[ODFW-News] Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel Management Area offers excellent deer and turkey hunting for the 2005 seasons

[ODFW News]

For Immediate Release Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005
 
Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel Management Area offers excellent
deer and turkey hunting for the 2005 seasons
 
CENTRAL POINT - The outlook is bright for late season archery deer
hunters and fall turkey hunters who plan on hunting the Jackson Access
and Cooperative Travel Management Area within the Evans Creek and Rogue
wildlife management units.
 
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. 
 
Landowners involved in JACTMA include Forest Capital Partners, Bureau of
Land Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a number of small
private timberland owners.
 
"Deer are starting to move out of the high country earlier this year
because we've had some big storms, cold and snow at the higher
elevations," said ODFW Habitat Biologist Vince Oredson. 
 
Because the Jackson Access and Cooperative Travel Management Area is
winter big game range, the deer are funneling down onto the area as cold
weather sets in. ODFW surveys are showing lots of black-tail deer
working their way into the Long Branch and Camel Hump areas. 
Buck ratios are excellent as well, with up to 60 bucks per 100 does. 

"Our buck ratios are great this year," said Oredson. "We have lots of
big, healthy bucks and forked-horns, too."
 
The late season archery deer hunt in the Evans Creek and Rogue wildlife
management units run from Nov. 5 to Nov. 27. Late season archers should
be aware that the Elk Creek to Lost Creek Lake area is in the Dixon
management unit, which is not open for the late deer archery season.
 
Elk populations are fair and bull ratios are good, but hunters did not
do as well as hoped during the general elk rifle season. The weather was
wet and rainy, but not enough to help hunters. Then it warmed, which
tends to send the elk to the shade of timbered areas where they are more
difficult to locate. 
 
The upcoming Southwest Cascades elk muzzleloader season, which runs from
Nov. 12 - Nov. 18 offers elk hunters another shot. Colder, stormy
weather usually sets in for this late season hunt, which should give
hunters an advantage over earlier hunts. 
 
"The elk are out there," said Oredson. "Hunter success depends largely
on finding the right weather conditions."
 
JACTMA has a very good population of wild turkeys, and fall is a prime
period to hunt them here as they tend to travel in flocks during this
time of year and may be found in oak trees, gobbling acorns or on the
edge of meadows eating fall green-up forage.
 
"It might take a bit of work to find them," said Oredson, "but once you
do they are in big flocks and are not as wary as they are in the spring,
so they are easier to approach."
 
The area also boasts outstanding populations of mountain quail, which
frequent brushy fields and overgrown clear-cuts.
 
The general fall turkey season runs through Dec. 31. The mountain quail
season closes Jan. 31, 2006. 
 
One of the major financial supporters of JACTMA is the ODFW'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 A&H Program has regularly providing grants to cooperatively
manage the area ever since. These grants fund law enforcement patrols
during hunting seasons and habitat enhancement projects throughout the
year. This helps keep the area open to public use and provides for high
quality hunting experiences.
 
The A&H Program 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.
 
Maps showing open roads and welcome to hunt areas are available at the
ODFW Rogue Watershed District Office, 1495 East Gregory Rd., Central
Point and at ODFW headquarters, 3406 Cherry Ave. NE, Salem.
 
For more information about hunting this property contact the ODFW Rogue
Watershed District Office at (541) 826-8774. For information on the A&H
Program call program coordinator Nick Myatt, 503-947-6087 or visit the
Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us/AH/.
 
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