Southern Part of Egin-Hamer Closure Set to Open

The southern portion of the Egin-Hamer closure is set to open on April 1, but part of the St. Anthony Sand Dunes will remain closed until May 1 to protect wintering deer. Though winter appears to be winding down, natural resource managers at the Bureau of Land Management and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are working to ensure that wintering mule deer herds at the St. Anthony Sand Dunes are not erased by a wave of recreational off-highway vehicle riders eagerly awaiting the traditional April 1 opening of the active dunes north of the Egin-Hamer Road. The BLM, at the request of Fish and Game, has announced that the opening of the western portion of the active St. Anthony Sand Dunes is being postponed until May 1, when the remainder of the Egin-Hamer closure traditionally ends. The rest of the southern part of the area will open at sunrise on May 1. "Winter conditions have resulted in deeper than average snow and have required the supplemental feeding of over 800 deer," Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Steve Schmidt wrote in a letter to BLM field-office manager Wendy Reynolds. "Even with all this effort some deer will die of malnutrition, but delaying the opening of the remainder of the dunes until May 1 will allow deer the security they need until the snow disappears." Fish and Game employees and volunteers have been hauling feed pellets to about 800 of the more than 2,000 mule deer that have been wintering at the St. Anthony Sand Dunes. Fish and Game has enough pellets on hand to feed until the start of April and will buy additional pellets until the animals are able to move onto natural vegetation as greenup occurs. The request to extend the closure was supported by the Upper Snake Winter Feeding Advisory Committee. The volunteer committee is headed by Dr. Kent Marlor of Rexburg. It was at the request of the feeding advisory committee that IDFG began the supplemental feeding of mule deer at designated sites across the region. "The emergency closure order is structured so that if weather conditions improve and the snow level declines so that the deer can move out of the area, then we can lift the closure early," Reynolds said. The Egin-Hamer Closure Area south of the Egin-Hamer Road will open on schedule at sunrise on April 1. Maps of the closure are available at the regional Fish and Game and BLM offices in Idaho Falls. The closure is patrolled by law enforcement officers from BLM, Fish and Game and the Fremont County Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's department has been able to use an ultralight aircraft to fly over the area to track closure violators. While the closure will benefit mule deer, questionable snow and sand conditions on the dunes also make riding by OHVs potentially dangerous until all the snow is gone.