Just outside of Soda Springs, Idaho, is a unique place with many names: Some call it Soda Springs Hills or shorten it a bit to Soda Hills.  Others, who apparently like numbers, 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. Fifty-six students and three teachers teamed up with a few folks from the Bureau of Land Management's Pocatello Field Office and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Together, they planted 1,300 mountain-mahogany seedlings in Ninety Percent Canyon to improve the fire-scarred habitat.

Why the effort?  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 holds 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. The area not only provides thermal cover for weathering the cold and snow it also provides a refuge from disturbance.

Soda Hills, which the Bureau of Land Management manages, was at one time composed mostly of private land. In the 1990s, plans for land in the Idaho Ranch Canyon area of Soda Hills included subdividing acreage for housing. Concerned with losing this critical habitat, the citizenry of Soda Springs contacted Fish and Game to see what the department could do.

Fish and Game did not have a funding source at the time to buy the property. However, through a cooperative effort among Shoshone Bannock tribes, BLM and Fish and Game, BLM eventually purchased private properties throughout the Soda Hills area for public use. That acquisition included properties in Idaho Ranch Canyon, Swenson Canyon and Ninety Percent Canyon.

With the agreement of the Shoshone Bannock tribes, the Bonneville Power Administration provided BLM with BPA wildlife-mitigation funds to purchase the initial properties. Soon after, BLM purchased some adjacent properties by using money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. These two acquisitions added 3,500 acres of public land to the Soda Hills area.

David Pacioretty, field manager for the BLM's Pocatello Field Office, said acquiring these private properties resulted in a “two-fold benefit.” “The public gained access to the land,” he said, “and wildlife, particularly mule deer, were provided important winter-range habitat that would remain undeveloped."

Pacioretty said the Soda Hills area plays an important role in the success of mule-deer herds in southeast Idaho. The area’s value to wildlife, he said, led BLM to participate in the habitat-improvement project in April with Soda Springs High  School. BLM has also adopted seasonal road closures and other motorized-travel restrictions for Soda Hills to protect area wildlife.

For mule deer, a winter range functions to provide refuge from disturbance, as well as to provide thermal cover and vegetation for browsing.  Every step a deer takes to avoid contact with people or other disturbances causes the animal to burn necessary fat reserves, which nature intended to help the animal survive the winter.

Spring is an especially crucial time of year when deer are most vulnerable.

The deer have nearly depleted their fat reserves by that time and are exerting their energies 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 domestic dogs "on the chase." But motorized disturbances are particularly problematic for mule deer. Research shows these disturbances compromise the ability of mule deer to make efficient use of otherwise suitable habitat near roads and trails.

Research at the Starkey Experimental Station in Oregon has shown that disturbances from motorized-vehicle use affect elk at a distance of a half-mile. Although these disturbances have less of an effect on mule deer, they generally moved to other areas that may have been less suitable. The deer also 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 Nov. 16 to May 15. And because of the bounty of public land in southeast Idaho, plenty of options exist 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 follow:

·      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 harmful to wildlife — and it is against the law.

Sometimes land-management strategies, such as road closures, can be a bit contentious, especially when dealing with a multitude of users in a land of multiple uses. But by benefitting wildlife, these strategies also benefit those in Idaho who value the wildlife resource, whether for hunting or viewing opportunity or both.

Planting bitterbrush and mahogany to improve habitat and obeying rules regulation travel on roads and trails are just a few of the ways you can be a good neighbor to mule deer and other wildlife in Idaho. To learn more about other projects underway to improve the survival of mule deer populations, and how you can help, go to http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/hunt/mdi/.

For additional information, contact David Pacioretty, manager, Pocatello Field Office, Idaho Falls District, Bureau of Land Management, at (208) 478-6340, or Jennifer Jackson, regional conservation educator, SE Region, Idaho Fish & Game, Pocatello, Idaho, at (208) 232-4703.

Related Link: http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/fo/pocatello.1.html