WILDLIFE

The combination of almost 3 million acres burned in the past three years and deep snow in some areas will weigh heavily on some wildlife populations. Mule deer are likely to be the most obviously impacted. Much of the burned area was mule deer winter range. With the loss of sagebrush and other shrubs, the mule deer winter range value of these burned lands is mostly to completely lost until the shrubs recover. Where sagebrush was the common shrub natural recovery usually takes decades.