the early 1950's. At this time, a liberal, two deer either sex 

 hunting season was established to help curtail the population 

 growth and align the deer population with the available winter 

 habitat. The population appears to have remained fairly stable 

 until the construction of Libby Dam and the extensive logging of 

 the winter range during the late 1960's and 1970's, at which time 

 available data indicate a population decline took place. 



Population estimates were made by the Montana Department of 

 Fish and Game for the Kootenai Management Unit and the U.S. Forest 

 Service for the Kootenai National Forest and the various ranger 

 districts. These estimates gave a fair indication of the general 

 population trends over time; however, they were for the most part 

 based on the best professional judgement of the field personnel and 

 were usually not based on survey data. Some extensive winter 

 surveys ha' e been conducted throughout the various winter ranges, 

 and they give a better estimate of the wintering deer populations 

 on the Fisher River-Wolf Creek and Kootenai River winter ranges. 

 These studies are summarized in Table 2. 



The density estimates show there are three distinct areas 

 within the winter range, each having a different density of win- 

 tering white-tailed deer. The lower Fisher River area is 58 per- 

 cent of the total winter range (U.S. Dep. Agric. 1956) and supports 

 a majority of the white-tailed deer population. The upper Fisher 

 River has a lower density of deer and the areas used as winter 

 range are not as concentrated as in the lower Fisher River unit. 

 Ihe final area is the Gateway to Jennings unit along the Kootenai 

 River which received the greatest impact from the project. Based 

 on the findings of Zajanc (1948), this area can be sub-divided into 

 three segments. Of these three areas, the northern and southern 

 segments contain both white-tailed deer and mule deer winter range, 

 while the middle segment, from Ural north to Sutton Creek, contains 

 only mule deer winter range. The middle segment, because of its 

 rough, broken topography, is not as conducive to wintering white- 

 tailed deer as is the remainder of the Kootenai River bottom. 



4) Assessments of Impacts 



Five major impacts have had detrimental effects on the white- 

 tailed deer population within the Libby Dam project area: 



1) Construction of Libby Dam and inundation of the impoundment 

 area; 



2) Construction of Highway 37 and the Forest Development 

 Road parallel to the reservoir; 



3) Relocation of the Burlington Northern Railroad along 

 the Fisher River and V7olf Creek drainages; 



4) Logging of a large portion of the remaining crucial 

 winter range; and 



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