This is the worst drought year here in CO in ten years. At this moment, wildfires are burning all over the state..
I"m gonna hunt lower elevations, near water, in the 1st rifle season, if it hasn"t burned up.
Anyone thought about their plan B, if conditions are the same, or worse?

I'll be hunting a unit 3rd season for deer and last season for elk in a unit that borders a unit that has burned here in CO.

I think I'll be targeting areas near a source of water if we don't get monsoonal moisture which typically begins near the 4th of July. I am thinking for deer I'll hunt near the edge of the burn given no regrowth of feeding areas the rest of the summer. For elk I'll target areas dependent on snow, however; the lack of moisture up high might push them down sooner even if we don't have snow.

If I was hunting unit 19, I'd wait until the fire is contained until I make plan B. Plan B for me would be no deer tag, and a leftover ES tag 4th season in 11/211. Basically plan B for me would suck.

Bighorn:

We will have to do a lot of scouting this year. Yes water will be important. But I think food sources will be even more important. If my wife's vegetable garden is any indication food is going to be scarce this year. So elk hunting may be easy this year if we can find the few patches of good food and stake them out.

KC

I have a RFW cow tag during December. This tag is for GMU's 3,4,301,214,and 441.Hopefully I can find the herds in their annual migration routes if they are not burnt off.

Dusty, I thought RFW tags were for one specific ranch??

Check your 2012 Colorado Big Game brochure. Blue Sage Ranch December 15-19. They have land in all of the areas I listed. I have hunted on Blue Sage before and you have access to all of these areas.

Nice deal there. The one RFW hunt I went on with my son was very tightly-controlled as far as where you could go.

I have an outfitted hunt scheduled for Sept 8th - 13th near Craig, Colorado - hopefully it turns out to be a great hunt despite the dry conditions!!


Good luck to all in Colorado - stay safe & good hunting!!!

I have a 1st rifle tag also. I'm just going to keep an eye on good water and grass and then spend a good bit of time after archery season closes listening and glassing. It is so dry that new fires can erupt anywhere at anytime so that may enter into the equation before the season rolls around too.

I hope the CDOW doesn't see the need to cancel hunting in certain units due to fire danger during hunting season, especially the early archery and rifle hunts.
The national forest areas will be especially susceptible to closures.
My own plans are going to be on private lands, where water and available feed will be hopefully better than the higher, drier areas. Two years ago, I hunted during muzzleloader season west of Boulder, and set up camp near timberline. What we found that it was so dry up high that most of the beaver ponds and creeks had dried up, and the elk were all at lower elevation, on private lands we did not have permission to hunt.

I doubt that DOW will cancel any hunts,but NF and BLM might restrict access as they have the authority to do so.In 2002 or so, when it was just as dry the only restriction was on fires etc.That is when I started to heat with a propane heater.

Hope you're right- also hope that the Waldo Canyon fire doesn't burn down into Queens Canyon, and the area around the scar near the Mountain Shadows subdivision- that's some critical bighorn sheep habitat.

I don't see anything comparable to 2002 yet, but I do see some big differences from one region to another.

The very worst area I've seen so far this spring is the Animas River basin between Durango and Silverton.

In 2002 it was so dry the diciduous trees didn't even leaf out in many places and the lack of shade exacurbated the problem. Scrub Oak and aspen were lucky to get dime sized leaves. Statewide snowpack was 53%, outdoor water restrictions were enforced, John Martin and Pueblo Res shrank to very tiny sized - especially John Martin. Whole herds of antelope would be grazing in the highway ditches just feet away from the speeding traffic and you saw no fawns that year. You could walk across the Arkansas river bed and never get your feet wet. The Hayman fire raged across the Tarryall for weeks. Local livestock was being sold off cheap and hay was being trucked in from other states at premium prices.

I killed an elk at about 10,500ft in 2002. It seemed to me like it was the year following the drought - '03 when the elk became much harder to find.

I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of preference points on a particular hunt unit this year.

You might be pleasantly surprised at the impact a fire can have on bighorn sheep habitat! A relocated herd in UT got about 35K "new" acres after a fire. In this case it killed a lot of junipers (way too many to begin with) and allowed alot more grass/forbs to grow. DWR tracking showed sheep in the new burns within 2 months going after new sprouts.

Burns can be beneficial, not only to the bighorns, but other species as well. Controlled burns offer the best chance for habitat mitigation, as they are somewhat selective. Massive wildfires, on the other hand, are indiscriminate as to what and how much gets burned. In the case of the Hayman fire in Colorado, some ten years ago, some of the area burned so intensely that the soil was actually sterilized. A lot of effort has been put into the Hayman burn area to try to get it reforested, in an effort to control runoff erosion and further damage to the watershed.

As far as the bighorn population goes- I am actually more concerned about the effect of prolonged intrusion from thousands of people fighting fire, overhead bombing runs by C130's and helicopters dropping water and slurry, firelines being bulldozed, etc.- bighorns are very highly susceptible to stress-related disease, and this type of activity has to be very stressful.

