Wyoming Area 7

Wyobowhunt · Jul 1, 2012

This Might not be a great tag to have this year with all the fires. I was up Friday night helping evacuate a friends cabin and that fire was moving so fast. Going from over 8 square miles to over 58 in a days time is not good.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 1, 2012

75,000 so far.

moseleymiddleton · Jul 1, 2012

0% contained three fires have burned in the area this year

Wyobowhunt · Jul 1, 2012

This one has burned everything around the cow camp fire.

ICMDEER · Jul 2, 2012

CATASTROPHIC. That's the only word to describe it. We're losing some of our very best hunting ground as I type this message. It will take decades of ecological succession for it to become the quality habitat is is now - if it ever recovers. The fire is so hot it is leaving a tragedy in its wake.

And this is only one of many fires, and it's only the 2nd of July. Tough year.

Triple_BB · Jul 2, 2012

Wonder if any of them would let you hunt if you came down and helped fight the fires. Knowing some of those folks, probably not...

Wyobowhunt · Jul 2, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Jul-02-12 AT 09:22PM (MST)[p]82000 and growing. So sad. The answer to your question about fighting the fire and getting to hunt is a big NO with the people the fire is burning on. But that is the last thing on my mind when i was up helping move people out and clear cutting around a couple cabins.

brdhuntr · Jul 2, 2012

Does anyone know if the fire has affected the wagonhound creek area? Thanks

Wyobowhunt · Jul 3, 2012

No it has not.

ICMDEER · Jul 3, 2012

You can check the following website/link to see most of the fires in Wyoming. The fires (Arapaho and Cow Camp) have burned over 90,000 acres in elk area 7 as of now. Just had a friend/outfitter call my wife at home and see if we should talk about trying to get people to turn in licenses and get G&F to defer them to next year. Lots of buildings lost, lots of young wildlife lost, lots of cattle lost. Again, DEVASTATION is a good word to describe it.

http://www.inciweb.org/state/52/

Wyobowhunt · Jul 4, 2012

Jim,
Do you think they would defer them for next year?

TOPGUN · Jul 4, 2012

Unless the G&F would close an entire unit down for some reason, they would not issue any refunds or defer tags. An individual almost has to be on deaths door with official medical paperwork saying he can't hunt in order to get a refund.

ICMDEER · Jul 5, 2012

Not sure. There's a lot of habitat lost so that is definitely a consideration. With the dry year and a lack of forage production, a tough winter could be really bad. Our biologist is a reasonable guy and works closely with landowners. There could be special meetings or dispensation.

I would not speculate or even make a guess as to what will happen right now. We just lost more of a great ranch yesterday, but I'm hoping this monsoon will slow things down and allow the firefighters to get it contained.

I'm convinced the fire burned so hot that the effect on mule deer will be bad. I have serious doubts that the brush species will resprout as they would in a cool fire or prescribed burn. With the loss of mahogany and bitterbrush, plus the sagebrush, it will be some time before the area recovers. Look at the area just north of the Sybille Unit where they let it burn about 10-12 years ago. It's still cheatgrass and a little sumac. Not much there for wildlife.

As you know, we still can't get up there right now. I'll go up next week and we'll have a better feel for the situation.

The land I manage for UW burned and I am hopeful UW will take quick action to set up a demonstration on what can be done to improve habitiat and watersheds right after a fire of this sort.

Best of luck to everyone.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 5, 2012

Thanks Jim for posting. This fire was very hot and I'm sure we lost a ton of young wildlife. Some of the pictures I have show very little if anything except dirt left where the fire went. I have an area 7 tag and a lot of the area I hunt burned. The sad thing is that a lot of ranches that provide great cover and food sources also burned and will not be the same in my life time. Sorry to see how much of twin pine burned.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 6, 2012

65% contained 97,000 plus burned. Mother nature gave us a little break. .4 to 1.3 inches of rain yesterday over the fire.

Califelkslayer · Jul 8, 2012

I have a Unit 7 elk tag this year and need to research if the fires affected where I was going to hunt, BUT 2 thoughts.

First, why reduce tags if the carrying capacity has shrunk?

