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Oregon Mule Deer Trout Creek Migration Corridors

The Trout Creek mule deer herd is composed of residents and migrants that make short-range elevational migrations. Mule deer mainly winter at lower elevations surrounding Blue Mountain and the slopes of the Oregon Canyon Mountains. In spring, some of these mule deer migrate to higher elevations in the Oregon Canyon Mountains. Other members of the herd winter in the southwestern portion of the herd’s range, inhabiting areas near Hawks Mountain, the Pueblo Mountains, and the foothills of the Trout Creek Mountains. These mule deer migrate to summer ranges on the crests of Holloway Mountain and the Trout Creek Mountains. Notably, one mule deer formerly wintering on the Trout Creek Mountains migrated south from a summer range on the Nevada border to the Montana Mountains during the second documented winter before returning to Oregon in spring. Habitat on winter ranges consists of A. t. wyomingensis (Wyoming big sagebrush) plant communities and non-native annual grasslands. Summer ranges consist mainly of native grasslands, mountain big sagebrush plant communities, and mountain shrub communities. The Trout Creek mule deer herd faces several threats, including summer wildfires, highway barriers, and competition for resources. In 2012, the Holloway fire burned 462,017 acres (186,972 ha) including most of the Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains, resulting in the temporary loss of shrub cover at higher elevations and conversion of native forbs and shrubland to invasive annual grasses at lower elevations. Although no migratory mule deer attempt to cross U.S. Highway 95, some resident mule deer have ranges spanning the busy highway, which had an AADT value of 2,095 vehicles in 2018. The Trout Creek mule deer herd also borders the Barren Creek Complex HMA to the north and the Beaty Butte HMA to the east (DOI and BLM, 2020; BLM 2022). The Barren Creek Complex HMA contains approximately 2,500 feral horses while the Beaty Butte HMA contains 463 horses. Both feral horse populations surpass the respective maximum appropriate management levels of 892 and 250 horses, respectively, suggesting that mule deer and horses compete for resources in the few areas where ranges overlap. These mapping layers show the location of the migration corridors for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Trout Creek population in Oregon. They were developed from 40 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 10 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 5 hours.

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Author(s) Matthew J Kauffman orcid, Blake H Lowrey orcid, Chloe Beaupre orcid, Scott Bergen, Stefanie Bergh, Kevin Blecha orcid, Samantha Bundick, Hunter Burkett, James W Cain orcid, Peyton Carl, David Casady orcid, Corey Class, Alyson B. Courtemanch orcid, Michelle Cowardin, Jennifer Diamond, Catherine Dugger, Orrin Duvuvuei, Joanna Ennis, Julien Fattebert orcid, Michelle Flenner, Jessica Fort, Gary Fralick, Ian Freeman, Jeff Gagnon, David Garcelon, Kyle Garrison, Emily Gelzer, Evan Greenspan orcid, Valerie Hinojoza-Rood, Pat Hnilicka, Andy Holland, Brian Hudgens, Bart Kroger, Art Lawson, Cody McKee, Jennifer A McKee, Jerod Merkle orcid, Tony W Mong, Haley Nelson orcid, Brendan Oates, Marie-Pier Poulin orcid, Craig Reddell, Robert Ritson, Hall Sawyer orcid, Cody Schroeder, Jessie Shapiro, Scott Sprague, Alethea Steingisser, Erik Steiner orcid, Sam Stephens, Patrick R Swazo-Hinds, Blair Stringham, Nicole Tatman, Benjamin Turnock, Cody F Wallace orcid, Don Whittaker, Benjamin Wise, Heiko U Wittmer orcid, Katerina D Wood
Publication Date 2024-04-10
Beginning Date of Data 2020
Ending Date of Data 2022
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9SS9GD9
Citation Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., Beaupre, C., Bergen, S., Bergh, S., Blecha, K., Bundick, S., Burkett, H., Cain, J.W., Carl, P., Casady, D., Class, C., Courtemanch, A.B., Cowardin, M., Diamond, J., Dugger, C., Duvuvuei, O., Ennis, J., Fattebert, J., Flenner, M., Fort, J., Fralick, G., Freeman, I., Gagnon, J., Garcelon, D., Garrison, K., Gelzer, E., Greenspan, E., Hinojoza-Rood, V., Hnilicka, P., Holland, A., Hudgens, B., Kroger, B., Lawson, A., McKee, C., McKee, J.A., Merkle, J., Mong, T.W., Nelson, H., Oates, B., Poulin, M., Reddell, C., Ritson, R., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Shapiro, J., Sprague, S., Steingisser, A., Steiner, E., Stephens, S., Swazo-Hinds, P.R., Stringham, B., Tatman, N., Turnock, B., Wallace, C.F., Whittaker, D., Wise, B., Wittmer, H.U., and Wood, K.D., 2024, Oregon Mule Deer Trout Creek Migration Corridors: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9SS9GD9.
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Metadata Date 2024-04-10
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Citations of these data No citations of these data are known at this time.
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2024-04-23T14:55:09.619Z