MULE DEER WORKING GROUP MEETING MINUTES
Deer/Elk Workshop ~ Canmore, Alberta
May 11, 2015 (1-5pm)
Chair – Jim Heffelfinger, Arizona Game and Fish Department
Attendees
Jim Heffelfinger (Chair-AZ), Cody Schroeder (Scribe-NV), Justin Shannon (UT), Ryan Darr (NM),
Andy Lindbloom (SD), Andy Holland (CO), Andrew Walker (BC), Kevin Downing (Alb), Nils
Anderson (Alb), Natalka Melnycky (Alb), Jessica Lockhart (Alb), Grant Chapman (Alb), Gerry
Kuzyk (BC), Paul Lukacs (UofMT), Toby Boudreau (ID), Jerry Nelson (WA), Sara Hansen (WA),
Josh Nowak (UofMT), Todd Black (Deseret Ranches), Amber Munig (AZ), Steve Belinda (Bear
Tooth Strategies), Miles Moretti (MDF), Mark Hurley (ID). Call-ins: Daryl Lutz (WY), Don
Whittaker (OR), Lloyd Fox (KS), Matt Pieron (ID)
Mule Deer & Movement Barriers Document
Jim Heffelfinger
Brian Wakeling is putting the final touches on this document. It has been reviewed by the
MDWG and when a complete draft is ready it will be sent out to external reviewers in the hopes
of getting comments back and incorporated in time to send to the directors ahead of the summer
WAFWA meeting to be approved in July.
Range-wide Black-tailed and Mule Deer status
Gerry Kuzyk
We discussed changes and improvements to this status to make it more useful and reviewed
suggestions from the Salt Lake City MDWG meeting. Gerry will write an email request to the
MDWG and finalize it with input from Heffelfinger and send out to the group with last year’s
status in WORD and an excel spreadsheet to make responses easy and consistent. The deadline
for updated status information will be early June. We would like to make these a little more
standardized and will request the following in this year’s status update:
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Each agency needs a figure depicting some type of index to population abundance. This
could be a population estimate, and abundance index or simulation, harvest trend, or
other. A sentence or 2 should describe how this abundance index was derived. Include
any special notes if needed to explain changes in estimation procedures, reasons for odd
numbers, years, or other issues.
Harvest
Buck:Doe ratio trend
Recruitment trend
Survival rates
Management Objectives or Harvest Strategies used to adjust seasons or permit levels
(hunter success rates, population estimate, B:D ratio, recruitment guidelines, etc)
Current population level in relation to goals or objectives (i.e., at objective, below
population objective)
Rangewide Mule Deer Survival Analysis
Paul Lukacs
Paul Lukacs (U of Montana) attended the meeting to discuss our desire to collaborate on a rangewide mule deer survival analysis. Paul made a presentation to the group to outline what he sees
as the benefits, uses, and challenges of such an analysis. The group sees this information as
being very useful to wildlife agencies to help predict mule deer population performance, improve
model usefulness, and guide survey and monitoring programs. A data sharing agreement would
be drafted for all collaborating agencies to explain exactly what the telemetry data would be used
for and any restriction for use. If agencies were concerned about data security, they can stipulate
that the data cannot leave the University of Montana unless they approve it. A similar project
was conducted for elk (W.E.R.C.) and several publications are finished or coming soon. There
are several parallels to this project and it serves as a template to start with, however this mule
deer project would be much more complex because of the number of radiocollars that have been
used across the West.
We will request data from states and Universities with some sideboards to make sure we are
getting useful data. We don’t want to waste anyone’s time standardizing datasets that won’t be
used in the end. Sideboards for datasets might include things like a minimum number of years of
data collected consistently, no survival data from animals that were translocated, and some years
that were anomalies may have to be eliminated. We would include data from bucks, does, and
fawns wherever available. Paul doesn’t have an estimate of how long this would take because it
is dependent on how much data is available. The first step is to query the
states/provinces/universities and see what is available. After that we can formulate a plan of
attack, timeline, specific objectives, budget, and potential sources of funds. Paul will draft a
summary of the proposed work and a suggested agency query that the MDWG can comment on
before being sent to potential collaborators. The initial draft query will be sent to the MDWG in
time for a further, more-detailed discussion at the summer WAFWA meeting.
BLM Planning 2.0 letter
Jim Heffelfinger
This letter will be sent to the BLM Director Neal Kornze to urge the BLM to add specific
language to the planning handbook they are revising to require that they consider migration
routes, movement corridors, stop-over areas, and transitional ranges as critically important
habitat components (i.e., not just to reference that these are features that “can be” considered).
Jim distributed a revised draft of the letter to the MDWG via email before the meeting and to
those in attendance at the meeting and discussed a few comments received already. A few very
good suggestions came in. This letter will be finalized and sent to the directors in early June so
they can review it and run it by their staff in preparation of asking for final approval at the
summer meeting in July. When we send it, we need to include physical copies of the key
MDWG products referenced in the letter.
