[ODFW-News] Excellent 2004 deer season shows value of a southwest Oregon travel management area to hunters and big game

[ODFW News]

For immediate release
Thursday, January 6, 2005
 
Contact: Information and Education 503-947-6002
Fax: (503) 947-6009
Web: www.dfw.state.or.us 

Excellent 2004 deer season shows value of a southwest Oregon travel
management area to hunters and big game  

MEDFORD - Nine years after its creation the Jackson Access and
Cooperative Travel Management Area is proving to be a benefit to both
wildlife and hunters. The proof is in the results.

"Our black-tailed deer season was really good this year," said
Central Point-based Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat
biologist Vince Oredson. "Our buck ratios are good this year and a lot
of bucks were taken."

The Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel Management Area, also known
as JACTMA, was formed in 1995 and is comprised of about 51,000 acres of
public and private timberlands near the city of Shady Cove in Jackson
County. It was created to better manage motor vehicle access and reduce
the impacts of public use on private lands and wintering big game
animals. 

These goals typically are accomplished by forming a travel management
area, where a group of landowners come together to develop a system of
temporary and permanent road closures, law enforcement patrols and
wildlife management programs, coordinated by the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife. Landowners involved in JACTMA include Boise Cascade,
Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a number of
small private timberland owners.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife oversees a number of travel
management areas throughout the state.

There was controversy among area residents at first over road closures
and the fear that it would keep hunters and other outdoor recreationists
from accessing the properties.  Over time that perception has changed.

"I know people who used to be extremely against it, but now are
beginning to think that it's a good idea," said Oredson. 

These benefits have included less harassment of deer on their winter
range by motor vehicle use, the opportunity for hunters to get away from
motor vehicles for a higher-quality hunting experience and reduced
levels of vandalism, littering, poaching and other violations by a few
bad apples.

"It's been a good deal for Boise Cascade in terms of having Oregon
State Police patrols on the ground," said company wildlife biologist
Tim Burnett. "They are doing an excellent job of catching people who
are doing things they shouldn't be doing."

An additional benefit is the wildlife habitat enhancement work done on
JACTMA lands. These have included meadow enhancements, fertilizing and
seeding with big game forage, vegetation thinning and prescribed
burning. As a result, JACTMA properties are seeing increases in
Roosevelt elk and wild turkey populations as well as improving
black-tailed deer winter range.

One of the major financial supporters of JACTMA is the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife's Access and Habitat Program, which
began its support of the travel management area beginning in 1996 with
an $18,000 grant followed by a $52,000 grant in 1998. 

The Access and Habitat program was created by the Oregon Legislature in
1993 and is funded by a $2 surcharge on hunting licenses. Funds raised
by the program are distributed through grants to individual and
corporate landowners, conservation organizations, and others for
cooperative wildlife habitat improvement and hunter access projects
throughout the state.

Earlier this year the Access and Habitat Program awarded Boise Cascade
a $12,000 grant to encourage increased growth of forage for black-tailed
deer by removing decadent ceanothus and small-diameter white oak from 48
acres of property within the travel management area.

"The benefits of that project will be improved deer habitat and more
hunting opportunity," said Burnett.  

>From the hunters' point of view, that's the ultimate payoff of a
travel management area.

For additional information on the Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel
Management Area callODFW wildlife biologist Vince Oredson at
541-826-8774. For information on the Access and Habitat Program, call
program coordinator Nick Myatt at 503-947-6087 or visit
www.dfw.state.or.us/AH/overview.html.

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