Record Setter & Whitetail Hunting Season

Record Setter & Whitetail Hunting Season. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Is anyone surprised that 2015 was a record setting year when it comes to the fire season? The 2015 fire season was a record-setting one for Washington's Fire Service Resource Mobilization Plan. The Washington State Fire Marshal's Office coordinated assistance to local fire jurisdictions in an unprecedented 30 fires this summer, beginning on June 13 with the Cold Springs Fire in Douglas County. This year Washington state wildfires scorched over 1,005,423 acres across both the east and west sides of the Cascades. The largest fire in Washington this summer was the North Star fire in Okanogan County, which burned 218,138 acres.

The bluetongue outbreak in Idaho has taken an estimated one-thousand whitetail deer. Even so the Idaho Fish and Game doesn't see that as significantly reducing whitetail populations, or affecting hunting season that opens Saturday. Jen Bruns, Conservation Educator with Idaho Fish & Game explains.

BRUNS: If there is any issue with hunters going out and we definitely encourage them to not harvest an animal if its obviously sick and drying because this is a fairly fast acting disease. But if they do harvest one and they notice that it has hemorrhaging then they can bring it into the regional office or to a conservation officer and they can get a new tag for that animal.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.