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No winter damage to wildlife

The letter I just received from the director of WGFD, along with my elk license, states: "Wyoming's elk population is near an all-time high and other big game populations are on the rebound."

So was there a bad winter or not? Is the director clueless or not?

I don't think the elk (they're pretty tough) took the hit that the deer and antelope did and it depends on what part of the state you're talking about. The western mountains got hammered. More average for the rest of the state.

Most of the other game animals are coming back, but there was a definite loss of a lot of deer and probably antelope in the nw and sw sections of Wyoming west of the Continental Divide in certain spots.

So would you say the Red Deaert area pronghorn may not have been hit too hard?

Talked with a few guys this past weekend at the Bowhunters of Wyoming banquet that said Rock Springs region got really hammered. They did say the farther east you got from there it got better so it might not be quite as bad. Had one guy from Rawlins say it was fairly average so probably in between the two responses.

OK, thanks.

Fremont County and Wind River ranges got hammered hard. Lots of dead deer and antelope, even some elk being found winter killed. Wolves also got a lot of animals all over the county.

What units had bad antelope kills?

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