OFFICIAL CO WINTERKILL DATA

ForkWest · May 27, 2009

OK, here it is, 2008 Post Hunt Population data. Finally real numbers on paper. WOW some units got hammered just as everyone predicted. I plugged it into excel to make it a little easier to understand. I personally thought alot of people were crying wolf, but alas, winter of 2007-2008 really was bad for several units.

Take a look. What's your thoughts?

Bman9900 · May 27, 2009

Thanks Forkwest for posting that up. Wow is all you can say about some areas. Hopefully we see a considerable bounce back soon!

Prism · May 27, 2009

WOW is right.

I'd imagine it's going to take some areas a decade or so to make it back. Throw in habitat loss, etc, and some areas may never make it back to where they were. Sad deal.

slamdunk · May 27, 2009

Thanks forkwest, awesome info!
Looks like my unit fared pretty well

lostinOregon · May 27, 2009

Thanks

Rich

elkslam · May 27, 2009

Good info thanks. The area I hunt actually did ok they even added tags this year.

REDDOG · May 27, 2009

hmm, looks like the U.plateu took a harder hit than they admitted last year, only down 20% thox(

scoutdog5 · May 27, 2009

Assuming no additional significant winter kill over the next five years, I expect Colorado will rebound to more than 500,000 deer in the next 3-5 years.

Between last year and this year, buck tags have been reduced to less than 60,000 for all weapons, 48,000 rifle tags. Antlerless tags also reduced. Compare those numbers to Oregon and Utah, with far fewer deer, and way more tags.

My recollection from last spring is that the snow came so fast and so deep that much of the traditional deer winter range was covered, and unavailable, as opposed to over grazed. If that is true, normal winters should not be a problem going forward.

It will be interesting to see how deer populations in Colorado, Utah and Oregon compare going forward, given significantly different management plans regarding harvest.

Scoutdog

piper · May 28, 2009

Im pretty sure the area I hunted last year took a far bigger hit than the graph shows, but at least they are now admitting some winter kill.

ForkWest · May 28, 2009

LAST EDITED ON May-28-09 AT 07:51AM (MST)[p]The unit we had been building points for and were poised to draw this year took one of the biggest hits of all. I called and talked to the bio before the applications were due this year and he made it sound like there was not that big of a problem. We opted for points this year without having hard data to make the decision, glad we did.

If you pull out all the eastern plains data, I'd have to guess the rest of the state took a 30% hit on average. 1/3 of of the deer herd GONE in one winter! Thats huge.

Packout · May 28, 2009

Fork- Thanks for posting this. I had been looking for this data. The unit I hunt was in the top 5 of loss. I sent a guy into one area last year and he saw 1 buck in 7 days, where we once saw 5+ mature bucks a day. It was an ugly situation out there. I believe it will be years before we see deer rebound and use the same areas of the past. Deer seem to use areas out of habit, migrating on instinct. But if most deer are killed out of a drainage then what is there to teach remaing deer to use those areas again? Just venting over loosing 10 years of investment in hunting an area.

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www.sagebasin.com
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HICntryCO · May 28, 2009

How exactly does the DOW estimate post-hunt populations and when are the estimates actually done and do they ever change methodology?

cabinfever · May 28, 2009

Based on what I've heard come out of the field from hunters I'd say CDOW estimates are low. One good thing about CDOW is they have cut tag numbers to compensate for the losses. It will rebound in time.

bucktaxi · May 28, 2009

Probably won't rebound for 10-20 years. You guys that have points there should just save your money and quit getting points at all. That's what I'm going to do....Just kidding. The numbers will come back within a few years, then a big, bad winter will come and it'll start over again. I noticed they dropped doe tag numbers in a lot of those hard hit units.

jcmuleys · May 28, 2009

I sat in alot of there meetings this spring and they were saying that the numbers where even worse than the ones that they put on the website.
On the bright side we had a mild winter this last one and now we are getting some great rainfall this spring. Not going to bounce us right back but might help the over all herd health.
JC
Colorado Hunting Consultants LLC
www.cohunthelp.com

lostinOregon · May 28, 2009

Another thing to consider is what percentage of the older bucks that were winter killed. I think that number would be a higher percentage of the overall winterkill leaving less mature bucks. So if you hunt a unit with 20 to 30 percent winterkill, a large percentage of that would have been mature bucks and fawns. Just a thought.

Rich

piper · May 29, 2009

thats true lostinOregon but I still think the DOW always underplays the winterkill, read the latest Colorado wildlife magazine, very little talk about winterkill, the poor success last year was all because of hot weather and scattered animals, yea right.

jcmuleys · May 29, 2009

Hot weather did play a big part in the hunt last fall but not to the extent that the DOW says it did. You are right majority of the bucks that died were the older mature bucks. It will take 3-5 years to get that age class of deer back. Then there will also be a gap in the age class because alot of fawns didn't make it through that winter also.
I think that the DOW is taking the right steps to get the herd back but it will take time.
JC

Colorado Hunting Consultants LLC
www.cohunthelp.com

wildwilderness · Jun 2, 2009

looks like I picked the right unit for this year. thanks for the info. CO still does a way better job than other states for the muleys (especially UT!)