Good & Bad... No Snow!!!

Two weeks ago I took my 4 year old daughter with me to check on the family cabin in the Ogden unit. I was surprised at the lack of snow. We saw lots of deer on the drive up South Fork Canyon between the mouth of the canyon to the parking lot. This was her first time on the snowmobile and I wasn't sure how she'd take it. I thought she was crying as we cruised along the road, but turns out those were little squeals as we hit the "washboards" on the trail. http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/IMG_0281_zps3b60ea96.jpg" alt="" />
The hillside across from the cabin is usually an unblemished blanket of several feet of powder... this year there were several south facing slopes even at that elevation that were bare. http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/IMG_0282_zps07e772af.jpg" alt="" />
All of the deer (and even a couple elk) looked to be in very good shape, but I am starting to fear for this summer. I get that the mild winter is nice for the animals but this summer's wildfire season, etc. could be scary if we don't get some more snow.
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MuleyMadness
Nice pics, I agree Derek the Snow Pack in Southern Utah (Western) isn't great at all either. We need a really wet spring down here. [-o<
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waynedevore
Heavy snow and prolonged snowpack is not wildlife friendly, especially if your talking elk and deer. Heavy snow pack concentrates animals and their Winter food supply. Open Winters with little snow does benefit especially deer and elk.
Worried about drought and wildfires? Think Spring, Summer and Fall rains. Winter snow has not much to do with it.
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ridgetop
"waynedevore" wrote:Heavy snow and prolonged snowpack is not wildlife friendly, especially if your talking elk and deer. Heavy snow pack concentrates animals and their Winter food supply. Open Winters with little snow does benefit especially deer and elk.
Worried about drought and wildfires? Think Spring, Summer and Fall rains. Winter snow has not much to do with it.
 This is true. Right now things are looking very good for this years herds.
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derekp1999
The animals are in good shape... but come June/July/August without some additional moisture I may not care too much about that. My post was more of a commentary on the potential for extreme fire danger this upcoming summer. With several hundred thousand dollars and 30+ years of memories attached to that mountain our worst nightmare would be for a careless individual or mother nature to set the mountain a blaze... and conditions appear to be prime for just such an occasion coming off of a relatively poor winter and long hot summer last year as well. The recent storms have helped calm some nerves, but I'm not feeling out of the woods yet. I'd love to see cool, wet spring like that of 2009-ish.
However, if we get through it unscathed (as is the hope) I'm looking forward to potentially one of the best hunting seasons in recent history especially after seeing so many young bucks on the muzzy deer hunt, so many does with fawns (and most of them twins) that will provide a new crop of young bucks, and 6 mature bucks that had made it through the deer seasons during the muzzy elk hunt.
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