Exciting News For Dutton Hunters

"suspicious series of small man caused fires" ??????????
Probably set by a Dutton elk hunter! LOL

In the long run some fires might be good, except for the cabin losses and destruction to private property of course.

Thanks for the article,
Zeke
 
Dont know anything about Boulder or Dutton so i cant say what will happen but my experience with forest fires is the elk will go just far enough away to not catch on fire.. When its out they will go right back in looking for new growth in the early fall. I hunt many areas in Wyo that burn and i find them to be great hunting even the year they burned. Look for small pockets that did not burn. The elk will bed in those and feed in the burns.

It going to be a rough summer throughout the west for fires.
 
My brother-in-law was a wildland firefighter and claimed that elk will move out ahead of the fire, and then return to the area shortly thereafter. He claimed that they loved to eat the bark off the trees in the burned areas. I found that interesting. He says the minerals move to the exterior of the tree and the elk love it. (extra horn growth maybe?)
So I have a question about elk and fires. Fire can travel very rapidly, especially when it is wind driven. Flaming pine cones can become airborne 1000 ft or more out in front of the fire, extending the fire. How does that affect the elk? What about in areas like the Gila National Forest? Anyone have any info on how the wildlife are managing down there? It has burned 265+ square miles as of last week. Gila's current management practices will make it a model in the future for fire management. So I expect the elk to do better than in other areas that get moonscaped by fire. Hopefully Utah doesn't burn too badly this year.
 
Watched them doing a controlled burn on the Mantis years back durring the spike hunt and we were watching the elk hang out a 1/4 mile from where the chopper was torching the hillsides. It burned in that canyon for four days or so. We went back in there the day after they opened the canyon back up and the elk had bedding down in the hot spots getting warm. The rangers swore that the elk are drawn to fresh burns like candy. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
 
Back when 1/3 of the Dutton unit burned (2001?) we had cow tags that fall. We were all depressed with the conditions our favorite honey hole completly ruined. My brother shot his cow in the middle of a burned out used to be dark timber stand. Giant herd of over 200 elk so he said. We looked like we cleaned a chimney after hauling that cow out. The Boulder elk will stay and be fine in my opinion. Plus if the Boulder deer herd does what they did on Dutton after the fire this will be the hot unit in 3 years.
 
I have to agree with all the "pro's" of the Boulder fire, it will definitely do that range more good than bad.
The Yellowstone fires did wonders for the wildlife.....then the wolves appeared and the real destruction began.
 

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