B
Friday, January 31, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
RECREATION
REPORT
INSECT-BORNE VIRUS KILLED ESTIMATED 2,000 WHITE-TAILED DEER IN UMATILLA COUNTY LAST YEAR
WILD TURKEY
FEDERATION
BANQUET IN
BAKER CITY
The Baker County
Longbeards, a
chapter of the
National Wild Turkey
Federation, will have
its annual hunting
heritage banquet
Saturday, Feb. 1, at
5 p.m. at the Baker
Elks Lodge, 1896
Second St. TIckets
are $60 per person
or $85 per couple.
More information is
available by calling
Bob Reedy at 541-
403-1352.
PRESENTATION ON
BIGFOOT FEB. 6 AT
HALFWAY
HALFWAY — The
Cornucopia Arts
Council will host a
presentation by Blue
Mountain Bigfoot
Research, started in
2017 by Scot Violette
of Baker City. The
presentation will
start at 7 p.m. at Pine
Eagle High School,
375 N. Main St. in
Halfway.
BACKCOUNTRY
FESTIVAL SET FOR
FEBRUARY 7-9
The annual
Eastern Oregon
Backcountry Festival
is set for Feb. 7-9,
with events planned
in Baker City and
at Anthony Lakes
Mountain Resort.
The Festival kicks
off Friday, Feb. 7
with an airing of the
new Teton Gravity
Research fi lm, “Fire
on the Mountain,”
at 7 p.m. at Lefty’s
Taphouse, 1934
Broadway St. in
Baker City. Entry is
$5 for students with
ID, $10 for adults and
free for kids younger
than 12. There will be
a raffl e and auction
to raise money for
the Wallowa Ava-
lanche Center.
On Feb. 8 the
Festival moves to
Anthony Lakes for
the Kip Rand Memo-
rial Backcountry Race
starting at 8 a.m.
Winners in the male
and female catego-
ries will each win a
2020-2021 season
pass to the ski area.
There will also be
an avalanche basics
clinic. On Sunday
people are encour-
aged to tour the area
around the ski area.
More informa-
tion: www.eou.edu/
outdoor/eastern-
oregon-backcountry-
festival-2020/
Deer virus not widespread
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
The insect-spread virus that killed
an estimated 2,000 white-tailed deer
in Umatilla County last fall has been
detected elsewhere in Northeast Or-
egon, but it hasn’t caused any major
die-offs in recent years, biologists said.
Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease
(EHD) is spread by the bite of midges
that breed in stagnant water.
Deer can’t spread the virus, also
known as blue tongue, to other deer
or animals by direct contact. Midges
carrying the virus can infect other
animals, including mule deer, elk and
cattle, but the mortality rate is much
higher with white-tailed deer than
with other species.
The virus poses no threat to people,
cats or dogs. Nor can people become ill
by eating the meat of a deer or other
animal infected with EHD.
Biologists with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)
say EHD is responsible for the sig-
nifi cant death toll among white-tailed
deer last year in parts of Umatilla
County.
There are herds of white-tailed
deer in Baker, Union and Wallowa
counties as well, and although biolo-
gists have confi rmed cases of EHD
in those counties over the years, they
haven’t seen any losses comparable to
what happened last year in Umatilla
County.
The biggest recent die-off in Baker
County happened during the late
summer and early fall of 2015, said
Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist
at ODFW’s Baker City offi ce.
Ratliff said ODFW didn’t compile
an offi cial death toll, but he believes
many dozens of white-tailed deer died
in the county in 2015.
Dead deer were found in Baker Val-
ley and in Pine Valley.
There haven’t been any wide-
spread outbreaks in white-tailed deer
since 2015, and their population is
rebounding in Baker County, Ratliff
said.
White-tailed deer have expanded
their range throughout much of
Wallowa County, but biologists have
Oregon Department of Fish and WIldiife photo
White-tailed deer, which are found throughout Northeast Oregon, are especially susceptible to the Epizootic
Hemorrhagic Disease, which is spread by biting midges.
confi rmed only an occasional case of
EHD in white-tails, said Pat Mat-
thews, ODFW’s district wildlife biolo-
gist in Enterprise.
