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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
Deer: The Columbia River deer have had to adapt
Continued from Page 1A
Although federal wild-
life managers are calling the
Columbia River recovery
effort a success, Washington
Department of Fish and Wild-
life biologists are less opti-
mistic. In an April report, the
department
recommended
keeping the deer on the state’s
Endangered Species List. The
biologists said that while their
range has expanded some-
what, their small population
size, fragmented habitat and
low-quality food sources are
hurting chances of recovery.
Checkerboard habitat
EO Media Group/File Photo
Caught in net traps, two Columbian white-tailed deer are prepared for transplantation to another location by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees
after a roundup in February 2013.
Cold, wet, sick
The Columbia River deer
have had to adapt to conditions
that don’t meet their needs.
Researchers have found that
deer in different parts of the
range eat very different diets —
a sign that the deer “are selecting
food items on the basis of avail-
ability and less as a result of their
actual food preferences.”
In theory, a white-tailed
deer can live up to 20 years, but
most Columbia River deer live
somewhere between ive to 10
years. Fawn survival rates have
improved in recent years, but they
still luctuate “dramatically from
‘Mixed success’
Since the 1980s, wildlife
managers have “translocated”
314 deer between sites. When a
dike near the Julia Butler Han-
sen Refuge threatened to break
in 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service used helicopters and
dart-nets to capture 37 deer and
move them to Ridgeield.
These efforts have had
“mixed success.” The 58 deer
moved to Ridgeield in 2013 and
2014 seem to be settling in, but
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What’s it take?
State wildlife manag-
ers believe some actions have
shown promise.
According to the report,
Tenasillahe Island, near Skamo-
kowa, is “the one site” where
translocated deer have con-
sistently done well. Since the
last translocation in 1988, the
population has reliably stayed
between 100 and 200.
Tenasillahe is compara-
tively large and dry, with the
mix of pasture and deciduous
forest habitat white-tailed deer
prefer. There are no humans or
elk living on the island, so the
deer don’t have to compete for
resources.
Wildlife managers will have
to igure out how to duplicate
those conditions elsewhere,
study authors said. Upcoming
studies should provide valuable
new information about how big
the population needs to grow to
become self-sustaining, and how
to connect the isolated pieces of
habitat and expand the Columbia
River range.
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continued. In 2013, USDA also
began “removing” coyotes from
Ridgeield.
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scientists say it’s “still too soon”
to say whether they’ll thrive
there. A group of islands near
Longview “have failed to main-
tain ... the target population of 50
deer,” with many departing for
nearby private lands. A total of
27 deer were moved to Cotton-
wood Island in 2010 and 2013.
Now, 12 to 20 deer remain.
Since 2006, deer have been
moved both to and from the Julia
Butler Hansen Refuge, but the
population has never stabilized.
According to the report, Wal-
lace/Westport and Puget Islands
“have shown greater stabil-
ity” than “the protected, though
much more lood-prone JBH
mainland unit.”
The Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice has tried to make the ref-
uge more hospitable through
habitat restoration, lood con-
trol, and planting better food
sources. Refuge managers have
also contracted the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture to help con-
trol coyotes. Between 1997 and
2008, the USDA “removed” 46
coyotes from the refuge, accord-
ing to a separate 2013 Fish and
Wildlife report. Fawn survival
improved as a result, so the
“coyote control” program has
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Historically,
white-tailed
deer probably preferred grass-
lands and lightly wooded areas,
rather than soggy lowlands,
according to the report. They
like areas with streams, and a
variety of grasses, shrubs, fruits
and other foods. They don’t like
competing with livestock or elk.
As the human presence in the
Northwest expanded starting in
the 1850s, the Columbia River
deer were forced into wetter,
more lood-prone places.
Since the 1970s, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has
focused on re-establishing
deer populations at the Ridge-
ield National Wildlife Refuge
in Clark County, the Lewis and
Clark National Wildlife Refuge
— a series of Lower Colum-
bia River islands east of Asto-
ria — and the Julia Butler Han-
sen Refuge for the Columbian
White-Tailed Deer in Wahkia-
kum County.
year to year and from site to site.”
Fawn survival is closely tied
to environmental conditions and
coyote predation. A 2010 study
at the Julia Butler Hansen Ref-
uge found only about 20 percent
of 131 radio-collared fawns sur-
vived the fawning period. Coy-
otes killed at least 69 percent of
the fawns that died, with disease
and starvation killing still more.
On top of all that, cata-
strophic looding has caused
large losses of Columbia River
adults and fawns, especially at
the refuge, the report said. Mal-
nutrition, disease, vehicle colli-
sions, poaching, predation and
fence entanglement killed other
adult deer.
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Homeland, not
heartland
Just because these sites are
protected, doesn’t mean the deer
actually like them. With a long
history of looding and erosion
problems, the Julia Butler Hansen
Refuge, which was established
in 1971 to aid in deer recov-
ery, is arguably the least hospi-
table of the sites. In fact, deer on
some pieces of nearby privately
held land seem to be doing better
than refuge deer. Currently, there
are about 228 deer on the almost
entirely privately owned Puget
Island, near Cathlamet, and about
100 at the refuge.
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“In general,” the report said,
“these are issues that existed
when (the deer) was irst listed
as a state endangered species,
and are still issues to this day.”
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Until the mid-1800s, Colum-
bian white-tailed deer occu-
pied a 60,000-square-kilometer
range that extended across much
of western Oregon and Wash-
ington. Over-hunting and hab-
itat loss nearly wiped them out
in the early 1900s. By the time
they were placed on the fed-
eral Endangered Species List in
1967, there were as few as 300
on the Lower Columbia.
Now, two isolated groups
occupy a tiny fraction of that ter-
ritory. The Roseburg population
includes at least 6,000 animals, on
a range of about 300 square miles
in Douglas County. The Colum-
bia River population has luctu-
ated from a low of 545 deer in
2002 to an estimated high of 966
in 2015. Their 93-square-mile
range is a checkerboard of main-
land and island habitats along the
Columbia River, in Clatsop and
Columbia counties in Oregon,
and Cowlitz, Wahkiakum and
Clark counties in Washington.
State biologists say six or
more small subpopulations are
isolated by both natural barri-
ers, like rivers, and man-made
barriers, like State Route 4 —
a deadly obstacle that slices
through the middle of their Wah-
kiakum County range.
Researchers are still trying to
learn what size white-tailed deer
population is self-sustaining, but
they are conident most of the
Columbia River subpopulations
aren’t yet at that level. With such
low numbers, they’re especially
vulnerable to inbreeding, dis-
eases and natural disasters.