Small herd near Sierraville and Loyalton

[6x7]

Seems like the spencville wildlife area and beal AFB would have been a good place for tule elk.

 

[ds2]

Suavegato, the Tule elk in the West Tinemaha Mountain hunt are located just below the east ridge of the sierras. This area rivals any elk country people have hunted and was so nasty, a packer would not pack his stock in there due to their danger. Helped my friend Joel this last weekend. Beautiful country, very high, trecherous long hike into the back of the Sierra's.

 

[db 183]

They were not transplanted or released.

Thanks. I thought the story sounded a little fishy but it was told to me by two different people...one that worked for the US Forest service and one from Fish and Game so I believed them.

 

[DFGELK]

Don't you know you can not believe fish and game. It is actually fairly common because fish and game has a lot of people working on many different things and most do not know what goes on in a different program. I know almost knothing about fish but people ask me about fishing regs and so on all the time. I have to refer them to someone who does know but if they ask a quick question I will give them my opinion maybe it is right or maybe it is wrong. But what happens is they will say the biologist from fish and game said... Does not matter that I am not a fish biologist. Be curious who you talked to from fish and game, warden, hatchery person, biologist?

Joe

 

[Flinch]

Joe/DFGELK,

To show my ignorance, how are the Sierra Nevada Mtns different than the Rockies in CO, WY, UT, MT, and the Mtns of Id, WA, and OR (that border and share the Cascades) with CA? Is it the lack or possible difference of surrounding habitat?

Thanks ...Mike

 

[DFGELK]

View attachment elk spread NA.doc I am not sure how they are different or to what degree those mountain ranges are different. But there are no historically records of elk in the Sierra. Oh, there may be one or two references as elk to tend to travel a lot (same with antelope in the Mojave, etc). It was most likely a distribution barrier of some sort such as the great basin, etc. Here is a map that depicts the spread of elk in North America. For what it is worth.

Joe

 

[DFGELK]

Hopefully this comes through

 

[WildlifeBranch]

Joe/DFGELK,

To show my ignorance, how are the Sierra Nevada Mtns different than the Rockies in CO, WY, UT, MT, and the Mtns of Id, WA, and OR (that border and share the Cascades) with CA? Is it the lack or possible difference of surrounding habitat?

Thanks ...Mike

Can help some-- It is also the age of the mountain ranges with the Sierra being far younger. Fly over Sierra (mostly granite or forest) compared to Rockies (large aspen parklands and open meadow areas). When we started my project near Sonora Pass in the 80s, we invited 3 of the top ungulate ecologists in the country (Phil Urness-UT, Jack Ward Thomas-USFS-OR, and Richard Mackie-MSU-MT) to spend a few days touring (poker and drinking.>> sheesh) our project area. They were surprised that we (CA) allowed domestic livestock grazing at all because of the lack of abundant foraging habitat for a grazer. Fun times. those guys were hopefully not the last of "old school" thinking. Eric

 

[Flinch]

Can help some-- It is also the age of the mountain ranges with the Sierra being far younger. Fly over Sierra (mostly granite or forest) compared to Rockies (large aspen parklands and open meadow areas). When we started my project near Sonora Pass in the 80s, we invited 3 of the top ungulate ecologists in the country (Phil Urness-UT, Jack Ward Thomas-USFS-OR, and Richard Mackie-MSU-MT) to spend a few days touring (poker and drinking.>> sheesh) our project area. They were surprised that we (CA) allowed domestic livestock grazing at all because of the lack of abundant foraging habitat for a grazer. Fun times. those guys were hopefully not the last of "old school" thinking. Eric

Thanks Eric and Joe... it make sense about the granite part of the Sierra (although the majority of it seems primarily in the YNP region - and a little N and S). Also, the map is interesting momevent seems to be least path of resistance - to CA anyway

 

[Tag Stew]

Wild Heer and I saw that same bull opening weekend, right where 49 takes that corner between sierraville and Loyalton. We too could'nt believe it, he was just hanging out with the cattle both times we saw him. kinda cool.

 

[lewdogg21]

Can help some-- It is also the age of the mountain ranges with the Sierra being far younger. Fly over Sierra (mostly granite or forest) compared to Rockies (large aspen parklands and open meadow areas). When we started my project near Sonora Pass in the 80s, we invited 3 of the top ungulate ecologists in the country (Phil Urness-UT, Jack Ward Thomas-USFS-OR, and Richard Mackie-MSU-MT) to spend a few days touring (poker and drinking.>> sheesh) our project area. They were surprised that we (CA) allowed domestic livestock grazing at all because of the lack of abundant foraging habitat for a grazer. Fun times. those guys were hopefully not the last of "old school" thinking. Eric

Very plausible explanation and it makes sense. Thank you very much for the explanation as my hunting buddies and I have speculated about this many times, partially due to a desire to have more Elk hunting opportunities in the state.