Amazing how Idaho and other mountain states place so much value on their fish and wildlife. I really liked the closure of the highway for the elk and the supplemental feeding of the mule deer during a hard winter. Up here in Alberta, our politicians and people are so stupid that we don’t do anything like that. Mule deer are constantly at risk due to habitat loss from immigration and development, as well as CWD and wolf predation. Elk numbers are not what they used to be, overgrown forests, too much cattle, as well as wolves on every ridge. Too many people want to come and live close to the mountains and unfortunately that comes at the cost of habitat loss. Large ranches are disappearing due to subdivisions. Same story as the US, but at least it looks like they are doing some good work to help maintain mule deer numbers in Idaho. Thanks for a great video.
As a life time native and resident of North Idaho, I find it unfathomable that anyone would resist the installation of wild life over and under passes. During the hard winter of 2006- 07, in just the fifty mile pass-through our county, over 600 deer, elk and moose were killed by vehicles and trains. A significant amount of this would be mitigated by corridors. This would save millions of dollars in vehicle damage and would quickly pay for their cost. The mule deer populations are crashing here but that is mostly due to habitat loss. Mule deer traditionally lived on mountain tops that were routinely burned off by lightning strikes and were open spaces. Now the fires are quickly put out and the mountain tops end up covered in dense timber that is not suitable for habitat. Mule deer are slowly being replaced by white tail deer that are actually an eastern species that came west as the land was cleared and turned over to agriculture. The introduction of white tails has been catastrophic for the moose as they brought diseases that are fatal to moose. Nature will sort it out in the next million years or so, I guess.
Amazing how Idaho and other mountain states place so much value on their fish and wildlife. I really liked the closure of the highway for the elk and the supplemental feeding of the mule deer during a hard winter. Up here in Alberta, our politicians and people are so stupid that we don’t do anything like that. Mule deer are constantly at risk due to habitat loss from immigration and development, as well as CWD and wolf predation. Elk numbers are not what they used to be, overgrown forests, too much cattle, as well as wolves on every ridge. Too many people want to come and live close to the mountains and unfortunately that comes at the cost of habitat loss. Large ranches are disappearing due to subdivisions. Same story as the US, but at least it looks like they are doing some good work to help maintain mule deer numbers in Idaho. Thanks for a great video.
As a life time native and resident of North Idaho, I find it unfathomable that anyone would resist the installation of wild life over and under passes. During the hard winter of 2006- 07, in just the fifty mile pass-through our county, over 600 deer, elk and moose were killed by vehicles and trains. A significant amount of this would be mitigated by corridors. This would save millions of dollars in vehicle damage and would quickly pay for their cost. The mule deer populations are crashing here but that is mostly due to habitat loss. Mule deer traditionally lived on mountain tops that were routinely burned off by lightning strikes and were open spaces. Now the fires are quickly put out and the mountain tops end up covered in dense timber that is not suitable for habitat. Mule deer are slowly being replaced by white tail deer that are actually an eastern species that came west as the land was cleared and turned over to agriculture. The introduction of white tails has been catastrophic for the moose as they brought diseases that are fatal to moose. Nature will sort it out in the next million years or so, I guess.