Drought in the West
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: Shaft
03-Jun-21
Utah and the surrounding area is suffering a really bad drought. All of the farmers are on half water shares. The snowpack didn't come down off of the mountains due to the extremely dry fall. This isn't going to be good for the animals unless we get some rain. Southern Utah has also had an explosion of wild horses taking over the range on a number of units as well. Be prepared for a few years of low elk numbers in the coming years. It will take 5 or 6 years to rebound unless we get some unseasonable rainstorms during the summer. This will also decimate the winter range lands. Carrying capacity is going to hit a low this next winter. How are some of the other states fairing this year?
From: Elkpacker1
03-Jun-21
I am in the spokane ara and yes very dry and offically a drought. I have a great well for irrigation so I did set up some water tanks for the birds and other animals. Had turkeys in the tank drinking yesterday.
From: elkmtngear
03-Jun-21
NorCal is no bueno... didn't realize how bad, until I looked at some of the regular springs in my area in April...very disappointing!
From: LKH
03-Jun-21
For those who plan to hunt Montana, get ready for extreme drought, especially the Breaks. It was bad last fall and little useful rain/snow had dropped in most of the area.
From: flinginarrows
03-Jun-21
Dry in Southeast Idaho and fire season is starting early. Last night smoke was so bad you could hardly breath.
From: Novembermadman
03-Jun-21
Horrible in AZ...... a "normal" spring would have a lot of lush green grass all over but this spring resembled the middle of summer. Dry, dead and brown grass is all there is. Let's pray we have a really wet monsoon season or we are really screwed!
From: Royboy
04-Jun-21
Oregon is in a drought situation also but not sure it equates to losing animals as much as it makes them easier to kill if their limited due to water. Hopefully there’s plenty of water where I hunt.
From: BULELK1
04-Jun-21
BULELK1's Link
I actually went up and shot my Rifle's yesterday Shaun.
They are starting to shut down counties for most all outdoor activities.
It could be a tough fire season this year across the Rocky Mnt. states and Cali. along with the drought conditions.
Good luck, Robb
From: smarba
04-Jun-21
NM pretty dry too. We've had some scattered showers here and there, but overall well below average snowpack and moisture for this time of year...
From: SBH
04-Jun-21
Glass half full much shaft? :) 5-6 years to rebound? Decimate winter range? I dunno about all of that!
I'm in MT and it was almost 90 yesterday which is unheard of. Of course it snowed the week before so who knows. I like dry years.....all the animals are in one spot instead of spread all over. They need water and there will be less of it along with less quality food. They will find it.
I hate the fires and smoke and closures but some of these forest need to burn. They are way overdue. Unfortunately that's where were at in my mind. The good news is when its dry early like this there is a lot less fuel on the ground. Time will tell.
From: jingalls
04-Jun-21
Kansas is in the same boat. Everything dried up and died. If you have any KS whitetail tags you should turn them in and forget it!-D
From: standswittaknife
04-Jun-21
I feel for the drought areas as we’ve been through some bad ones.. here in Salida, CO we had an ok winter and unusually wet spring..
From: No Mercy
04-Jun-21
Western ND is in very tough shape too. 100 degrees today doesn't help that either. I would imagine the prairie fires will be rolling soon again.
From: Ok...Russ
04-Jun-21
OK has had a decent amount of rainfall so far this year and our food plots are going good. Maybe a little behind last year but rainy month is June. Good thing in my area is the wetness brings out the frogs like crazy....but the mosquitos are way down around our house so the frogs get a pass. Dog decided to give one a try and spit it out then started foaming at the mouth like Cujo! Oh, to be young and dumb again instead of just dumb. :)
Clarification: Mentioned OK as it's West of the Mississippi
Luckily there aren't any huge whitetails for anyone to want to come here and hunt!
From: swede
04-Jun-21
I am thinking this may be a great year to sit water holes.
From: Whocares
04-Jun-21
I'm sittin a water hole right now. 97 degrees here. No tellin what's in the mug.
From: Whocares
04-Jun-21
Screwed that up. Now u know what's in the mug!
From: Zim
04-Jun-21
Oh well I guess this is the lone positive about not drawing any western hunts this year! Lol. Not a farmer but crops looking pretty good here in the Midwest so far. Did draw a couple great hunts here.
From: Whocares
04-Jun-21
From: Whocares
04-Jun-21
Lotta work messin with u guys! Guess I'll just go refill the mug.
From: JL
04-Jun-21
JL's Link
From: Whocares
04-Jun-21
Finally!
Finally!
From: nmwapiti
04-Jun-21
SE New Mexico is the worst I can recall in my lifetime. Areas that always had standing dry grass are bare dirt. The Sacramento mountains looked pretty bad during turkey season too.
From: Hank_S
04-Jun-21
Whocares…dang, livin’ the dream!!!
From: 'Ike' (Phone)
04-Jun-21
Lakes out here are ‘ponds’ already…Going to be ugly!
