Wildlife feeding continues at Tex Creek WMA

Haystack depredations are on the rise after the winter storms from the last two weeks.

This is due to large herds of elk having a hard time finding food and are eating into the profits of landowners, like crops and hay.

Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) encourages these landowners to move haystacks out of high depredation areas if possible, because winter feeding order and feeding operations have been implemented.

It has been five months since the Henry’s Creek Fire and eastern Idaho is still being affected by the aftermath.

“Particularly in our area, we’ve had the complications of the Henry’s Creek Fire guttered our Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area.” Gregg Losinski said, “Lots of prime winter range for deer and elk was destroyed, which meant that we had to come up with an emergency feeding plan that we normally wouldn’t do.”

Losinski is the regional conservation educator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

He explained that department personnel are feeding about 3,500 to 4,000 game animals because of the lack of food that was lost in the fire

“The reason we’re feeding the elk is not that they’re starving at this location; it’s mainly to keep them from getting into trouble on private lands with agricultural operations and stored crops, as well as keeping them off the highways for human safety,” Losinski said.

Every road that goes into the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area has been closed so that this could be put into place. It also keeps from stress being added to the animals.

However, the challenge IDFG has run into is trying to convert the animals from eating a natural forage to eating an agricultural product, for example, hay. This requires different bacteria in their gut to digest and this takes time for their bodies to adjust to.

“Sometimes, you could give them food, but it won’t be of any benefit, and then the other problem you have is getting them all together to feed, which a lot of times they won’t cooperate. Even if they all are in the same place, then we have to deal with the problem that we put the food out and then the big bucks come along and push the females off or the females come along and they push the young fauns off,” Losinski said.

There are many different ways landowners can prevent the wildlife from getting into trouble.

“In some places, we’ve built permanent stack yards, which are hard fences that are put up. Other places were using temporary barriers, like the tarps or the special plastic of fencing. And then in other cases, we’re actually using volunteers to go out and haze the animals to physically keep them away from all the stored hay,” Losinski said.

Idaho Fish and Game provides mesh-like plastic fences. This is important so that the hay is protected and wildlife have a hard time getting into it. If they do, it creates a danger zone for landowners and the animals itself because since they eat from the bottom, the hay is prone to topple over and hurt someone.

Deer, however, are not having as much of a problem foraging for food, especially for the Upper Snake River Region, but Fish and Game agents are monitoring them on a weekly basis.

IDFG also encourages farmers to not feed the animals because of concerns of bringing wild animals close to domestic animals. Losinski said this is not a good thing from a disease-potential standpoint. He said IDFG would like to work with farmers and landowners to try to protect the haystacks, which also helps deer stay out of trouble.

However, IDFG is also trying to avoid making a problem for next year, because even if the deer do not need to be fed this year, they will remember where the food was provided come next winter. Losinski said IDFG is being cautious about this so that a problem in the future is not created.