Winter not over for wildlife
Despite the rapid change from harsh winter to spring-like conditions at low elevations in the past week, big-game animals are not out of the woods.
The deep snow and cold weather of January and February delivered a death blow to many wild creatures on the area’s roads and rails, but March is the month in which the accumulated ravages of starvation claim the most animals, wildlife biologists say.
“It’s still critical that deer, elk and moose be left undisturbed as much as possible,” Jim Hayden, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional wildlife manager in Coeur d’Alene, said last week.
Hayden had just finished his last round of aerial surveys and public meetings in advance of making recommendations for 2008 big-game hunting seasons. Hunters understood the impacts of the hard winter and generally supported Hayden’s suggestion to reduce the popular seven-day either-sex elk season this fall to three days in Panhandle Units 4, 7 and 9.
Until the past week, most of the region’s big-game animals have been camped out in low areas, rarely straying far from packed trails, he said. Survival has hinged more on conserving fat reserves than on finding nutrition.
Recent sunny days and rain have begun baring south-facing mountain slopes, allowing the animals to start moving away from roads and finding spring food sources sprouting from bare earth as they preparing for giving birth in May.
Snowmobile trail groomers have consulted with Idaho Fish and Game for ways to avoid disturbing wintering deer as they maintain trails in the Coeur d’Alene River drainage.
“Sometimes a moose will run for 5 or 6 miles ahead of a groomer before finding a way off the road,” said Hayden. “The groomers have tried to compensate by not grooming some routes and leaving some dead ends on others in the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene area.”
In some cases, the groomers have plowed short lanes off the main trails to give the animals an escape route.
The Clearwater National Forest made the rare decision to temporarily close some roads to all motorized traffic in February to protect wintering elk.
The impacts are even more serious when game is lured to plowed railways. Trains have killed at least 75 moose in North Idaho this winter, a number that exceeds the annual kill by the Alaska Railroad.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s railroad used to kill hundreds of moose each year until the 1990s, when the railroad started clearing 10 feet of snow from either side of the tracks and cutting nearby browse that attracted moose.
Last winter, Alaska reported fewer than 60 train collisions with moose.
Human conflicts with big-game winter range are amplified during a tough winter, Hayden said.
“We haven’t seen anything like this for more than 10 years,” he said. “Snowmobilers get frustrated when they wait half an hour for a moose to get off the trail and then they go a little ways and find some elk in the trail.
“The best thing snowmobilers can do is stay at high elevations to avoid the animals as much as they can.”
People who live and roam at low elevations still need to restrain their dogs from chasing big game, biologist from Idaho and Washington emphasize.
Spokane Valley resident Jake Hood said he was disturbed to see people allowing their dogs off-leash to harass a bull moose that’s been wintering in the Dishman Hills.
“My wife and I saw the moose and he was as calm as could be, but we turned around and went down to another trail to leave him alone,” Hood said last week.
“Later, we heard from other hikers that dogs had been harassing the moose. Sure enough, when we came out, we saw the moose again and it had a totally different attitude — his hackles were up.”