I'm near Durango, in San Juan NF. We have a special problem here due to the fact that a record snow winter is combined with a huge percentage of the elk still up high, where they're not stuck. Five years ago we have massive wildfires, scorching 110 square miles (Missionary Ridge fires). Now, the aspen and other regeneration is elk heaven. There is good chow everywhere for them, and because the snows came late this fall they didn't come down on schedule, around Thanksgiving, but stayed high and scattered. It was the worst rifle seasons on record in this area. So, we have all those elk up high, late ... and here comes a monster winter. At 8,000' where I live, we had 5' on the ground at the worst, immediately followed by a spell of deep cold, way below 0. We're now down to 2'-3' on average and warmer, but it's still snowing and March is often our biggest snow winter here. We're seeing elk in some elk-friendly SW-facing slopes along the roads, but our local little herd of 50 or so has just been standing around in tree wells, going nowhere and nothing really to eat except conifer needles, which are nearly worthless. So we won't truly know the extent of winterkill until the spring thaws. I expect very high mortality among calves, since the snow was over their backs and still belly-deep. Rutter-out bulls will be hard hit also. On the other hand, DOW has been saying we're over-capacity for years, so an adjustment, within reason, may be a good thing. Somewhat offsetting a high winterkill is the very low rifle kill, which is focused mostly on bulls. So there may be fewer elk out there, but lots of nice bulls ... my best guess. Unless you're putting in for a limited draw tag there's no need to decide where you're going just yet ... wait and see.
Topic: Winterkill in Colorado (Read 515 times)
