News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Nature is taking it easy on her offspring, at least in the short term. And, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, human activity poses a greater long-term threat to wildlife in the region than periods of drought or harsh winters.
"Our biggest concern locally is urban sprawl," said ODF&W biologist Steven George. "That takes away habitat from game animals and non-game animals...Right now we're probably losing ground when it comes to deer population," George said. According to George, growth in the region may mean Central Oregon cannot continue to support its current level of deer population.
George said ODF&W works with county planners to mitigate human impact on wildlife habitat. The primary tool for reducing that impact is concentrating development where impact is lowest.
"There's not much you can do to mitigate once something is there," George said.
Elk are doing well, George said, with increasing numbers wintering on the east side of the Cascades. George noted that elk migrations don't often take them across major highways.
Road kill on the region's highways is another real concern for the wildlife agency. Deer in particular are vulnerable to increasing traffic and speeds on the roads.
But despite growing pressure from human activity, wildlife are doing well in the region.
Coyotes, hardened survivors that they are, are populating at an astonishing rate.
"We've counted more coyotes than we ever had," George said. Part of the population increase can be attributed to prey abundance, George said. But the breeding mechanism that causes coyote populations to leap to huge levels remains a mystery.
An increased coyote population is not good news to livestock producers.
George said that predator control in Deschutes County is generally left up to individual landowners.
"There's not a whole lot that can be done," George said, noting that coyotes fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture.
The agency anticipates a good deer hunting season this fall, depending as always on weather conditions. If current conditions continue, George said, hunters should find "animals spread throughout the units in good numbers."
The archery season opens Saturday, August 24. Last year, bow hunters in the Metolius unit north and west of Sisters harvested 96 deer for a 24 percent success rate. Rifle hunters, who start their season Saturday, September 28, took 567 deer on the unit for a 27 percent success rate.
According to George, sport hunting "helps keep the animal population in check" to a level the habitat can support. Loss of habitat means a gradual diminishing of hunting opportunities, George noted.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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