Drought relativity

[Katoom]

If portions of Colorado have gone from a persistent state of “exceptional drought” to “merely” moderate drought or severe drought over the past 1/2 year, does that mean it’s been fairly wet over the past several months and maybe will be a relatively good spring, despite being in a long-term deficit? Not sure how else it could be interpreted. Game animals enjoy the here and now, and don’t worry about 20 year averages. Thoughts?

 

[HntHrdr]

Depends on the part of the state, certain parts are super dry while other areas had decent snows that showed up a little later, April was pretty dry, May has already had some moisture, I think animals will have some good feed to start, it’s the June/July where they really finish out, so need to hope for the moisture to continue

 

[JakeH]

I'm starting to think the moisture we get in the fall plays as big a part if not a bigger part of herd heath. Here in NE Utah Last year we got a ton rain in September/October the mountain was in way better shape and greener in November then it was in july/August. And I think that trend followed most of the state. They are saying the doe's they tested fat reserves on last fall were some of the fattest doe's they have ever recorded. Fat doe's make heathy baby's, fat buck's grow bigger horns. These storms we get in the spring just help everything out.

 

[jims]

As mentioned by several guys above, the precip this year seems to be super localized in most of Colo. I just saw on the news that Southern Colo is super dry....probably similar to what's going on in the dry zone in NM where they currently have giant wildfires.

It's great hearing that the northern border of UT/CO got great moisture last fall and the critters went into the winter in fine shape. As Jake mentioned, that will likely help fawn recruitment this spring/summer.

There are so many variables associated with healthy habitat and critters. Drought is definitely one of the key components to healthy native browse, forb, and grass species that lead to healthy big game! Unfortunately it generally takes a year or 2 of good to great conditions for large browse species (shrubs) to recover.

Obviously critical winter wildlife areas often get hammered year after year by high concentrations of big game. It often takes time and work to restore those type of areas...especially after drought years!

Another frightening thought is the loss of browse habitat across the Western US. Take a look at the frequency and intensity of current wildfires. Some of these areas burn so intense that there are thousands of acres of critical tall shrub browse species that instantly disappear and die. The wildfires that are currently burning in New Mexico are pretty frightening. It's weird to see wildfires springing up across the country at times of year when they have never burned before.

 

[HntHrdr]

Fires are interesting, it depends on the intensity and heat of the fire, sometimes it burns dirty/ less intense and sometimes it moon scapes places. I have a place near Cameron peak fire ( 2 years ) burn scar and the high park fire (12 years ago) some places have recovered and have fantastic feed, some places will recover in a few years, and some places will take the better part of a decade to produce decent browse again