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WINTER 1941 and 1942 



The Fish Creek-Thompson River Game Man- 

 agement Unit lies in western Montana and in- 

 cludes all of the Cabinet and a portion of the 

 Lolo National Forests. The unit boundaries, stort- 

 ing at Missoula, extend south to Lolo, Montana, 

 thence in a westerly direction following Lolo 

 Creek to the Montana-Idaho divide, thence in a 

 north-westerly direction along the State divide to 

 Divide Peak, thence north to Scotchman Peak, 

 thence in a general eastern and southeasterly di- 

 rectly along the Sanders-Lincoln county line to 

 Crystal Lake, thence to Meadow Peak and Mc- 

 Gregor Peak, thence in a southeasterly direction 

 along the Indian Reservation line to Grant Creek, 

 thence south to Missoula, point of starting. 



The terrain is largely mountainous, consist- 

 ing of the Bitterroot range, the Couer d'Alene and 

 Cabinet mountains. Timber types are generally 

 yellow pine on the south slopes, Douglas fir on 

 the north slopes, and lodgepole in the bottom 

 areas. The principal browse species are redstem 

 and evergreen Ceanothus, servicebe'rry, moun- 

 tain maple, and willow. Cheat, bunch grass, and 

 fescue make up the dominant grass coverage, and 

 associated with these low growth forms are kin- 

 nikinnick, elk sedge, and Oregon grape. 



Climatic conditions are fairly uniform over 

 the area at comparative altitudes, with snow 

 depth ranging from to 12 inches on the south 

 slopes to four feet on the north slopes at the 

 elevations used by big game. 



Mule deer on typical win 

 age. The Mountain Bolm 

 may lie seen in the for 



The management unit comprises an area of 

 about 4,000 square miles which is reduced to 480 

 square miles of usable big game winter range. 

 Of the available winter range, 256 square miles 

 was found to be under used by game, 156 square 

 miles properly used, and 69 square miles heavily 

 used. 



The principal game management problem 

 is one of redistribution, the objective being to 

 lessen the use on the heavily used areas and 

 build it up upon the under used sections. It is 

 thought that this may be brought about by care- 

 fully controlled hunting, supplemented by proper 

 and adequate salt distribution. Within the entire 

 unit, four areas were found that presented par- 

 ticular problems. These were the Fish Creek, 

 Little Joe, Thompson River, and Cherry Creek 

 winter game ranges. 



The Fish Creek area was found to have a 

 game population of approximately 1,600 mule 

 deer, 1,200 white tail deer, and 90 elk. The mule 

 deer winter range was found to be adequate and 

 would support up to 1,600 deer. The whitetail 

 range was much more restricted. Due to the lack 

 of this particular type of range, it was felt that 

 to avoid heavy winter losses the number of white- 

 tail deer to be maintained year after year should 

 not greatly exceed 500 head. A salting plan was 

 drawn up and is being put into effect. The pres- 

 ence of adequate amounts of salt upon the sum- 

 mer ranges will tend to draw the game up off 

 the badly needed winter range as quickly as pos- 

 sible in the spring, and hold them in the higher 

 ranges later in the fall. 



The most urgent problem found in the study 

 of the Little Joe Game Preserve was one of re- 

 distributing the present heavy mule deer popula- 

 tion in order to build up their numbers in adjoin- 

 ing districts and to prevent further undesirably 

 heavy use of the available winter range. Only 

 9,500 acres of the total of 65,000 acres were found 

 to be available to the deer during the winter 

 months. The foraging activities of the 2,600 game 

 animals have resulted in damage to the range 

 due to heavy use of browse plants upon exposed 

 sites. It was further indicated that the deer popula- 

 tion upon the preserve had not materially In 

 creased during the past seven years. 



