Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Fires shouldn’t spoil hunting

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at PDelGiudice@compuserve.com.

Most of Nevada's deer seasons open on Saturday morning and predictions for a successful season are positive. The Nevada Division of Wildlife is predicting the state's big-game hunters will enjoy good hunting this season despite fires that burned over 1.5 million acres mostly in northern Nevada.

"Our overall message is that no hunter should be greatly impacted by the fires because in most areas, there is still an abundance of land to hunt. The real impact will be seen over the long term because so much deer winter and summer range has been lost," said NDOW staff biologist Mike Cox.

Early in the season, predictions are that big game in the state's northern areas will be concentrated near water sources, because the area has been so dry. This will provide good opportunities for locating the animals, according to Cox.

Central and eastern areas of the state have received more moisture than the north, so deer will not be as concentrated. Hunters will then have to expend more time and effort in finding deer.

Early in the season, hunters will likely find deer at higher elevations and in less accessible areas. Later in the season as weather conditions change from fall to winter, deer will begin to move to winter areas and hunters need not work so hard to find them. "I would say that the overall outlook this year is similar to past years," Cox said. "A few areas have low densities, but most have moderate to high densities so hunting should be good again this year."

ELK HUNTING PROMISING: Elk hunting should also be good this year, with elk populations and the number of hunt tags issued for them each year steadily increasing. And while there are now more hunters pursuing elk, the animals have learned how to deal with the hunting pressure.

"Unlike previous years, elk won't be close to roads so hunters will have to beat the brush. The elk know where the cover is and how to use it. To be successful, hunters will have to get away from roads and hunt the back country," NDOW spokesman Mike Cox said.

This will be especially true of many of the cow elk hunts which occur after the rut (mating season). Herds will break into small groups and disperse over a wider area. For this reason, Cox believes the cow hunts can be more difficult than the bull hunts.

* DUCKS AND COVER: Waterfowl hunters are reminded that duck hunting season opens statewide on Saturday in all counties except Clark and Lincoln. Duck hunting begins in those two counties on Saturday, October 9. Limits are seven daily, 14 in possession, with restrictions on female mallards, pintail, canvasback, redhead and scaup duck species.

* CHUKAR PLENTIFUL: If you didn't draw a deer tag and waterfowl hunting isn't your bag, then you should concentrate on chukar this season. NDOW data compiled from aerial surveys of 11 upland game bird areas in northern Nevada has confirmed that this year's chukar hunting season will probably be the best since 1980.

According to San Stiver, NDOW staff biologist in Reno, recently completed aerial surveys of the 11 areas show an average concentration of more than 90 chukar per square mile, more than twice the number found last year in the same areas.

"We believe we only see about one-third of the actual number of birds from the helicopter during the surveys, so the average population per square mile would exceed 270 birds," Stiver said. "I know of no hunters who would find that population level anything but extremely exciting."

Approximately one-third of the rangeland areas consumed by fire last summer has been identified as year-round chukar habitat, according to Stiver.

Stiver's computer projected harvest suggests a harvest level of 110,000 chukar statewide during the 1999 season.

Hunters looking for chukar and quail in Southern Nevada will likely be disappointed due to the lack of precipitation in the southern part of the state.

Areas in the extreme southern part of Clark County, such as near Searchlight, probably fared worse and will offer poor hunting compared to areas in northern Clark and Lincoln counties, which experienced more rainfall.

Most upland game bird hunting seasons open Saturday.