Mule deer numbers find new normal as CPW works to address challenges

Meeker-area hunting outfitter Shawn Welder had just come down from the high country in the Flat Tops in mid-July and was struck by the absence of something he would see as a teen when doing guiding up there.

Back then, it wasn't uncommon to see groups of what he and others would call timber bucks up in the tundra, perhaps gathered around clumps of willows.

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sentinel file photos

A mule deer buck is shown with antler velvet. The latest total mule deer estimate in the state is about 416,000, and populations in the state over the past decade have held fairly stable at about 420,000, says Andy Holland, big game manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Christopher Tomlinson

A group of deer keeps a watchful on their surroundings.

In an effort to restore habitat, Colorado Parks and Wildlife worked with the Bureau of Land Management to reseed about 20,000 acres that burned in the 2020 Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Junction.

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Measures are being taken to protect deer habitat, including mitigation of development impacts, predator management, impacts of highways on movement and mortality, reducing recreation impacts, disease monitoring and regulating doe hunting in areas with low populations.

"The last two times I've been up there, over a two-year period, I didn't see a single buck. For me, being up in that country, that kind of struck me as a big change." — Hunting outfitter Shawn Welder