There's No Place like Home

By Jennifer Jackson, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Just outside of Soda Springs is a unique place known by many names; some call it Soda Springs Hills; others may shorten it a bit and call it Soda Hills. Then there are those who apparently like numbers and refer to the area as the Ninety-Percent Range. Whatever people call the area, mule deer call it home. At the end of April, students from Soda Springs High School decided to help their mule deer neighbors by giving their home a little "remodel." Together, 56 students, three teachers and a few folks from Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Bureau of Land Management's Pocatello Field Office planted 1,300 mountain mahogany seedlings in Ninety Percent Canyon to improve the fire-scarred habitat. Why the effort? Because there really is no other place like Soda Hills in southeast Idaho. "This is not an average piece of real estate as far as mule deer are concerned," said Paul Wackenhut, regional lands manager for Fish and Game. "There is something special about how the topography, the aspect, and the elevation of this area come together to make it the place to be if you are a mule deer." This is especially true during the winter and spring. The best indicator of how well a mule deer is going to survive the winter is the amount of fat the animal is carrying on its body going into the winter. But what helps a mule deer make the best use of its fat reserves is an optimal winter range like the Soda Hills area which provides thermal cover for weathering the cold and snow and provides a refuge from disturbance. Soda Hills is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and was at one time composed mostly of private land. In the 1990s, when plans for land in the Idaho Ranch Canyon included subdividing acreage for housing, the citizenry of Soda Springs contacted Fish and Game to see what could be done to prevent the loss of this critical habitat. Fish and Game did not have a funding source at that time to buy the property. Through a cooperative effort among Shoshone Bannock Tribes, the BLM, and Fish and Game, private properties throughout the Soda Hills area, including that in Idaho Ranch Canyon, Swenson Canyon, and Ninety Percent Canyon were eventually purchased. The initial properties purchased in the Soda Hills were funded with wildlife habitat mitigation funds from Bonneville Power Administration to BLM in agreement with Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Soon after this acquisition, the BLM purchased some properties with Land and Water Conservation Fund money adjacent to these BPA-funded properties. The result was an addition of 3,500 acres of public land in the Soda Hills area. "There was a two-fold benefit to acquiring these private properties," said David Pacioretty, field manager for the BLM's Pocatello Field Office. "The public gained access to the land and wildlife; particularly mule deer were provided important winter range habitat that would remain undeveloped." Pacioretty says the Soda Hills area plays an important role in the success of mule deer herds in southeast Idaho, and because of its value to wildlife BLM participated in the habitat improvement project in April with Soda Springs High School. That is also why BLM has adopted seasonal road closures and other motorized travel restrictions for Soda Hills. A function of winter range is not just to provide thermal cover and vegetation for browsing, but to provide a refuge from disturbance. Every step a mule deer takes to avoid contact with people or other disturbances causes the animal to burn necessary fat reserves intended to help the animal survive the winter. Spring is an especially crucial time of year when deer are most vulnerable. Their fat reserves are nearly spent by that time, and energies are being exerted to find food as it becomes available. Any extra activity or unnecessary movements, such as running from the sound of a vehicle, can ultimately result in death. Disturbance can come in any form - ATVs, snowmobiles, trucks, foot traffic or domesticated dogs "on the chase." But typically, motorized disturbances are particularly problematic for mule deer. Research shows that the ability of mule deer to make efficient use of otherwise suitable habitat near roads and trails is compromised. Research at the Starkey Experimental Station in Oregon has shown that elk are affected by motorized vehicle use at a distance of a half mile. The effects on mule deer were not as pronounced, but deer generally moved to other areas that may have been less suitable - and expended energy to do so. That is not to say that everyone has to park their vehicles at home all year long. The roads in the Soda Hills area are open parts of the year when the deer are less vulnerable. Typically road closures in Soda Hills run from November 16 to May 15. And because of the bounty of public land in southeast Idaho, there are always plenty of options for enjoying the great outdoors from off-road vehicles throughout the year. A few rules for motorized travel on roads and trails on public lands:

• Respect road closures.
• Check with the land managers or pick up an official travel map before heading out.
• Never pioneer new roads or trails.
• Never intentionally harass or chase wildlife with your motorized vehicles. It is not only harmful to wildlife, it is against the law.

Sometimes travel issues can be a bit contentious, especially when dealing with a multitude of users in a land of multiple uses. But because land management strategies, such as road closures benefit wildlife, they also benefit those in Idaho who value the wildlife resource, whether for hunting or viewing opportunity or both. There are many ways to be a good neighbor to the mule deer and other wildlife that share their homes with us - from planting bitterbrush and mahogany on the hillsides to obeying the rules regulating travel on roads and trails. Jennifer Jackson is the regional conservation educator in the Southeast Region.