January 2017 Wyoming Game & Fish Newsletter
Pinedale Region news & updates
January 22, 2017
The Wyoming Game & Fish has posted their January 2017 newsletters. Here are highlights from the Pinedale Region:
Mule Deer Counts
Every winter Wyoming Game and Fish biologists and wardens take to the air to conduct their annual deer population survey and classification. After a couple of relatively mild winters, it appears we’re going to get a real Wyoming winter this year and managers are concerned we may experience above average losses, especially with fawns. Managers are already seeing winter mortality. In the Wyoming Range deer herd, buck ratios were again a bright spot this year at 36 per 100 does. Fawn ratios were just 58 per 100 does, the lowest number seen since 1993, and many of those may succumb to winter.
Early Winter
With an early onset of winter this year, all of the Pinedale Region game wardens have been responding to calls of elk in conflict situations on private land. Game and Fish personnel are trying to move elk to feedgrounds along the southern Wind River Range front. There have been complaints of elk damage near 40 Rod Road and the New Fork River where a handful of bull elk have been moving around hitting numerous haystacks on area ranches. There have also been several complaints about elk damaging stored hay in the Bondurant area. Hazing and hunting have had limited success due to the deep snow.
On the Ground
The Pinedale Habitat & Access crew for the Game and Fish Department completed a livestock exclosure project at Onion Springs off the Ryegrass Road near Daniel. The fence was built with old recycled drill pipe. Such drill pipe has been donated by companies including Chevron, Ultra and QEP, and is being utilized for a number of Game & Fish fencing projects in the region.
Winter Range Patrol
In the winter, area Game Wardens patrol the extensive mule deer winter ranges around Pinedale, Big Piney and LaBarge and handle reports of suspicious activities and poaching. They rely on the public helping to be their eyes and ears on the ground to stop poaching and catch poachers. Managers are aware of one deer being illegally shot this winter near Buckskin Crossing south of Boulder. Anyone with information on a possible poaching incident should call the STOP POACHING hotline at 1-877-WGFD-TIP (1-877-943- 3847), any Game and Fish regional office, or any Game and Fish warden. Information can also be reported by clicking on the "Stop Poaching" icon located on the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s web site homepage at https://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/home.aspx. Any information leading to an arrest and conviction may result in a cash reward and anyone providing information may remain anonymous.
Stop Poaching Call Rewarded
Breanne Cowan of Farson received a $1,000 check from South Pinedale Game Warden Jordan Kraft and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Stop Poaching program for helping in the apprehension of two violators for hunting deer in the wrong area, taking the wrong sex animal and wasting a buck deer earlier this fall.
New Fork River Bank Stabilization Project
Pinedale Game & Fish personnel worked on a project to do bank stabilization along the New Fork River on the Sullivan property near Boulder. The project will improve water quality for this trophy fishery.
Click on this link to read more in the Pinedale Region January 2017 Wyoming Game & Fish newsletter
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