I understand your concerns and am glad you understand fire is not all bad. Too many make that assumption, especially if it mucks up a honey hole for a year or two. The fire I referred to that helped the bighorns burnt 50+K acres in 2.5 days. It was fast, but not super hot and the upper elevations came back great. Some of the lower elevations that got seeded did pretty good, but some areas became more infested with cheatgrass unfortunately. Course those were mostly just stands of greasewood, which I'm not sure is good for anything...

It's pretty easy to say fire is not all that bad when it is not knocking at your door steps.
Try convincing the 6000 people evacuated from west of Colorado Springs at present,with more to follow or the 190 owners or so of homes lost in the fire near Ft Collins

CO usually starts getting rain in August. If that holds true this year, then I would not worry about any closures, etc.

Nothing will change. I'll go where the elk are in my unit.

Amen saddlesore-
Thankfully, so far no one has lost their home in the Waldo fire.
I hear the home loss count in the High fire near Ft. Collins is now nearly 250.

[quote=dogcatcher223]CO usually starts getting rain in August. If that holds true this year, then I would not worry about any closures, etc. [/quote

Even if it rains a little in August, it will be too little, too late.

If possbile, I'd suggest hunting the edges of the burns. While there will be few groceries, those that emerge will be the ultimate in quality since there will be no old growth to sort through.

Most herbivores will take quality over quantity every day.

We had a large burn north of us about 4 years ago. To the ire of hunters, the agencies closed near all of the roads. When the season was over, the hunters were tickled pink. Virtually no competition, no traffic spooking the game, and the biggest of the big boys were out and about every day.

Mother nature is doing her job. What's bad is the mismanagement of our forests over the past century.

The fire just blew up in Colorado Springs about 4PM,It came over the 1st ridge and homes are burning. A thunder stome towards the north caused winds of 55 miles an hour and everything went up.There was a pre evacution notice ,but it changed so quickly that a mass evacuation is taking place on the west side in two more sub divisions and roads are choked with evacuees.

The Air Force Academy is on pre evacution notice.Mandatory evacuation is in up to the south side of the Academy,over to I-25

It's about as bad as it can get,but I suppose it will get worse as night falls and tankers can't fly to hold the flame. sback

Watching all this on the news. Like the gates of Hell have opened uo and we're getting a look inside.

Now we have a new fire next to Boulder from lightning.

I did not draw a tag so still wait and see what is available as leftover. I am a novice but would think that drainages leading away from fire areas would be likely areas to consider.

National weather service is calling for dry lighting here this evening and tonight...yea! NOT! Saddlesore...hope you and your family are safe!

Saddlesore, ash is falling now in our area from the latest flareup.

Holy moly! watching it on the news, looks like some houses are getting torched.

I am watching Colorado news, and they are reporting that 32,000 people have been or will be shortly evacuated in Colorado Springs. CP.

We need more help.

"the mismanagement of our forests" ain't the primary issue here, the primary issue is people like you and me getting burned out.

My son is a student in Boulder, and is on pre-evacuation. I'll call him up and tell him not to worry, mother nature's just doing her job.

If you live in he mountains you deal with the fact that this could someday happen. If you live on the coast you realize you run the risk of being wiped out by a hurricane. If you live in tornado alley you run the risk of having an F5 tornado wipe out the town you live in, anywhere you live there are certain risks associated with Mother Nature. Thats just a fact of life.

The point that I am trying to make is that due to our fire suppression tactics we have exacerbated the problem as it pertains to fire. Its the one of the few things we have the ability to control with Mother Nature and we haven't been doing a very good job. Studies show that some of the huge fires we have had over the past decade were not the norm in the past. Fire-scar records and tree-ring data for Ponderosa Pine forests in the southwest prove this.

Here is an excellent article pertaining to the problems that we have created...

http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2012/05/18/mega-fires-in-southwest-due-to-forest-mismanagement/

Smokepole, I am not trying to diminish the impact that this has on your family and many other families but if you cannot get past the emotion of seeing this happen in your backyard and understand that in the future we can do more to prevent these types of fires then you're burying your head in the sand and that does nobody any good

Under the disguise of non-profit organizations and saviors of the environment and endangered species, groups like the Sierra Club, Friends of the Forest Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity have been strong advocates against logging, the burning of small natural fires, and grazing on federally held forest land. Excessive Forest Service regulation, Endangered Species Act regulations, clean water regulations and more, prevent the salvaging of dead trees and cleanup of excess dead vegetation. This has resulted in a dangerous and large build up of extremely dry dead trees, excess brush and thick vegetation undergrowth. A ticking time bomb waiting for a single lightening strike to set it off. I have been saying for years that CO was due for another fire like the Hayman fire or worse.

Causality is the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first. To say that the primary issue is that "we are getting burned out" is simply wrong. The primary issue, or cause, of these fires is mismanagement by our federal government and environmentalists that allow our valuable resources to go to waste and eventually become a ticking time bomb for all of us that live in the mountain states. The result of all of all of this, or the effect, is that we are getting burned out. Which would you prefer to focus on Smokepole, the cause or the effect?

