i'll add one more thing.. food plots are MUCH more popular here now and only adding to the nutrition of the critters that come down from the mountains especially in the winters.. I know one ranch that feeds over 200 elk a winter.. with standing winter wheat and alfalfa ... yes its a big controversy but personally I see more elk numbers since the ranch is just over the mountain from my place.. each spring the elk disperse out of that southern facing ranch and over into my northwestern facing property.. mine and my neighbors ... the cows seem to like to calf over near our places.. cooler and thick thick timber behind my place...we hold them on our places with oat plots.. dang do they taste good after feeding on oats all summer .. and oats last much longer than alfalfa here.. they last into Nov .... Alfalfa/clovers, etc all dry up and are done in late August early Sept if they are not irrigated..

So to make a long story short.. Logging plantations scattered all over the mountains combined with low land privateplots offer up great feed year around for the critters... if it wasnt for our hvy predation/harsh wintersthis country would be ridiculous in deer and elk #'s