extensive damage to haystacks.
“The ranchers have been very understanding, but they’re running out of hay,” Velarde said.
Meanwhile, the deadly spotlight remains on the Gunnison Basin, where snow depths have reached 60 inches on the flat, with localized crusting.
“We’re living on borrowed time,” Spezze said. “We need the snow to stop and the sun to come out.”
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
