Show group reports on deer Situ situation atlon the group studying the deer situation in san juan county completed its two week investigation with a meeting in blanding on the evening of april 19 with the people of san juan county who desired to present their views and deer problems studies were made of the spring fall range and winter range odthe deer around the monticello district of the li sal national forest and on the grazing service and private lands D M gaufin represented the state fish and game department district grazier harley handy the grazing service and julian R thomas the forest service twelve days were spent in the areas accessible only with h arse and pack outfits at this season and one day out from blanding by car the deer are widely scattered from the fringes of snow to the lower end of the cedars it is evident we have many more deer than has previously been officially thought they have wintered in h good condition and few dead deer w were ere seen forage on the zone between the upper summer range and the lower winter range are very poor practically all browse is closely hedged much of it dying out from overuse over use this is particularly true of bitter brush which v h i ch i is s one of the deers favorite b browse n w s e p plants I 1 a n t s some study plots were set up and plant photographs taken details of the invests investigation aaion are to be presented to the state and government agencies for management I 1 purposes I 1 there is very little snow in the j mountains mountain s and many of the springs are running about the amount of water they do in later summer dark canyon was dry a year ago it was running a large stream of water about this same time the late storms furnished sufficient m moisture so that feed was growing well and caused enough runoff to put water in many of the reservoirs |