Baboquivari- Elk Horn Fire Effect?

[Red Rabbit]

Jim,

 

What effects might the Elk Horn fire have on the coues population? Will the fire line move them out or will they circle back behind if posssible? How soon will the deer return to the burned areas? To what extent will they return? Effect on fawn survival and general deer health due to burning of forage until greening occurs? Any expected change in habits/patterns?

 

I located a proposed study on collared mule deer after the Rodeo-Chedeski fire, but an email to Stan was returned undeliverable. I was wondering if any results were published.

http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/research_rodeoche...mule_deer.shtml

 

Thanks,

 

Doug

 

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

 

 

Sorry, Doug but where was that fire?

 

I know that in years paseed we have seen coues rutting on newly burn hill sides... if there is any green-up at all they will be there.... they are just like sheep in that respect.

[elkaholic]

hello - hey red - if this area anything like the cavecreek fire - it took about one yr.. for the deer to return and they were dropping them standing in the ashes - monsoons and rain will really help the new growth - now - 3-4 yr later its growth has been great - it'll never be the same- as all the mature trees will never show up agin - our lifetime anyway - but new regrowth and scrubs have really gone nuts in the area. It actually looks fairly good for this yr. !! gary

[Buckhorn]

All the fires that we have had this year are doing nothing but great things for the animals and the vegetation. When the fires start to burn really hot and you get more of a Moonscape effect thats when you need to start to think of a year or two before animals come back.

 

Buckhorn

[NRS]

RR - the fire is burning fairly slowly and mainly making small runs and not doing much damage. I suspect that the deer that are there are just moving around the active fire areas and will stay in the vicinity and enjoy the fresh green vegetation when the summer rains start. The Fish and Wildlife service had been planning on doing a prescribed burn in the area this week to rejuvenate the vegetation anyway. This fire just saved them some costs associated with a prescribed burn and covered a much larger area.

[SilentButDeadly]

I read that they are doing aerial ignitions on-top of the ridges and letting it back down... Most of what is burning is brush anyway, which only goes at one severity depending upon how you look at it (high = mortality, low = survive), most all the plants will be top-killed (however sprouting species will be back next year).

 

I went out into a burned area in the Rincons this spring that burned last summer; the cover was >90% grass with alot of the other species resprouting... I saw ALOT of deer in the burned areas.

 

Depending upon the elevation and the plant species composition, places with sprouters would be more likely for rehabilitation first (oaks, mtn mahogany, mesquite, acacia, etc). Other locations with longer lived species that take some time might take longer as the food sources are not there yet.

 

T

[Buckhorn]

 

 

I went out into a burned area in the Rincons this spring that burned last summer; the cover was >90% grass with alot of the other species resprouting... I saw ALOT of deer in the burned areas.

 

Depending upon the elevation and the plant species composition, places with sprouters would be more likely for rehabilitation first (oaks, mtn mahogany, mesquite, acacia, etc). Other locations with longer lived species that take some time might take longer as the food sources are not there yet.

 

T

I was up on the Rincons in 95 when Storm King Fire hit in Colorado. The Rincon Fire was amazing fire to be on. We took out a type two team that were EMT's from the Valley and half way through the night the fire blew up and half those guy's shat there pants and wanted to go home. And we never found out where the Sky Cranes were getting there water but they kept dropping fish, snakes and all kinds of stuff on us.

 

Buckhorn

[SunDevil]

Doug - I know the G&F attributes a lot of the increase in deer numbers in 33 to the fire that burned through the Reddington area 8 or so years ago. I know great success has been had by hunters in areas that burned < 12 months before. Saw one real nice rack that was really dark colored because the buck was rubbing his antlers on burned tree trunks.

[Red Rabbit]

I know the long term effect will be a big positive, but what about the short term- 0 month-6 months?

[SunDevil]

will probably push some deer over the top to the west and onto the rez and others out into the mesquite flats.

[SunDevil]

no map yet of the area that has burned?

[cmc]

Figured this was in line with the subject of the thread....

 

http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?p=40059

[johnnie blaze]

No worries, you still have the monsoons that will feed all that dry nutrient. Theyll be back shortly, and think of how much easier itll be to glass em up.

[coueshunter]

Doug, it should not really affect this years hunts. I assume the fire is not super hot, and with the monsoon rains, that burn area will have alot of deer feeding in it. When the warm fire occured on the Kaibab, the deer were back into the fire area when some spots were still smoking. This should provide short term and long term benefits...............Allen.........

[NRS]

no map yet of the area that has burned?

If you go to this site http://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/predictive/intelligence/intelligence.htm and go down on the lower left side you will find a link "Fire Detection Using Google Earth". If you have Google Earth, you can open this link and zoom in on the area and see roughly where the fire has burned.