Where have our deer and bighorn gone?

I have looked forward every year to enjoying and photographing our local deer and Sierra bighorn as they return to winter ranges in the Eastern Sierra. I have many friends that share this anticipation. We all care very much about our wildlife and the beautiful landscapes they inhabit. Recently there has been a drastic decline in both mule deer and Sierra bighorn populations that threatens their existence and our ability to enjoy them. We need to wake up and address the problems causing these declines.

Our ecosystems have been significantly altered by man’s activities and development. Voters in California have outlawed mountain lion management essentially handcuffing our game managers. In the Eastern Sierra development of key winter and summer range, and migration routes have contributed to habitat declines. Man-caused wildfires in Round Valley have setback winter forage conditions. Human recreational pressures such as climbing activity in the Buttermilks and Pine creek canyon have displaced deer and bighorn. Increased overall recreational use has put tremendous pressures on our lands. Multiple human activities affect our wildlife necessitating man’s intervention.

Natural stressors such as drought and extreme snowfall have contributed to the current dilemma. During our recent prolonged drought, deer were coming off poor winter feed conditions onto poor spring and summer forage. This contributed to low fawn survival and recruitment. Concurrently our robust mountain lion population exhibited high predation rates on already low deer numbers. In Round Valley a very realistic number of 30 lions taking 3-4 deer per month can potentially take 120 deer per month! I would be shocked if aerial winter deer surveys in Round Valley produced a count over 1400 deer; a fraction of what it’s capable of handling. I would love to be wrong about these deer numbers but I think I’m in the ballpark.

Last winter recovering Sierra Bighorn populations took a devastating setback. If they stayed at higher elevations, they starved to death due to deep snow. If they ventured to lower elevations, they were subjected to heavy lion predation. This has been well documented by CDFW. It is estimated we lost over half our Sierra bighorns (my favorite species to watch).

When it comes to natural factors such as drought we have little recourse. But other factors such as lion predation, development, deer tag allocations, safe highway wildlife crossings, recreation, .... we can manage better. Introducing lion management legislation would be a big step. Similar problems and deer population declines are occurring throughout the region in the southern Owens valley. CDFW’s silence and lack of responses to these issues is very concerning. We may have approached a tipping point whereby deer mortality rates from predation are far surpassing recruitment rates; facilitating further declines. The general public is not aware of our deer problems. The Sierra bighorn recovery program will restart hopefully with much success and lessons learned from previous recovery efforts. We simply cannot afford to let the current conditions continue their course.

Brian Tillemans

Bishop