2017 HUNTING OUTLOOK
DEER POPULATIONS DOWN IN BAKER, UNION COUNTIES, ‘FINE’ IN GRANT COUNTY
Winter weather conditions always play a significant role in how big game numbers, and therefore hunting opportunities, shake out for the following hunting season that includes
both how many animals will be available to harvest and their age makeup. For this year, it was winter with a capital “W,” especially in northeast Oregon where heavy snows covered
even low elevation winter range along with temperatures that dropped to minus 23, hammering deer populations in particular. While more-difficult-than-typical winter weather
conditions also prevailed in other parts of the state, fortunately, deer and other big game species came through fairly well. Here is what some Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
biologists had to say about the state of Oregon’s big game populations and prospects for the 2017-18 hunting seasons.
Story by Jim Yuskavitch
Oregon Hunters Association
DEER
The big news was the heavy-hit mule deer took in northeast
Oregon. In addition to sub-zero weather, the mule deer just
couldn’t find places without deep snow, no matter how low in
elevation they migrated. The result was mortality levels that
reached 32 percent for Baker County herds, a far cry from the
more typical 8 percent winter morality in the Blue Mountains.
Fawn survival also took a big hit. Typical fawn ratios in the
region are in the mid-30s per 100 does. This winter it dropped
to 11 per 100 and as low as eight per 100 in some areas. In
response to the hard winter, ODFW reduced the number of deer
hunts in Baker and Union counties by as much as 50 percent,
and a couple of antlerless deer hunts have been canceled.
The good news is that deer fared considerably better in the
rest of the state. On the western end of the Blue Mountains in the
John Day area, ODFW district wildlife biologist Ryan Torland
described the local deer herds as “chugging along just fine.” The
fawn ratio is 30:100, which is a little less than ideal but
manageable. It will mean fewer juvenile bucks available in the
20 • GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL 2017
fall. “But,” says Torland, “buck ratios are pretty decent and at
management objective.”
Down in the High Desert country around Lakeview, district
wildlife biologist Craig Foster reports, “Deer numbers are OK.
However, the winter did knock down fawn survival to around 18
to 100 does, which is low.” Since about 50 to 65 percent of the
deer harvest in his district is made up of juveniles, hunter success
rate will probably be lower this year. He does note that there are
still lots of mature bucks on the district.
In central Oregon, heavy snows in the High Cascades did not
especially affect deer herds, as the animals were able to retreat
to winter range with low snowpack. However, here also, the
fawns took a hit, with a 56 percent overwinter survival rate
compared with the more typical 75-80 percent. “Buck ratios are
at MO so the buck component is about where we want it to be,”
says Bend-based district wildlife biologist Corey Heath. “But
hunters will see fewer spikes and forked-horns.”
On the west side of the Cascades, district wildlife biologist
Brian Wolfer, who works out of the ODFW Springfield office,
reports that deer in his district made it through the winter just
fine. “We had a lot of snow but it didn’t last long in the lower
elevations, so the deer had somewhere to get away from deep
snow,” he says. Buck ratios in the west central Cascades are
holding at management objective. He’s expecting a typical
success rate for black-tailed deer hunters this year, which is
usually around 15-16 percent.
Down in southwest Oregon, black-tailed deer are doing fine
with good buck ratios on the Applegate, Rogue and Evans Creek
wildlife management units according to Central Point-based
district wildlife biologist Mark Vargas. Because the black-tailed
deer population in that region is migratory they need to be hunted
a little differently. “Early in the season, hunters should be hunting
above 4,000 feet, then drop down to below 3,500 feet near the
end of the season,” Vargas advises. He also notes that the some
of the best black-tailed deer hunting in the state is in the Chetco
and Sixes units, where the hunter success rate can reach 35
percent.
Despite a rough winter in the Coast Range, Dave Nuzum,
assistant district wildlife biologist based in Tillamook did not
see an unusual level of deer mortality. “We had pretty good
overwinter survival because they went into the winter in very
good condition, our buck ratios are at benchmark, and our
population may even be creeping up a little,” says Nuzum.
Continued on page 23
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