squirrel
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
- Messages
- 696
Ok so I was out on a mountain thinking as opposed to picking up antlers, as there were none to pick up...
10-15 yrs ago a ranch sold for a paltry 25-30 million and the new owner went on the war path against sage brush... I was told he 'hated it" which is strange as he just bought an unbelievable amount of it...
He paid an enormous amount to have it brush hogged down, as in thousands of acres of it. It had previously been a winter home to 200- 500 bucks, depending on the severity of the winter, almost 0 does, (kinda like a horn hunter's paradise).
I had had permission to hunt on it for antlers and was thrown off by the new owner's staff, but continued to watch as it transformed in two yrs from a (buck) deer winter range to an elk/antelope range. The deer just vanished, the elk and antelope just hung out in exactly the same draws-flats, and have continued to do so for over 10 yrs now, as the sage slowly re-establishes some of it's previous glory. Keep in mind that by brush-hogging it down it does not die but is taken from waist high to ankle high with intact root system
I had been led to believe that re-generation of the ecosystem would re-invigorate all the "good stuff" and all of God's creatures would thrive. Now a decade+ later the deer are gone, you can watch all winter and literally not see a one where there once were multiple hundreds, now whether they were displaced or eliminated is a separate question.
Do any of you on here have any FACT-BASED input or insight on this??? I've long since considered it just another delusional example of textbook biology vs. real world biology, it would be interesting if I had another 50-60 yrs to watch and see if when it gets to 3' high the others disappear and it morphs back into a buck only winter range, I will let you know when I am 127...
10-15 yrs ago a ranch sold for a paltry 25-30 million and the new owner went on the war path against sage brush... I was told he 'hated it" which is strange as he just bought an unbelievable amount of it...
He paid an enormous amount to have it brush hogged down, as in thousands of acres of it. It had previously been a winter home to 200- 500 bucks, depending on the severity of the winter, almost 0 does, (kinda like a horn hunter's paradise).
I had had permission to hunt on it for antlers and was thrown off by the new owner's staff, but continued to watch as it transformed in two yrs from a (buck) deer winter range to an elk/antelope range. The deer just vanished, the elk and antelope just hung out in exactly the same draws-flats, and have continued to do so for over 10 yrs now, as the sage slowly re-establishes some of it's previous glory. Keep in mind that by brush-hogging it down it does not die but is taken from waist high to ankle high with intact root system
I had been led to believe that re-generation of the ecosystem would re-invigorate all the "good stuff" and all of God's creatures would thrive. Now a decade+ later the deer are gone, you can watch all winter and literally not see a one where there once were multiple hundreds, now whether they were displaced or eliminated is a separate question.
Do any of you on here have any FACT-BASED input or insight on this??? I've long since considered it just another delusional example of textbook biology vs. real world biology, it would be interesting if I had another 50-60 yrs to watch and see if when it gets to 3' high the others disappear and it morphs back into a buck only winter range, I will let you know when I am 127...