Weather tricky for hunters

Mother Nature played more of a role in the opening of this year's deer hunt than originally expected.

On Saturday, the first day of the season, some of the best hunting was in the southern region, where weather was warmer and roads drier. In the northern region, where some snow fell at higher elevations and the forecast called for more snow and colder temperatures early Saturday, hunting was slower than expected.

It appears many northern hunters chose to avoid the backcountry and higher elevations and hunted lower where there were fewer deer but drier roads.

As it turned out, there was some snow in the higher elevations in the northern areas above 7,000 feet on Friday night, but hunting conditions on Saturday were ideal — sunny and cool.

The weather also accounted for fewer hunters being checked by mid-afternoon on Saturday in northern areas. With the cooler temperatures, hunters were able to hang their game and wait until the evening or morning freeze to drive out to the highways, thus avoiding muddy afternoon road conditions.

Wildlife biologists are again checking deer for chronic wasting disease. Thus far, over the past four years, Utah has recorded 27 cases. Those cases have been confined to three areas — northeast of Vernal, in the LaSal Mountain east of Moab and near Fountain Green in the central part of the state.

This year, Leslie McFarlane, wildlife disease specialist with the DWR, hopes to collect 2,700 tissue samples to be tested, 1,000 of those from elk.

By mid-afternoon on Saturday, only four deer had been checked at the station at Pineview, said Arlo Wing, a biologist with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Despite checking fewer hunters, he said, "overall, conditions are good. Deer numbers are up in some parts of the region. Our doe/fawn ratios are higher than in previous years. With the drought possibly at an end, things are looking better in this region."

Merrill Steed and his son, Marvin, were among the four hunters checked. They hunted in the Middle Fork area and saw three deer, "which is pretty good since we didn't hunt that long," said Marvin Steed.

Scott McFarlane, big game biologist in the region, said hunting was better this year in the Morgan/South Rich and East Canyon units, and the deer checked were more mature.

"The difference (in this area) is most of the land is private and access is limited, so not as many deer are harvested. As a result, the buck-to-doe ratios are higher. It's 35 bucks to 100 does in the East Canyon unit and even higher in the Morgan/South Rich unit."