From: Huntcell
05-Jun-21
All trophy hunters are doing points only this year, mega bucks and bulls will be mega inches smaller this fall.
From: Zim
05-Jun-21
Oh well I guess this is the lone positive about not drawing any western hunts this year! Lol. Not a farmer but crops looking pretty good here in the Midwest so far. Did draw a couple great hunts here.
From: welka
05-Jun-21
Could be rough on antler mass, weak 3rd/Swords. Pick your closest water hole to bedding that you can sneak into am/pm and hopefully they will be elk magnets.
From: AZ8
05-Jun-21
It's looking pretty bad here in AZ. If our monsoon season falls short, we're in a world of hurt.
From: LUNG$HOT
06-Jun-21
The front range here in Colorado has had the wettest spring in years. Totally green with lush growth everywhere. Anything west of the continental divide is in severe drought! Heard they closed the Yampa river completely to fishing. Strange year.
From: nmwapiti
07-Jun-21
Made it up to my local southern Utah deer area over the weekend. Not good. Water holes are already drying out. Deer are up high. That usually happens in July. I'm guessing because the water down low is already gone. Not sure what it will mean for the hunting, but deer are in for a tough year.
From: Mule Power
10-Jun-21
I learned a lesson about dry years last season. Elk have to drink. No matter what. It was amazing how low they were last year. You always hear about those little pockets close to the road that people overlook. That’s where they were. Antler growth wasn’t as good but once you found the elk it was nice because you could get to them reasonably easy from base camp.
From: HDE
10-Jun-21
2004-2005 was even worse. "Experts" claimed it would take 10 years of above average snowpack to rebound. Next winter was record breaking snowfall and came back to normal in one year.
The only thing predictable about weather patterns and climate is mankind doesn't know jack about how to control it...
From: Grey Ghost
10-Jun-21
Controlled river flows in the Colorado Basin are all less than 25% of normal, with no projected increases. Not looking good for fly fishing season, damnit.
Matt
From: jjs
10-Jun-21
The moon orbit is going to be move to solve this crises :)
From: mrelite
10-Jun-21
I went and looked at 8 water catchments in a NM Gila unit yesterday, 2 of which had full tanks with working drinkers the others were bone dry, one spring area had some water but very little grass around it, 3 other springs had no moisture at all. The mountain range as a whole was critically dry with zero green grass anywhere.
From: Pop-r
10-Jun-21
Parts of southern CO as wet as ever and very green!
From: DL
10-Jun-21
I wish I’d have got drawn for my Ca archery elk tag this year instead of 2019. There had been a wet winter and there were water holes everywhere. If you got drawn this year just find water. Of course if you find it there will be a half dozen trail cameras on it already.
From: LUNG$HOT
11-Jun-21
The front range here in Colorado has had the wettest spring in years. Totally green with lush growth everywhere. Anything west of the continental divide is in severe drought! Heard they closed the Yampa river completely to fishing. Strange year.
From: Grey Ghost
11-Jun-21
Yep, Colorado is like 2 different states depending on which side of the Divide you are on.
My buddy floated his drift boat down the Colorado River, near Kremmling, last week. Normal flows this time of year are around 2000 cfs. It was flowing at 400 cfs when he floated it. He said it was "boney as hell", and he had to get out and drag his boat over the shallowest areas. Basically it's not floatable in a hard-sided boat, right now. This is the first time since 2012 that the river has been this low at this time of year.
Matt
From: Tilzbow
11-Jun-21
My local warm water reservoir that’s normally at 250,000 to 300,000 acre feet by now only reached 130,000 this year in mid-April then began dropping. The water never touched the boat ramps so fishing this water wasn’t an option at all this year unless you’re willing to drag a small boat to the water’s edge.
Should make for good water hole hunting, as previously mentioned, if you’re able to find an unoccupied tank.
From: StickFlicker
20-Jun-21
From: 'Ike' (Phone)
20-Jun-21
Nice…They just keep banging out houses around here though! #dumbasses
From: BIGHORN
20-Jun-21
It's suppose to rain here in the Denver area tonight. Hope that we get a downpour.
From: jingalls
20-Jun-21
In 16A NM scouting now. We’re getting some scattered rain now. Not enough to fill water holes. But enough to fill mud holes in the 2 tracks. It will make some much needed grass turn green. Keep praying for more rain!
From: ELKMAN
21-Jun-21
It is bad here in Wyoming...
From: BIGHORN
21-Jun-21
Only got 2 tenth at our house last night.
From: Mule Power
21-Jun-21
Meanwhile twice a week in Pa…..
From: 12yards
22-Jun-21
I'm concerned about EHD and Blue Tongue for the area I hunt. Seems to be worse in drought years.
From: BIGHORN
24-Jun-21
Wow, here in the Denver area we just got 6/10th of an inch in less than 10 minutes. What a downpour!