“We haven’t had any signifi cant
losses that we’re aware of up here,”
Matthews said.
When EHD is prevalent it’s diffi cult
to miss given the high mortality rate
among white-tailed deer, he said.
“You’d notice if there was any
signifi cant number of deer dying,”
Matthews said.
In Wallowa County white-tailed
deer populations are highest in the
Wenaha and Sled Springs units, with
smaller numbers in the Snake River,
Imnaha and Chesnimnus units, Mat-
thews said.
Matt Keenan, ODFW’s district
wildlife biologist in Union County,
said biologists examined some
white-tailed deer carcasses last year,
but they weren’t able to get tissue
samples fresh enough to have lab
tests confi rm EHD.
“But we think it’s likely” that the
virus killed at least some of those
deer, Keenan said.
He said it’s also possible that EHD
killed two pronghorn antelope in
Union County last year.
Ratliff said the only confi rmed case
of EHD over the past year in Baker
County was in a mule deer that was
living within the Baker City limits.
That deer had been showing neuro-
logical symptoms, he said.
Although infected mule deer are
much more likely to survive than
white-tailed deer are, Ratliff said the
virus, which causes blood vessel con-
striction, can have severe and in some
cases permanent effects on mule deer.
The vascular constriction can cause
the testicles to shrivel and eventu-
ally fall off infected mule deer bucks,
which renders them incapable of
breeding, Ratliff said.
The loss of testicles also means the
bucks can’t produce testosterone, the
hormone that causes bucks to shed
their antlers every year, generally in
late winter.
When that happens the buck can
have antlers for the rest of its life, and
the antlers typically remain in the
velvet stage constantly, Keenan said.
Ratliff said he has seen several
mule deer bucks that apparently
were infected with EHD in 2015, sur-
vived the virus but lost their testicles.
Ratliff and his colleagues, Mat-
thews, Keenan and Phillip Perrine,
assistant district biologist in Union
County, all agreed that although
white-tailed deer have been expand-
ing their range in the region, they’re
not responsible for declining popula-
tions in mule deer.
Mule deer declines have more to do
with predators, the biologists said.
Coyote hunting can ward off winter doldrums
It’s winter so you
might as well put
away your rifl es and
curl up and die. All is
lost, right? No! One of
the fi nest hunting opportuni-
ties is in full blast right now.
What, you may ask? Varmint
hunting! Varmint hunting can
provide for some fast-paced
shooting. If you’ve never done
it, you need to.
You may also ask, where
should I hunt them? One time
I was driving to Boise to con-
duct a varmint hunting semi-
nar at Cabela’s. As I was about
to get on the freeway I looked
off to my right and there was
a coyote working a fence line
right in town. Unbelievable.
So to answer your question
as to where to fi nd them —
almost anywhere. I’ve always
They don’t see any other
animals. You’ll want to use
BASE CAMP
an electronic waggler type of
TOM CLAYCOMB
decoy. It is basically a wire that
fl ips around with a white rag
said if the Communist dropped tied to the end of it. They work
an H bomb on America, the
great.
only two things that would
I also like to use a coy-
survive (and probably thrive) ote and rabbit decoy from
are cockroaches and coyotes.
Montana Decoys. You might
Yes, you can occasionally
also want to use a deer or
pick up a coyote just driving
antelope decoy since both are
around but we want to talk
around the Limon area. I’d
about targeting them. To really recommend tying a small rag
be effi cient you need an elec-
on their tail to look like a tail
tronic call. You can set one out moving in the wind.
40 yards from you and run it
You’ll need somewhere to
by a remote control. That way hide. You can duck behind
when they come in, they’re
a fencerow, brush pile or a
focused on the call and not you. lot of times I’ll carry a piece
You also need to use decoys. of camofl auge burlap and
They hear a lot of commotion, lay it over two sagebrushes.
come running in and then
Or I also like the Ameristep
whoa! Something is weird.
