Indications are good for upcoming rifle season

THOMPSON FALLS – The Sanders County Commissioners held their quarterly wildlife meeting, which provided them with an update on many of the things FWP is currently working on.

Bruce Sterling, area wildlife biologist, provided information on how archery season went and stated rifle season looks good. The last day landed on Saturday, October 19.

According to Sterling, the season was about average.

“I haven’t heard anything really exceptional about archery season but we don’t run check stations so it’s word of mouth,” said Sterling. “From what I’ve heard it’s been a fairly good season.”

Results from archery season will not be available until March or April of 2014.

With rifle season right around the corner, all indications are that it will be a pretty good hunting season.

The season starts late this year on October 26 and ends on December 1.

With two fairly mild winters back to back and good recruitment in the white tail classes, Sterling expects the season to be a good one. Elk populations are along the 10 year average and a late season typically means there will be more snow on the ground for tracking animals.

FWP recently bumped up the number of B tags in both hunting districts 121 and 124. The tags were increased to around 300 and are valid only on private land.

Region one has not seen any reports of EHD in the area, a disease that recently killed hundreds of deer in the Missoula area. The disease is an acute, infectious disease, which is often fatal.

Although one sample was sent in on a deer that appeared to die rather unexpectedly, Sterling is not worried about the results.

“We never had any concentrated mortality,” explained Sterling, something that typically occurs when the disease hits. “It does make me a little nervous having it in Missoula because it sort of thrives in these hot, dry places.”

Sterling explained he could see the disease move to Plains and Hot Springs in upcoming years.

“It’s something we might have to look at in future years unfortunately,” explained Sterling.

Talk of wolves has died down considerably, something Sterling credits to the hunting season on the animal.

Although the issue has not gone away, Sterling believes the hot button issue has quieted down because now hunters are able to actively take the problem into their own hands.

“I think once you give hunters a responsibility and allow them to harvest a creature, then they feel like they have an obligation,” said Sterling.

So far three wolves have been killed this season, a season that started on September 15. Two were killed south of Plains in Sheep Gap country and one was killed up in the Trout Creek area.

Along with the talk of wolves quieting down, bear season has been unusually quiet as well.

“Bears have been almost nonexistent. All summer we had zero complaints,” said Sterling. He credits this due to an exceptional berry year, a late frost, and plentiful berries that stayed late into the season.

“I think these bears just spread out because the food source was so good,” said Sterling.

Harvest for bears was also on the downside with 25 to 28 bears being tagged out. In a typical season bear harvest spans into the upper 30s.

Sterling did not believe this is because of a lack in the population, again he said the bears were probably spread out and harder to locate.

The speed limit on Highway 200 between Plains and Thompson Falls was also discussed. According to Sanders County Commissioner Chair Tony Cox, the 55 mph speed limit that was imposed on the 13 mile stretch will be taken down to 9 miles. Although the speed limit is not ideal for many, especially in the Eddy Flat region, it is an improvement.

Next, the maintenance of some of the sheep viewing sites were discussed and talk of removing some of the weeds and long grass took place.

According to Sterling some of the sites have not been cut down because of the lack of equipment and volunteers.

The plan to augment the sheep population along the stretch of Highway 200 is in the making, although that would not take place until the exclusionary fence was included on the highway in the two major problemed spots.

“Once they reconstruct the highway, we’ll fence it with an exclusion fence and then we’ll probably transplant sheep back into the area and see how they do,” said Sterling.

The plan for the highway improvements includes different precautions to ensure that sheep stay off the road near Bad Rock and east of the Thompson River Bridge.

“As far as I know they are going to fence all through there either in the right of way or get permission from the landowners,” said Sterling.

Sterling explained that everything has to be double cow guarded because of the sheep’s ability to jump. They also plan to place electric mats underneath the pavement to deter sheep from crossing.

“They’ve done it in some areas and it worked pretty well but they haven’t done it for sheep yet,” said Sterling.

As the meeting wrapped to a close, the turkey season was discussed. The plan is to allow two birds a person and also allow the use of a rifle, something that is not currently allowed. Sterling’s department plans to propose those changes in time for next season.