Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) biologist, Liz Bradley gave a presentation at a recent Mineral County Commissioners meeting. Every spring she does elk and deer surveys in Mineral County for Hunting Districts 200-203, 260 west, and 283 west for Region 2. This is her third year of flying with Mark Musick of Minute Man Aviation. Musick has been doing these surveys since late 80s and she commented that it was nice to have that consistency with same pilot for so many years.

“It’s a fun time of year for me to get out and count the elk during the spring green-up,” she said. “This is when there’s a lot of lush grass and which draws elk out of the mountains and they congregate at the lower levels. This is especially important for this area (Mineral County) because there isn’t a lot of wide open spaces to see them.”

With this short window of time it gives the agency a good sense of the trend of the populations. In which they count the total number of elk and the calves and bulls to cow ratio. Her districts include area 201 near Frenchtown to highway 93, then Interstate 90 to through the St. Regis corridor down the Clark Fork to the Flathead Reservation.

Since 1980 the total elk count has been on a steady increase with a few years where there was a dip in populations. But overall, it’s been a steady increase and they are currently above their objective in most areas. There were 881 elk counted which is above their objective but this was down slightly from last year. There were 25 calves per 100 cows which is pretty average and 16 bulls per 100 cows. The objective is to have at least 10 bulls per 100 cows “and so this is a good ratio,” Bradley said.

FWP gets harvest data from phone surveys and from the survey bull harvest has gone up since 2015. The 2016 harvest results are not available yet. In the Tarkio area 167 elk were counted and the population has been pretty stable in recent years. In the last couple years the count had dropped a little but overall the trend is pretty stable, Bradley reported.

“We have increased the antlerless permits in the area to bring the herds down a little bit for landowner tolerance because they do cause land damage,” she said. “There has also been reports from hunters that it is difficult to find elk on public land in this area.”

On the west end from Deep Creek to Four Mile to north of St. Regis the populations have been down but now the numbers are trending up with 197 elk counted. District 203 runs along the Missoula valley along highway 12 to Lolo Pass with the western boundary of Fish Creek and north boundary I90. Recent years have been trending up above objectives within 20 percent. In prior years the numbers had been below the objective but now trending upward with 1,000 elk with a steady number of bull harvested.

Historically the majority of the elk could be found on the west side of this district. But then the elk started to shift to the east side and have increased significantly over the past few years. Petty Creek on the east side had a count of 52 elk, with 63 counted in the Cyr area.

Petty Creek had about 54, and Bradley said there has never has been a lot in this area. On the north end of this district there was 153 elk counted near Alberton and 206 near Frenchtown. South of Frenchtown, 94 were counted and further south, 135, with 108 on the Lolo Creek side. A lot of the elk move into the mountains in the fall on the east end which is great for the hunters. There was also a record number of elk counted in the Lolo drainage south of district, “we are seeing the elk come back in this area,” she said.

In the Fish Creek area they are just not seeing the high numbers anymore. Overall in Districts 202 and 203 there has been an overall decline in numbers. However, Fish Creek is still a great place to hunt white tail and mule deer. At the Fish Creek check point in the fall, Bradley saw a lot of trophy bucks taken from the area.

Because of the harsh winter Bradley noticed a lot of white tail and mule deer in poorer condition and the fawn ratio was a little lower than in the past. But not as bad as it could have been because of the harsh winter.

District 202 is St. Regis through Fish Creek; Cold Creek and Thompson Creek; Cougar Creek to Quartz Creek; Northfork of Fish Creek to Williams Peak. The overall objective is around 350 and several years ago they saw a decline in populations and it had remained low. But over past few years they’ve seen a steady increase and area is now close to their objectives for elk. Cougar to Quartz had 109 elk which was the same as last year. Here they would like to see 50 to 100 elk. Bradley said she will double number of permits in that area from 15 to 30.

North of Fish Creek to Williams Peak the count was 15 where they would like 50 to 100 elk. However in the spring a lot of this herd are on the Cyr flat in District 203. “This is a difficult area to get a good count because of the elk movement and several go into the timbered areas,” Bradley said.

Cold Creek to Thompson Creek had a count of 213 where they would like to see 200-300. This area had been low for a number of years and now they are above their objective. In District 202, 17 calves per 100 cows were counted which is low for this area and 15 bulls per 100 cows. Bradley said this is a tough area to hunt because of the terrain however the numbers have remained stable over past several years. They did see some spikes in 2005-2006 and then a decline and now steady numbers.

Statewide the wolf count peaked in 2011 with 650 reported. Currently there are 477 indicating that harvesting is making a difference in wolf populations. There are 45 wolves in 11 packs in Mineral County located at Silver Lake, DeBorgia, Lost Peak, Cache Creek, Quartz Creek, Savenac, Taft, Olson Peak, Sunrise Mountain, Petty Creek and Mineral Mountain. The high for wolves was 74 counted in 2013.

With hunting and trapping Bradley said that it is important to find the “sweet spot” between the number of wolves versus the elk and deer herds.

“What we’ve seen and what they’ve seen in Idaho, is that there is more predation with mountain lions than with wolves with elk in some areas. And so when looking at predation, we need to keep in mind that there are more than just wolves out there,” said Bradley.

One thing they have noticed is a decline in pack size due to harvesting and this seems to have a big impact on elk and livestock predation.

“We need to see what else is going on to see the bigger picture. We increased the quota for mountain lions in this area,” she said.

In Districts 200/201 there was a quota of 20 lions and in Districts 202/203 the quota was 30 lions. This year 22 lions were harvested in Districts 202/203, and 12 harvested in 200/201. The black bear spring hunt is underway and runs through June 15. Bradley said a lot of studies show that bears are the main predator on spring elk calves and are also an important piece of the picture during that time of year.

Overall, the number of hunters in all of Mineral County districts have seen a declining trend in recent years but there isn’t a clear understanding as to why. There will be some early scooping regarding hunting in the county with a formal scoping in August where public comment will be taken. Some changes Bradley is looking at is to increase antlerless white tailed deer and antlerless elk permits in Districts 201 and 203. She would also like some discussion on turkey hunting with the idea of putting them on the general license rather than special license.