Throwdown blinds. They set
up in a C-shape and are super
lightweight.
Coyotes will always ap-
proach and then circle down-
wind so you’ll want to use a
cover scent. My brother-in-law
carries a roll of toilet paper in
a coffee can soaked in skunk
scent and sets it downwind of
us. All I can say is, you better
make sure that it is down-
wind!
What kind of guns should
you use? In the old days you
wanted a bolt action .223 but
now, AR .223s are super popu-
lar. And for good reason. They
allow you to take fast follow-up
shots. A lot of times more than
one will come in.
If there are two or more of
us, I make someone carry a
shotgun. Get a Trulock full
choke and use HEVI-Shot
Dead Coyote loads. Years ago,
their marketing manager told
me that she rolled a coyote
DOA at 70 yards. After using
them, I don’t doubt it. They are
deadly.
Everyone is on a budget so
if you can’t afford an electronic
call, hand calls still work too.
Sixty years ago that is all that
we had.
It works best to call early
morning and at dusk but night
hunting is magical. We’ll talk
about that next week. So
don’t sit around shelling out
your hard-earned money for
counseling fees because it is
winter and you’re depressed.
Grab your rifl e and a call and
go whack some coyotes. They
have some cool pelts and you’ll
help the antelope and deer
herds.
Humorous take on tumbleweeds: A planned prickly assault?
By Peter du Pree
I have had encounters with the
supposedly dead prickly devils
known as tumbleweeds in the past,
as probably many of you have. Here
is the most recent:
THE WASHINGTON INCIDENT
On New Year’s Eve, 2019, it was
reported that thousands of tumble-
weeds traveling 40 to 50 mph had
stranded motorists for 10 hours on
a Washington state highway. It is
estimated that 9 million cubic yards
of the prickly devils converged on the
area.
It only took 30 minutes for the
troublemakers to completely cover
the cars, in some places piled 30 feet
high. The attack was so powerful it
scraped the paint off some of the cars
involved.
A Washington State trooper said
that people couldn’t make a run for it.
“If your car is covered in it, you can’t
just meander out of there.”
Ah, yes. Those pricklies.
Apparently, when mature and dry,
tumbleweeds detach themselves from
their stem, or root, and they roll in
the wind, spreading their seed.
Introduced to the U.S. in the late
1800s by accident as a contaminant
in grain or wheat seed from Russia,
this hardy plant has plagued ranch-
ers for many years. When stuck to a
fence in large clumps, they can weigh
down the fence, letting cattle escape.
You can Google the story to get
the details, but here is something
nobody has brought up: Who or what
planned this attack upon innocent
civilians?
Here’s something to consider: The
odds of thousands of these weeds
(commonly known as Russian thistle)
catching just the right wind and all
of them ending up on that particular
highway at the same time are pretty
low. This type of attack had to have
some intelligence behind it. A bunch
of dumb weeds couldn’t have pulled
it off.
So what was the motive behind
it? Could a person in one of the cars
have abused a weed in the past, and
the weed community was looking for
revenge? Or maybe the Head Weed
had ordered it just to put on a show
to prove that Mother Nature could
also provide local terrorism. There is
also the theory that fun-loving aliens
were behind it, disguising themselves
as weeds to cover their identity.
Whatever the case, I can visualize
them all gathering together stuck to
a fence somewhere, working out the
details. Done. Now to wait for a big
wind to come along. As usual, that big
wind did come along as it happens
everyday in Southeastern Washing-
ton. And the attack began.
The only force that controls this
type of attack is the wind. Tumble-
weeds are like little ducklings. Which
direction they go is up to Mother
(Nature).
Or is it?
The rest is history. The largest re-
corded, organized tumbleweed attack
in U.S. history. Let’s hope that more of
these events aren’t being planned for
the future.
Peter du Pree is a Baker City resident.