The western winter of '95 didn't make a lot of headlines because it only killed 28 people, but it broke a lot of snow records and then froze hard for weeks. Places in Northern Nev and E. Oregon had to feed cattle with dozers in big circles, and mule deer would come in the circles with the cattle to feed. Their trails were easy to see, because they were bloody from ice crust cuts on their legs...sickening. I don't think many birds survived that. And that was about the time that license and tag funds were shifted away from game management to studying lizards, bugs, and rare mice, so chukar planting numbers crashed.
Windridge mentioned Leadville canyon, I used to drive that a lot, working on a rock crusher outfit, back when ATV's got popular and cheap. The 'sportsmen' used to patrol the county road in herds, along the creek like it was the Berlin Wall, keeping the birds from water. Never saw a game warden.
