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Wildlife Division highlights habitat work after Monroe Fire; says collared elk and deer largely spared
Summary
Division staff told the Utah Wildlife Board that habitat treatments and partner work limited animal losses after the Monroe Fire; staff plan fall seeding and rehabilitation and said more than 300 collared deer and elk remain accounted for.
Director Riley Peck told the Utah Wildlife Board on Aug. 22 that recent habitat work and partner investments limited the ecological damage from this year's largest wildfire in the state, the Monroe Fire.
"If you look at that black line, that black line is the fire boundary," Peck said while showing maps of burned areas and earlier habitat treatments. He credited conservation partners and prior habitat projects with helping slow and limit the fire’s effects.
Peck said the Division has more than 300 collared deer and elk in the Monroe, LaSal, and Pine Valley units and that "to date, we have not lost a single animal due to fire or smoke inhalation." He cautioned that the collars are a sample and that some individual animals may still be lost.
Why it matters: the Division presented the burned-area mapping to show that earlier chainings, prescribed burns and other habitat treatments can reduce fire spread and protect wildlife habitat over time. Board members and staff framed the work as both an emergency response and a long-term conservation investment.
Supporting details: Peck described a before-and-after view from a habitat tour showing a 2016 prescribed burn area that remained green while adjacent untreated terrain burned. He said habitat staff plan fall seeding and other rehabilitation where conditions allow and urged partners to keep contributing to on-the-ground habitat work.
Division staff also described operational decisions taken after the emergency board session earlier this summer, including authorizing special hunt permits and outreach so hunters could use those short-notice harvest opportunities. Peck said the Division had received positive feedback on the emergency permit process.
Ending: The board did not take a formal vote on the update; staff said they will return with post-rehabilitation reports and harvest outcomes as the fall field season proceeds.
