Forest Fires Emptied Wilderness Cupboards Humans Serving Up Winter Grub For Animals

Summer forest fires and a harsh winter have made food scarce for deer and other wild animals, so humans are lending a helping hand.

So far, state and federal agencies along with sporting clubs and local residents have dispensed some 300 tons of food for the creatures.

Without human intervention, many animals would not survive.

“We’ve been feeding the birds and chipmunks and squirrels and a whole lot of deer,” said Mary Pat Scofield, co-owner of Bear Mountain Ranch near Chelan.

“All their favorite trees are gone, and there is about 3 feet of snow on the ground. It’s been a difficult winter for them so far.”

The state’s largest fire last summer, Tyee Creek, burned some 60,000 acres of winter forage between the Entiat Valley and Lake Chelan.

More than 100 deer feeders have been set up in the area of the Tyee Creek fire, attracting an estimated 3,000 deer daily.

“I have not heard of any animals dying because of malnutrition so far,” state wildlife biologist John Musser said this week. “Without the feeders, we would have a real serious problem.”

The Wenatchee Sportsmen’s Association collected more than $5,000 to buy 40 tons of food for deer. The Chelan County PUD built and maintains 30 feeding stations for deer.

Jim Small, an orchardist near Entiat, has 12 feeders on his property. He has been filling the feeders twice daily but expects to do it more often as the weather turns colder.

“The deer are looking pretty good so far,” he said. “I can’t see their ribs or anything like that.”

Feeding the deer also presents a new set of circumstances - more vehicle-deer accidents, domestic dog attacks on deer and a healthy population of mountain lions feeding on deer.

Crews have planted bitter brush and other plants to feed deer next year, but the food supply will be sparse for a few years, said Camryn Lee, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service’s Entiat Ranger District.

Many small animals were killed in the fires, while larger ones often could outrun the blazes. But some big animals that escaped the fire had no range to return to this winter, Lee said.

Half of the spotted owl nest sites on the Entiat Ranger District were destroyed, and none of the federally protected birds have been seen since the fire.

“The area burned so hot that we don’t even know if birds made it out,” Lee said. “Each of the pairs of birds had at least two young in the nest. If the young birds couldn’t fly, the parents wouldn’t have left them.”