FISH CREEK- THOMPSON RIVER 

 GAME MANAGEMENT UNIT 



WESTERN MONTANA 



UNIT BOUNDARY 



> Closure- 

 preserve BOUNDARY - 



RELATIVE ABUNOANCE WINTER RANGE 

 . OVERSTOCMI 



The investigation brought out the point that 

 this heavy use of vitally needed winter forage 

 could be remedied by shifting the boundary of 

 the present game preserve to embrace a neigh- 

 boring understocked area of comparable size. 



The Thompson River winter game range con- 

 sists of the entire drainage of the river from 

 Thompson Lakes to the Clark's Fork River. The 



principal game species is the whitetail deer; there 

 are only a small number of mule deer and elk 

 in the area. The census work showed that ap- 

 proximately 2,600 whitetail deer were winter- 

 ing upon a restricted range of not over 12,500 

 acres. Only a small percentage of this area (ap- 

 proximately 500 acres) produces a substantial 

 amount of important browse plants. 



[55 



