How long will it take for elk to come back to wildfire burn areas?

[Ohboytimmy]

Newbie elk hunter here. Curious to know how long before elk start to re-inhabit or utilize wildfire burn areas. Assuming it depends on location and habitat. For instance, Rockies, thick aspen 7K+ elevation areas? How long would it take for for some type of vegetation to grow? Are elk generally attracted to these burn areas?

 

[JLS]

It depends on a few things, namely the intensity of the fire and timeliness of precipitation. Even if the area is a moonscape, elk will still make use it. However, if it's a lower intensity burn, and is followed up with some rain, the next year it will be an elk magnet. Small, mosaic burns are the best because of the amount of edge cover and security.

 

[ppowell32]

It depends on how much rain you get. I have seen burns in the summer and later that fall there is green grass growing. JLS is right on the type of burn.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I don't know how long it takes, but there is a forest fire going on in or around the hamlet of Keystone and Rob Roy reservoir in Wyoming in the Snowy Range right now....last I heard it was over 1,000 acres and zero % contained.

 

[BuzzH]

I don't know how long it takes, but there is a forest fire going on in or around the hamlet of Keystone and Rob Roy reservoir in Wyoming in the Snowy Range right now....last I heard it was over 1,000 acres and zero % contained.

Its just shy of 2,000 acres.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5309/

 

[GoBeavs]

I was a FS firefighter for 8 years. It's amazing how quick animals will go into a burn...even an active one. They LOVE the minerals in the charcoal. On more than one occasion we helped folks fill tags by stopping by campsites and saying "if you go down the road XX miles to where our burn is, you will find bucks right in the smoldering burn"
Largest bull i've ever seen in central Oregon was as we hovered over him in the helo as he calmly drank from a spring in the middle of an 18K acre wilderness burn.

Fires will keep more people away than animals. I specifically target hunt areas by using fire history filters on map sites.

 

[acharenio]

I was a FS firefighter for 8 years. It's amazing how quick animals will go into a burn...even an active one. They LOVE the minerals in the charcoal. On more than one occasion we helped folks fill tags by stopping by campsites and saying "if you go down the road XX miles to where our burn is, you will find bucks right in the smoldering burn"
Largest bull i've ever seen in central Oregon was as we hovered over him in the helo as he calmly drank from a spring in the middle of an 18K acre wilderness burn.

Fires will keep more people away than animals. I specifically target hunt areas by using fire history filters on map sites.

Agree 100% after the wallow fire in Arizona the fire was still active and the elk were around it

 

[BrianID]

I've observed what others here have stated. I've witnessed animals walking around smoldering burns more than once. Several days after the burn walking around and bedding in it. Light burns are by far the best for attracting animals sooner. Stuff that burns in July will have elk in September and October. Stuff that burns this summer will be a magnet to animals next summer.