Idaho Fish and Game is closely monitoring mule deer and elk herds that typically overwinter on hundreds of thousands of acres burned by wildfires earlier this year.
The Paddock Fire, in particular, burned nearly 190,000 acres north of Emmett.
Ryan Walrath, a regional wildlife manager for fish and game, said that’s prime winter range for roughly 4,500 mule deer, or about 25% of the species’ population in the McCall-Weiser area.
“That fire in particular in the next little bit here or next year or two is going to be critical for some of that rehab effort to try to keep our annual invasive grasses at a minimum and allowing our native grasses and forbs and shrubs to come back,” Walrath said.
Mule deer need nutrient-dense vegetation, like sagebrush and bitterbrush, to pack on weight to survive the cold winter. But those plants take a long time to regenerate after a fire.
“Rehab could take for grasses one to three years,” Walrath said. “You could be looking at eight to 10 years before some of those shrubs, sagebrush, bitterbrush, come back to be two- to three-foot shrubs.”
He said mule deer are much more likely to be affected by these fires in the near term compared to elk because of their difference in diet.
Fish and Game has not yet decided whether supplemental feeding might be needed to keep these animals alive over the next few months.
Walrath said the agency factors in the health of breeding-aged does, as well as whether providing food will prevent the animals from snagging snacks from commercial feed lines.
Idaho Fish and Game will talk more in-depth and take questions from the public at a town hall meeting Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Garden Valley High School.
Correction: This article previously said 25% of Idaho's mule deer population overwinters where the Paddock Fire burned. That range is where 25% of the mule deer population within the McCall-Weiser area overwinter.
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