Fire clouds hunting outlook on west slope

As the Elk Fire rages on the eastern slope of the Bighorn National Forest, hunters on the western side are trying to figure out how they are going to get to their favorite hunting spots and what impact the fire is going to have on elk and deer movements.

Tuesday, Oct. 15 is the opening day of the big-game rifle hunting seasons.  

As Tuesday, Oct. 8 dawned, U.S. Highway 14 was closed from Antelope Butte Mountain Recreation Area to Dayton and U.S. Highway 14A was closed from a point 22 miles east of Lovell to Dayton. 

By day’s end, the Wyoming Department of Transportation had adjusted the Highway 14 closure to milepost 38.3 and the Highway 14A closure to milepost 85.6.

“These moves provide more access to the Hunt Mountain area,” said Cody Beers, a public relations specialist with WYDOT.

Sara Evans Kirol, public affairs specialist for the Bighorn National Forest, said BNF officials are coordinating with the team working on the Elk Fire and the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Wyoming Highway Patrol, county sheriffs, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. 

“Heavy equipment, air operations, and ground crews are working in the area and road closures,” she said. “The closures are in place to allow firefighters to do their job without putting them or the public in any unnecessary harm.  

“We do regret that the decisions to close forest access is impacting people’s opportunity to get to their hunt areas; however, their safety is a higher priority.

As of Tuesday, forest roads closed because of the fire included the road to Bucking Mule Falls called Devils Canyon Road 14, Sheep Mountain Road 11, and Marble Quarry Road 111.

The Bighorn National Forest is under Stage 2 fire restrictions, which prohibit the use of wood stoves in tents along with any open flames such as in camp or warming fires or a charcoal barbecue grill.  

The number one reason for fire restrictions, Evans Kirol said, is to protect human life, property, and natural resources. 

For a complete list of prohibitions under State 2 fire restrictions as well as our current area closures, please visit the Bighorn National Forest’s website https://www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn.

Impact on animals

Greybull-based wildlife biologist Sam Stephens, whose district includes Big Horn County, said it’s too soon to tell what impact the fire will have on the deer and elk populations.

He’s currently monitoring the movements of a dozen migratory deer that were captured along Horse Creek and Beaver Creek and collared with GPS transmitters.

“The majority of those summer on Dry Fork Ridge and Riley Point, which is where this fire really started,” he said.  “They’re in and around this fire right now.

“I was fully anticipating seeing some going to mortality, indicating they’d been burned up and killed, but so far, none has perished and we still have all 12.  

“A handful are right in the middle of that fire perimeter. I’m not certain how they are surviving. I know deer and elk have been known to find riparian areas — somewhere low, not as dry or as prone to blowing up in a fire. Maybe they’re just hunkering down.”

The other collared deer made different choices. “They seem to have moved way out and trying to avoid the fire,” he said.

Stephens said it appears that in general, only about 20% of the deer have migrated over to the west side.  The other 80% are staying up high on the east slope or on their summer range.

“It doesn’t seem like even an 70,000-acre fire is motivating them to move, and I think that just speaks to how much site fidelity, timing and movement fidelity plays a significant role in their life history strategy,” said Stephens.  “It’s like a bomb can go off on their summer home and they still don’t want to move because they’ve learned not to move until this day or that day. We’ve seen it with mule deer for as long as we’ve been collaring them. They are influenced by weather, of course, but timing also has a lot to do with it.”

Stephens said the G&F doesn’t have any collared elk on the west slope of the forest. “If I had to speculate, I’d think (the fire) would push some elk over to our side, into areas 40 and 39.  However, having said that, we’ve been working 39 during the early cow season since the first. Hunters are getting into elk, but it seems quiet.  It doesn’t seem like there’s been a mass exodus showing up in 39; they’re just hanging right on the perimeter of the fire.”

Stephens said his concerns about the elk herd won’t end when the seasons close.  “A real question, when it comes to elk, is going to be, where are they going to winter?” he said. “Now that much of the eastern slope has burned up, a lot of that was winter range, like in areas 38 and 37.

“Are they going to push farther east into private land? Or are more elk going to show up on the west side? It’ll be interesting to see what we find out this winter.”