A peer-reviewed report released this week by National Wildlife Federation biologists and corroborated by Colorado’s Division of Parks and Wildlife indicating a sharp decline in mule deer and pronghorn herd populations along the Colorado/Wyoming border was met with anticipated skepticism from the conspiracy theorists.
Much of the see-no-evil, hear-no- evil, speak-no-evil reaction emanated from the energy development community in response to the mention of increased oil and gas drilling in the region alongside drought, residential construction, invasive weeds, grazing, habitat fragmentation and harsh winters as possible contributors to herd declines of up to 64 percent in some study areas.
The science, they say, must be flawed, contrived to meet the environmentalist agenda seeking to banish their grandchildren to a lifetime sentence of freezing in the dark.
If you can put rationality aside long enough, the online commentary below from Denver Post reporter Bruce Finley’s Aug. 9 story (Deer and antelope in Colorado’s northern mountains declining, study warns) is actually somewhat entertaining.
Less humorous is the grim reality of the report that traces a significant decline in the herds ranging on primarily federal land between Interstate 80 and U.S. 40 from the Medicine Bow range west to Vermillion Bluffs over the past 30 years. In the northwest corner of Colorado, for example, the 2008 deer population objective of 13,500 (the number wildlife officials consider appropriate for the area) compared with an actual number on the ground of fewer than 1,500.
Whether you choose to believe those numbers or not, there’s no arguing with the on-the-ground decline in hunting harvest. In the late 1980s, hunters harvested more than 800 deer from the so-called Cold Springs herd in western Moffat County. By 2008, that number fell to 48. The nearby pronghorn herd and harvest aren’t doing any better.
“Needless to say, this has resulted in a significant decrease in deer hunting opportunity in this Data Analysis Unit,” the report states.
The numbers are not universally bleak, but significant enough in specific areas to warrant concern. Expect them to get worse before they improve.
For wildlife managers, “low recruitment” means that too few young animals are surviving to adulthood, and that’s what is happening here.
A thriving pronghorn herd, for example, depends on a recruitment rate of around 80 young per 100 female pronghorn. In portions of the study area, recruitment rates dropped as low as 38-per-100 in 2008.
True, drought and harsh winters contribute to recruitment rate declines, but a healthy herd will rebound quickly once that obstacle is removed. These herds aren’t recovering, suggesting other factors have come into play.
Some suggest predators are to blame, although deer and pronghorn have always lived with predators. Indeed, two of their primary predators — wolves and grizzly bears — are no longer present.
What is present is an increase in development and human activity over the past several decades, thousands of miles of roads and, yes, drilling pads and pipelines, not to mention wind farms. That’s just the reality.
Clearly there are no simple solutions to this disturbing trend, but the Bureau of Land Management needs to understand the cumulative impacts of its management practices just as Colorado Parks and Wildlife does. With so many factors working against them, these struggling herds deserve just consideration.
For those who value Western wildlife and the recreational opportunities it offers in Colorado and Wyoming, simply burying your head in the sand and writing off its loss as the cost of doing business is not an acceptable reaction. Before the herds are gone, the opportunity to hunt will go first.
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
