Far Fewer NE Deer

[SHANE(WA)]

Extreme north wasn't hit very hard the last 2 years

[PolarBear]

The deer around my place in Republic are doing great!  We had a bumper crop of fawns this year and a bunch of decent bucks made it through despite the wolves and cougars.  Hell, there are 4 new moose on my land this year.

[kopfjaeger]

I have also noticed lower numbers of WT through the Colville River Valley. I usually have 2 to 3 dozen WT on my proerty just SW of Chewelah, but lately it's been more like a dozen(one real nice 5x in the bunch that I will probably let my wife take come late season, he should go 150 easy). I was up north of Metaline Falls on Wednesday, hiked into the base of Gypsy and saw a few nice fat muley does and two legal bucks(not saying how big, I got my eye on one).

I'm surprised no one has voiced any concern over the Caribou up Salmo. Seems to me the feds are trading one endangered specie for another.

[NWBREW]

 

I'm surprised no one has voiced any concern over the Caribou up Salmo. Seems to me the feds are trading one endangered specie for another.
[/quote]


Caribou? Is there really caribou up there? i've hunted N.E. corner for about 20 years....I aint never seen no caribou

[SHANE(WA)]

Caribou in the form of moose chit!

[boneaddict]

Caribou in the form of moose chit!

I think you meant wolf *censored*.  The fact they took down all the caribou flyers/posters and put up wolf ones pretty much sums it up. 

[bearpaw]

boneaddict....I posted some data from the wolf plan concerning special species here:   http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,34103.msg405312/topicseen.html#new

[Big10gauge]

Same as last year, just spent 2.5 weeks up there. Plenty of deer(does) in the farmland not much in the actual woods.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,14120.msg159423.html#msg159423

[WAcoyotehunter]

boneaddict....I posted some data from the wolf plan concerning special species here:   http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,34103.msg405312/topicseen.html#new

Interesting post and some quality info there.  My guess (WAG?) is that a single lion that becomes a specialist would cause more trouble for the caribou than the wolves will.  Who knows though. 

The biggest problem is not predation but habitat loss.  Read an old survey record for Pend Oreille County.  The surveyors would record when they encountered a tree on a section line.  They might hit 15-20 trees per mile.  Those trees included 3-5' dia white pine, yellow pine, larch,doug fir....  Try to walk 10 feet without hitting a tree nowadays.

They used to drive wagons and teams through these forests...imagine that... now I can't ride a single horse through.

[halflife65]

boneaddict....I posted some data from the wolf plan concerning special species here:   http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,34103.msg405312/topicseen.html#new

Interesting post and some quality info there.  My guess (WAG?) is that a single lion that becomes a specialist would cause more trouble for the caribou than the wolves will.  Who knows though. 

The biggest problem is not predation but habitat loss.  Read an old survey record for Pend Oreille County.  The surveyors would record when they encountered a tree on a section line.  They might hit 15-20 trees per mile.  Those trees included 3-5' dia white pine, yellow pine, larch,doug fir....  Try to walk 10 feet without hitting a tree nowadays.

They used to drive wagons and teams through these forests...imagine that... now I can't ride a single horse through.

I haven't spent much time in that area - is it thick because of reprod/second growth after clearcutting?  Just curious...

[WAcoyotehunter]

yes- the reprod is a nightmare. 

[Gobble]

It looks like western wa. its so thick

[bearpaw]

Actually it depends where you hunt, some areas are not near as thick as other areas. I prefer to hunt open areas along brushy fringes and open farm lands on private ground, that is where we have the best success.

[bearpaw]

I should probably add this comment. Many of my hunters from western WA still think we have lots of deer because they see so many more deer than anywhere else they have hunted in WA.

Numbers are definitely lower in most areas, but whitetails rebound fast so some mild winters will have numbers rebounding fast (fingers crossed). 

[halflife65]

I was just thinking about that, Bearpaw.  It seems if you can find some open/transition areas next to the thick cover you might have a pretty good chance.  Of course, the trick is finding an area like that (it helps to have that private ground that you mentioned.)

Anyway, it was more of a curiousity question on my part - I spent a little time in Huckleberry (drew a moose tag) but otherwise only hunted one other time near Metaline Falls something like 17 years ago.  It was the November rifle hunt, snowed unbelievably hard the whole time, I had done absolutely no research about where to go and spent almost the entire time looking for my hunting partner - an inexperienced guy that was a friend of mine from college who, as it turned out, could get lost in the middle of the road - and saw a few whitetail does.  Kind of a dumb trip that was all my fault for not preparing properly...