WRWMA closed!

[sliverpicker]

Just in case anyone was thinking about going to White River Wildlife Area and hunt coyotes, cougars, or sheds. As of last Sunday the state lands have been closed to public entry until further notice to protect wintering wildlife.

I was over there last Saturday. In the 25 years or so that I've been goofing around at White River, this is the worst winter conditions I've ever seen. There was about 30" of snow with a thick crust on top. I found specks of blood on the game trails where the deer have cut their legs on the ice.

I have a friend who works at the Oak Springs fish hatchery below Maupin. He talked to the WRWMA manager earlier this week and was told that deer are already succumbing to the conditions, and they're expecting more, even where they have deer feeders.

I sure hope there's a thaw over there soon!

sliverpicker

[Martin85]

Thanks for the info I was planning on trying to cut some cougar tracks one of these weekends by lost lake.

[sliverpicker]

Buck50, there's a high fence from Friend south to Pine Grove that prevents the deer and elk from going out into the farmers fields. That's why ODFW maintains the feeders in the foothills.

The closure is only for the state wildlife area, not the national forest or BLM lands further east.

Rusty, there was over a foot of snow down at Shearers Falls last weekend, the access road toward Mack's Canyon was in horrible shape.

sliverpicker

[Buck50]

Bummer, I love that area. I was thinking of a yote hunt over there in the next couple of weeks. I sure hope the winter kill isn't too bad. It would seem to me that many of the deer would end up out on the farmers fields on the flats.

[Rusty]

Obviously this doesn't bode well for deer season in 2004. I hunt just North of that area near Dufur and they got a "ton" of snow during the big storm.

Just when the deer hunting was getting good, this has to happen! I wish the deer well, but am not too optimistic for the carry-over this year!

Rusty

[sliverpicker]

Did anyone catch Grant McOmie's report on KATU news tonight? He was at White River talking to the ODFW folks about this very subject. Doesn't look very promising!

sliverpicker

[Ryan Pultz]

Winter kill
This is a link to the story pretty bad over there