Mule Deer Populations on the Decline? By Dr. Michael Street

Jimss

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I've been doing cheatgrass research and control for the past 30ish years! Cheatgrass is an invasive winter annual grass that reproduces from seed. The seed life of cheatgrass is 3 to 5 years. I wasn't too excited about cheatgrass control until the past few years. Several professors at universities across the Western US have tested Rejuvra (formerly Esplanade). We figured out that cheatgrass control with this herbicide outlasts the life of cheatgrass seed in the soil!

Rejuvra releases native forb and shrub species that mule deer depend upon for their livelihood. The research I've conducted in Colorado shows that mountain mahogany, antelope bitterbrush, winterfat, rabbitbrush, sumac, and other browse species annual growth is 5 to 10 x greater where we control cheatgrass! Not only do mule deer benefit from the release of natives shrubs and forbs but also pollinators, ground nesting birds, and a long list of other wildlife. If you have sage grouse in your area....they would definitely benefit!

We also discovered that cheatgrass litter breaks down super fast. In most cases it decomposes in just 1 year. Cheatgrass litter is like kindling that fuels high intensity wildfires. Where we eliminated cheatgrass there is more of a mosaic burn that doesn't kill the browse species that mule deer rely on. I've been monitoring some large areas where we had wildfires last year and this is definitely the case. Cheatgrass returns quickly in burned areas and as mentioned in the article above, devastating wildfire frequency dramatically increases.

With that said, there currently are large cheatgrass control projects taking place with Rejuvra across the Western US. We are doing large scale treatments via helicopter in Colorado, Wyoming, and elsewhere. Not only does Rejuvra control cheatgrass but other extremely tough to control annual grass species such as ventenata, medusahead, and feral rye.

Rejuvra recently got grazing on it's label. If you have cattle, we've found that perennial grass biomass increases 2 to 10x where we control cheatgrass.

If you have any questions in regard to cheatgrass or know a land manager that would like to improve mule deer and wildlife habitat invaded by cheatgrass please contact me.
 

Jimss

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I forgot to mention that I also set out game cameras this past winter to monitor actual deer use on critical mule deer winter range. Several cameras were set up on cheatgrass infested areas and matching set of cameras set up on immediately adjacent areas where we controlled cheatgrass.

There were 3x more deer photos on the sides where cheatgrass was controlled. I'm pretty sure if we would have conducted this on larger areas where the deer didn't concentrate and hammer the browse species so hard that these numbers would have been higher. Obviously the larger the areas that are sprayed that increase browse growth the more browse that is available.

Obviously healthier habitat will likely lead to healthier deer and higher fawn recruitment! It may also lead to greater antler growth!
 
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I will predict that Colorado will have drastically reduced opportunity in 15 years due to wolves being introduced. It's going to be a blood bath!
 

Jimss

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Hopefully some of the large cheatgrass habitat improvement projects in Wyoming Colorado and elsewhere will make a difference. It’s a good start in the right direction!
 

Jimss

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AndySee if you need any cheatgrass data let me know. I’ve been working on cheatgrass and other invasive weed control for over 35 years so know a thing or 2!
 

Trial153

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I know I been guilty of equating dwindling opportunities ( read assess to tags) with lower populations, which isn’t always the case. With more hands on the ladle going into the same pot of soup the trips to the pots are getting fewer.
The article brings some good perspective to the issue.
 
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The hunting pressure is managed by states. Winters and droughts seem to be the primary wild cards.
How about predators that are pounding on mulies especially in Colorado. I just heard from a rancher out there as well from a outfitter that the cats have been hammering on the mulies and a bunch of cats have been spotted in the area with few tags. They said that they have seen lots of kills and numbers dropping.
 

Rich M

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How about predators that are pounding on mulies especially in Colorado. I just heard from a rancher out there as well from a outfitter that the cats have been hammering on the mulies and a bunch of cats have been spotted in the area with few tags. They said that they have seen lots of kills and numbers dropping.
Then we should stop hunting them and let the numbers rebound? Hunt the cats instead.
 

robby denning

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I know I been guilty of equating dwindling opportunities ( read assess to tags) with lower populations, which isn’t always the case. With more hands on the ladle going into the same pot of soup the trips to the pots are getting fewer.
The article brings some good perspective to the issue.

That’s what I took away from it too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Then we should stop hunting them and let the numbers rebound? Hunt the cats instead.
Does Colorado allow hound hunting for cats? Are the quotas generous enough? I am curious, because they're going to have to start killing more cats to make up for the wolves they're introducing. Cats and wolves are a devastating combo for mulies
 
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Huh, coulda fooled me about WA state, seen more deer year after year in the last 5 years than the previous 20 years for sure, and I mean 10:1 kinda numbers in our drainage.

In WA we definitely have a problem with the “if it’s legal, kill it” mentality though. Not many bucks make it beyond 4-1/2.

I do wonder how skewed this is for WA due to the fact that West of the Cascades is almost exclusively blacktail though. Did the author take that into account when doing their acreage calculations?

Thanks for posting!
 

street

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Huh, coulda fooled me about WA state, seen more deer year after year in the last 5 years than the previous 20 years for sure, and I mean 10:1 kinda numbers in our drainage.

In WA we definitely have a problem with the “if it’s legal, kill it” mentality though. Not many bucks make it beyond 4-1/2.

I do wonder how skewed this is for WA due to the fact that West of the Cascades is almost exclusively blacktail though. Did the author take that into account when doing their acreage calculations?

Thanks for posting!
Thanks! Good point on WA acreage. To be fair to all the states I just took total acreage since it was the easiest.

Maybe I will tell all the NR CO deer hunters WA has some great deer hunting ;)
 

robby denning

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Huh, coulda fooled me about WA state, seen more deer year after year in the last 5 years than the previous 20 years for sure, and I mean 10:1 kinda numbers in our drainage.

In WA we definitely have a problem with the “if it’s legal, kill it” mentality though. Not many bucks make it beyond 4-1/2.

I do wonder how skewed this is for WA due to the fact that West of the Cascades is almost exclusively blacktail though. Did the author take that into account when doing their acreage calculations?

Thanks for posting!
good point on WA, but a bunch of Id, MT, and parts of Wy, and are whitetail country too, so it should even out a bit.
 
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Don't forget the increase in elk populations since the "good old days " of mule deer. There weren't any elk on the Uncompahgre Plateau in Colorado until the 60"s I believe. Elk populations have exploded all over the west since the 60's, and in states like Nevada they were only in a few areas in the 80's. There may not be much dietary overlap, but I believe there is definitely some spatial competition. Scorched earth on all predators back in the 60's too.
Ya hadn't really heard this perspective but it has to have an impact at some point
 
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