Mule Deer Fact Sheet Status/Timelines/Reviewers
A draft “Winter Range Disturbance” Fact Sheet will be finished by Andy Holland and Justin
Shannon and sent to Jim by July 1 so it is available to share this first draft with the directors at the
summer meeting and sent to the MDWG for internal review.
The “Shed Antler Hunting” fact sheet written by Daryl Lutz is being reviewed by the MDWG now
and those comments will be incorporated so a draft can be sent to external subject matter experts for
review by May 30th. We will try to get this fact sheet reviewed in time to send to the directors midJune for approval at this summer’s WAFWA meeting. The group discussed whether this Fact Sheet
should include a mention of Commercial Use Permits on public land and hobby use vs. commercial
purposes.
The “Fertility Control” (Heffelfinger) and “Forestry Practices” (Jesse Shallow) Fact Sheets are in
external review now and will be finalized by June 12th so they can be sent to the directors for
review and staffing so they will be ready to vote to approve them at the summer meeting.
We brainstormed a few more potential topics for future fact sheets:
o Antler Development
o OHVs?
o MD vs WT competition
o WT x MD hybridization
Mule Deer Book
Steve Belinda
Steve mentioned that the book “Mule and black-tailed deer of North America” edited by Charlie
Wallmo is outdated and in need of an update. MDF will discuss this with the Wildlife Management
Institute because they still hold the publishing rights. The MDWG and our network of collaborators
represent the expertise needed to produce an update. This is a serious undertaking, but it is needed
and if not us, who will? We will discuss this more at the July meeting after further discussion with
WMI.
North American Deer Summit 2015
Jim Heffelfinger
Jim Heffelfinger reported on the recent North American Deer Summit held in Louisville, KY. It
was well-run and attended by a good mix of hunters, state agencies, NGOs, Industry, and a few
from academia. It was heavily whitetail, but they want to bring in a heavy mule and black-tailed
deer influence next time. Jim sent the MDWG his trip report with all the details of that meeting.
Micronutrients
Justin Shannon
Justin Shannon asked the group if anyone had experience and knowledge of any detrimental effects
from livestock producers using mineral blocks in deer habitat. There has been some concern voiced
in UT about these negatively affecting deer through the intake of too many micronutrients. No one
at the meeting had heard of any such detrimental effects.
Review of Action Items
 Brian Wakeling will finish the Mule Deer and Movement Barriers document and get it to
Jim to send out for external review.
 Gerry Kuzyk and Jim Heffelfinger will get a request to MDWG member to update the
state/provincial status reports.
 Heffelfinger will send Gerry Kuzyk a jpg map of mule deer range.
 Paul Lukacs will write up an explanation of the mule deer survival analysis work and a draft
inquiry to state/provincial agencies and academia to see what survival data may be
available. This draft inquiry will be reviewed by the MDWG before going out.
 Heffelfinger will made final edits to the BLM 2.0 letter and send to the directors in midJune for them to review and be ready to approve at the July WAFWA meeting.
 Andy Holland will submit a draft Fact Sheet on Winter Range Disturbance by July 1.
 Jim Heffelfinger and Jesse Shallow will incorporate all external review comments in the
Fertility Control and Forestry Practices (respectively) Fact Sheets and send to directors by
June 12th for review and to be ready to approve at the summer meeting.
 Daryl Lutz will incorporate the internal MDWG comments on the Shed Antler Hunting fact
sheet by May 30th to be sent out for external review.
 Miles Moretti and Steve Belinda will talk to WMI about the updating of the Wallmo mule
deer book.
 Heffelfinger will send everyone the guidelines and format of Fact Sheets
 Ryan Darr will produce a draft Fact Sheet for “PJ Thinning or Habitat Manipulation.” This
is what we called it, but I may need everyone to weigh in on this topic. Should this be on
habitat improvement for mule deer? A summary overview of all the habitat manipulations
that can be done, or just stick with the topic of PJ Thinning?
 Jim Heffelfinger will make sure Daryl Lutz has all internal comments on the Shed Antler
Hunting Fact Sheet.
 Jim Heffelfinger will send an email to any external Fact Sheet reviewers we have not heard
from to get their reviews in.
 Jim Heffelfinger will send latest draft of Fertility Control Fact Sheet to Andy Holland
 Jim Heffelfinger will send latest draft of Forestry Fact Sheet to Toby Boudreau so he can
ask a staff member to review it in place of Jim Hayden.
Next Meeting
Our MDWG meeting at the summer WAFWA meeting in Reno will be the 2 afternoons after the
plenary session. We will meet Monday, July 20th 1-5pm and also Tuesday, July 21st 1-5pm. An
agenda will be forthcoming in June, please send any agenda items you’d like to see addressed.