The "Moonlight" fire burned over 100,000 acres just south of my house in 2008. The mule deer are off the hook there the last few years. Fantastic production and horn growth. That fire was very hot in spots and other areas it stayed on the ground. Willows and other brush have out grown their original size. IMO fire is a good thing long term.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 9, 2012

This one was so hot, not going to be good food sources for mule deer for awhile.

Wyokcb · Jul 10, 2012

What do you guys think this fire will do for other areas in 7? Do you think the elk will be on more alert or spook easy? Do you think their is going to be a lot of dead wildlife up their even ones that got away but the smoke killed them? My wife and I drew this tag this year and we hunt right next to Toltec so I'm curious if it's worth it or try other areas?

Wyobowhunt · Jul 10, 2012

I will let you know. Im going up to scout just past Toltec this week. Since both of my Honey Holes have burned up.

BlastNCast · Jul 13, 2012

Wyo Any updates? Just wondering if you have gotten back from scouting?

I was looking at buying a mytopo map for this unit but it is actually 2 maps because the unit is so big. I was just wondering with the fires if it was worth buying 2 maps North and South? They are pretty spendy so any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

chipc · Jul 13, 2012

You sound like me - whining about a $20 map while driving a $30,000 pickup and carrying a $2,000 rifle.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 15, 2012

Sorry haven't been back on. Seen lots of elk and even a couple toads that will end up being in the 350 plus class. I was shocked that the horn growth looks to be good. Im not staying it is great but we saw other 50 bulls and the older bulls all had good growth. I also went up and helped move our friends stuff bad up to there cabin and was shocked at how hot the fire burned and how few pockets it left. When you are talking about maps I would recommend getting the one for GPS from the Wyoming game and fish website. It works great.

TOPGUN · Jul 15, 2012

I hope they know that what you're talking about is an SDmicrochip that only goes in Garmin GPS units. IMO it's better if you buy it right off the company website and it's registered in your name and you get a free update the first year. I bought the BLM one for $80 that only has land ownership and not actual owner names like the $100 one that is being sold on the G&F website.

Wyobowhunt · Jul 16, 2012

Yes you have to have a garmin sorry forgot to mention that.

BlastNCast · Jul 17, 2012

OK so I can see that they have the fire 88% contained according to inciweb. My prayers go out to all those affected by this fire and fires all over the west as it has been and continues to be a very destructive season. Prayers for rain have been answered in most places.

Just curious of how many here on MM has hunted this tag before and what your experience was with so much of the land being private?

I am also curious to know if anyone has drawn this tag this year and is going to turn it back in due to the fire?

If someone was to hunt this tag in the archery season what would be the best week to hunt it?

WYO- when you went out scouting and helped your friend move back into their cabin were your travels restricted?I see there are still hotspots and wondering if they have road blocks to get to the places to scout?

Thanks for your time!

TOPGUN · Jul 18, 2012

"I am also curious to know if anyone has drawn this tag this year and is going to turn it back in due to the fire?"

Unless Wyoming closes a unit down to the people that drew the tag, the G&F doesn't allow you turn a tag back in after you've drawn it. The only way is to have a severe enough health problem wher a Doctor will write a letter stating that you are physically unable to hunt. It's not easy to get a refund and if you do you would go back in the draw the following year on an equal basis wiuth others having the same number of PPs.

wyobaldy10 · Jul 20, 2012

Hey fellas I was curious if anyone knows if the cow creek access off esterbrook road by Toltec was hit with the burn? I drew this tag and with work I have not made it up to check it out so let me know if you guys know anything. Thanks!

Kyle

gil_wy · Jul 30, 2012

It looks like the east side of the cow creeks by bear creek burned... as far as access goes, public land was limited to begin with and a huge portion of that fire was public, so you're going to pack even more hunters onto limited space... I can't even imagine how big a zoo the black mountain area will be this year...

ICMDEER · Jul 31, 2012

I also heard that somewhere between 500-750 elk crossed I-25 and are now on the east side if it. Talked with one rancher over there that said he had 450 elk on one center pivot last week. Not much hay before and now none left.