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After fire Animals still around

Where i hunt there was a fire july 7 and contain by july15. Burn 1400 aces. Cause lighting. Do elk/deer come back around the surrounding area. What been your experince? Ive hunted this area for over 25 years and never had a fire. Going out a couple weeks to check

Yes, they will be back with a vengeance, esp. once the green grass starts showing through. Fire is one of the best things that can happen to some habitats, and some trees are actually dependent of fire to reproduce. They are the 'fire species', like Lodgepole pine. Heat makes the cones expand, dropping seeds. Otherwise they may not ever produce.

All that dead, brown Colorado lodgepole beetle kill needs to burn, and it would make a healthier forest. Fire suppression, although well intended, is why so many of the huge wildfires seen esp. out west, go uncontrolled. There needs to be new fire policies in place. There would be far less beetle kill as a result, and fewer monster wildfires. There would also be 'mosaic' patterns of trees and meadow openings with grasses and browse, far better animal habitat than the dense uninterrupted forest we see now like in RMNP. The Yellowstone fires in '88 helped create a lot of feed habitat for ungulates.

If it only burned 1400 acres then it was a small fire that probably didn't burn too intense. Deer and elk will be there feeding on any fresh growth.

Trapperkayak... you hit the nail on the head...

How bad was the fire on Hermosa Creek?

Last year early spring there was a fire in a area that I hunt (little over 1000 acres). Come archery season there was some green, but not a lot. There was some tracks in the burn areas as well, but I thought it mostly transitional traffic. One afternoon hiking through burn area not really paying attention 20 yards in front of me jumped a bachelor group of bucks. The deer were living in the burn. They had food, cover, and they could see better than before. Yes the animals will be in there if the grass have come back in.

Rick, they may not be in the burn but they will be calling distance away! Look for green timber in likely feeding & bedding areas & elk will be nearby. Good luck & watch out for those widow makers out in the burned area!

ElkNut/Paul

If enough water has fallen since the burn, to bring out green sprouting, IT would be the FIRST place I’d look.

Burn outs and even clear cuts are magnets for game.

My Wyo buddy hunts west of Labarge in the Bridger-Tetons. I hunted with him for quite awhile.

A fire went through the area a couple years ago...I think it was called the Schaller (sp?) Fire. That was a mid summer blaze which pushed the elk out of the Fontinal (again, sp?) Over to Commisary and elsewhere.

By fall, the burn zone was loaded. The natives used fire for a reason, albeit not in the high country.

Hey the fire was this summer. Im not expecting much green up when i go check. Thanks for the info.

We have seen elk back in burns the following week eating the ash. Must be some mineral in it they really like.

With some good rains, a fire from this summer can get greened up pretty dang fast and it will be really good for hunting next fall for sure.

That is my experience over the years.

Good luck, Robb

If you're not expecting much green-up you maybe sorely mistaken. I've worked a fair share of fires in SD, WY and NE and had to do monitoring afterwards. Its the first place I would go visit as well.

Summer fire =fall greenery=good browse/grazing. hunt it

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