I am not trying to be callous or rude but instead of just blaming Mother Nature we need to come at this problem with logic and reason to try and help reduce the risk of these types of fires in the future.

As for your son, it sucks that he is on pre evacuation notice but if it would make you feel any better my family would absolutely open our doors for him if he needs a place to stay close to Boulder. I am located in Windsor and when he's not taking summer school classes he can fish in one of the 5 private lakes in the subdivision or hit Pelican Lakes Golf Course which is just a few hundred yards from my front door. I am being as serious as a forest fire here, please extend the invitation to him for me

Kind'a hard to think about draining the swamp when you are up to your ass in alligators.

I'd be happy to talk about all this someday,but not now.

I fear all the Rampart Range sheep herd is gone.The quarry was completely surrouned by fire

I understand and I hope you know that you and your family as well as all of the families that are being effected by these fires are in my thoughts and prayers every day

Nothing you've said above is news to me, so please don't waste your time with the lecture. I just think it's unfortunate that any time a natural disaster occurs, people tend to grind whatever axe they have to grind. Don't take that personally, everyone including me does it.

I'm not letting "emotion" slant my view of these fires; the plain fact is these are being called the worst fires in Colorado history because of where they're burning and the number of homes destroyed.

If you look at where the fires are burning and causing the most damage, it's in populated areas, lots of private land, subdivisions and such. None of the stuff you aid about USFS policies or the Sierra Club apples in these places where homes are being destroyed.

So I don't think I'm the one letting emotion or my own point of view color my judgment. I think when it's all said and done, this fire season will be ascribed to just what the firefighters are saying--a calamitous combination of continued record hot temperatures on top of an already dry year, bad winds, dry thunderstorms, and no rain. And add in the beetle kill.

Same here. Kinda thought it went without saying.

I've spent more time reading the Denver Post and other Colorado newspapers online recently than the local ones. This is a catastrophy, I hope you all get some relief soon, really soon.

I was merely stating facts. Your argument reminds me of the guy that cusses God for getting cancer and he smoked a pack a day for 50 years. Cause and effect is a difficult concept for people to understand in stressful times.

Its funny that you ended with the part about what firefighters are saying but don't like what I had to say. I am a firefighter that's wildland certified and what I have said on this thread are the very things we discuss frequently in our training meetings. The only reason I'm not working these fires this summer is because I could not commit to 14 day or longer deployments with an 11 week old daughter at the house.

If you think I have an axe to grind you're right but I haven't voiced any of that in this thread or any others. Property loss sucks, loss of life tears me up and when the conditions can be mitigated by being proactive and responsible with our natural resources and aren't I take issue with that.

If you cannot see Huntsonora's point, then you are being too emotional. I will take this one step further...Developers gobble up winter range building mcmansions for people, and then everyone is surprised when a fire rolls through and torches everything.

Wow, this thread has morphed considerably from the original post, simply wondering about folks' plans for elk hunting in the face of drought......

I reread some of my own posts yesterday, before the firestorm of late afternoon. A concern about Queens Canyon, the Mountain Shadows area, and the quarry scar as it related to bighorn sheep turned out to be eerily prophetic as it impacted not just wildlife, but the lives and property of thousands of people.

I'm guessing several tens of thousands of residents of the Front Range here in Colorado could give a rat's patoot about the elk, or any other, season, right now.

You guys assume that I don't understand cause and effect, tell me I'm missing the point etc., but I believe it's you who are missing my point. Everyone understands what Huntsonora said in his first post about the effects of fire suppression and environmental preservation extremists.

Everyone understands what happens when people build in places that burn on occasion.

I mentioned my son being on pre-evacuation; he's well inside the city limits.

My point being (once again), in neighborhoods and subdivisions, where people's houses are burning, wildfire suppression and environmental preservation extremists are not a factor. There's no option to just let it burn and it's not going to be logged. Lots of it is private land.

Those fires would have burned regardless of USFS policies or environmental preservationist actions.

I agree with you Smoke, but that's not where the fires start.

I'm not sure where the Waldo fire started, but most of them will start on NF land, and then blow into residential.

A fawn saved by a firefighter from the flames of the Waldo fire.

It is pretty crazy on the front range, and with lightning over by Grand Junction last night, we are starting to see fires on the western slope today. I hope that all the CO "fire" members are safe with their families...

The majority of whats burning in the state right now is on public ground.


Here is an article that pretty much echos what I have been saying for years

http://www.9news.com/news/article/274800/188/Mega-fires-threaten-to-become-the-norm-in-CO

Scary picture.

You think the photo is scary, you ought to be living here.

I know what you're going through. I used to live in Big Bear. We always had fires. I got evacuated for a month once.

So, I move to Colorado, and the building i'm living in catches fire, and I was out for 3 months while it was rebuilt.