02-16-2007, 05:14 PM
The February 12 season closure is one of the earliest on record.
HYRUM — The Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area hosted a near-record number of visitors in December.
Now, just six weeks, warm weather has forced the staff at the ranch to close its winter elk-viewing season early.
The winter elk-viewing season at the ranch east of Hyrum closed Feb. 12. That's more than a month earlier than normal.
"We've had a strange winter," says Dan Christensen, the WMA's superintendent. "Last week, after five days with afternoon temperatures near 50 degrees and bare ground, the elk on the meadow headed back to the high country."
Christensen says this is one of the earliest closings on record at Hardware Ranch, where the winter season usually runs until mid-March. During a typical three-month winter season, as many as 50,000 visitors come to the ranch to ride in horse-drawn sleighs among several hundred elk that are fed in a large meadow area.
"Like many of the ski areas and other winter operations in Utah, the really poor snow conditions, coupled with frigid temperatures, hurt us in January," Christensen says. "After that, we just never got most of the storms that dropped snow along the Wasatch Front."
The other problem at the ranch is thick, sticky mountain mud. The spring melt caused by higher than normal temperatures, coupled with a few days of rain, have made it impossible to pull wagons full of passengers through the meadow. When the ranch's staff did take passengers through the meadow recently, the weight of the wagons cut deep ruts in the ground and the mud bound clumps of hay to the wagons' wheels.
"People are asking if we'll reopen this season," Christensen says. "Without snow and subzero temperatures, there's really no reason for the elk to come back or stay here. And without the elk, there's not enough up here for people to see this time of the year."
When asked what will happen next at the ranch, Christensen rattled off a list of chores.
"We would rather be doing the rides, but with the ambitious schedule of education programs and habitat improvement initiatives at Hardware Ranch, we'll just change direction and start working on these other items a little sooner," he says.
"We have education programs scheduled through the end of February, and in March we start the first full season of an exciting new education partnership with the Bear River Bird Refuge in Brigham City."
Other chores on the list include getting ready to turn nearly 1,000 cattle onto Hardware Ranch in April as part of a range improvement study; completing a water development project funded by the Mule Deer Foundation; building nearly 10 miles of fence along the ranch's boundaries; hosting summer handcart treks; changing and adding displays in the ranch's visitor center, using money provided by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; and completing a year-long maintenance program designed to bolster the ranch's aging facilities.
"We may be closed to the general public for a while, but we do a lot of things up here with various groups throughout the year," Christensen says.
For more information, call the Hardware Ranch WMA at (435) 753-6206 or visit the ranch-s Web site at [url "http://hardwareranch.com/"]HardwareRanch.com[/url].
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HYRUM — The Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area hosted a near-record number of visitors in December.
Now, just six weeks, warm weather has forced the staff at the ranch to close its winter elk-viewing season early.
The winter elk-viewing season at the ranch east of Hyrum closed Feb. 12. That's more than a month earlier than normal.
"We've had a strange winter," says Dan Christensen, the WMA's superintendent. "Last week, after five days with afternoon temperatures near 50 degrees and bare ground, the elk on the meadow headed back to the high country."
Christensen says this is one of the earliest closings on record at Hardware Ranch, where the winter season usually runs until mid-March. During a typical three-month winter season, as many as 50,000 visitors come to the ranch to ride in horse-drawn sleighs among several hundred elk that are fed in a large meadow area.
"Like many of the ski areas and other winter operations in Utah, the really poor snow conditions, coupled with frigid temperatures, hurt us in January," Christensen says. "After that, we just never got most of the storms that dropped snow along the Wasatch Front."
The other problem at the ranch is thick, sticky mountain mud. The spring melt caused by higher than normal temperatures, coupled with a few days of rain, have made it impossible to pull wagons full of passengers through the meadow. When the ranch's staff did take passengers through the meadow recently, the weight of the wagons cut deep ruts in the ground and the mud bound clumps of hay to the wagons' wheels.
"People are asking if we'll reopen this season," Christensen says. "Without snow and subzero temperatures, there's really no reason for the elk to come back or stay here. And without the elk, there's not enough up here for people to see this time of the year."
When asked what will happen next at the ranch, Christensen rattled off a list of chores.
"We would rather be doing the rides, but with the ambitious schedule of education programs and habitat improvement initiatives at Hardware Ranch, we'll just change direction and start working on these other items a little sooner," he says.
"We have education programs scheduled through the end of February, and in March we start the first full season of an exciting new education partnership with the Bear River Bird Refuge in Brigham City."
Other chores on the list include getting ready to turn nearly 1,000 cattle onto Hardware Ranch in April as part of a range improvement study; completing a water development project funded by the Mule Deer Foundation; building nearly 10 miles of fence along the ranch's boundaries; hosting summer handcart treks; changing and adding displays in the ranch's visitor center, using money provided by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; and completing a year-long maintenance program designed to bolster the ranch's aging facilities.
"We may be closed to the general public for a while, but we do a lot of things up here with various groups throughout the year," Christensen says.
For more information, call the Hardware Ranch WMA at (435) 753-6206 or visit the ranch-s Web site at [url "http://hardwareranch.com/"]HardwareRanch.com[/url].
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