Critters looking for new homes after Waterfall fire

Burned and displaced bears and snakes, the potential loss of a fishery and hundreds of malnourished deer are just a few of Waterfall fire's effects on wildlife.

Carson City residents are also feeling the effects as they attempt to manage the homeless critters without getting hurt.

Lakeview Estates resident Sunny Woods said she and her neighbors have driven their cars over at least five rattlesnakes on Combs Canyon Road within the last two weeks.

The fire burned away the reptiles' habitat, she said, and they have nowhere else to go but her neighborhood. The sudden surge in snake encounters is disconcerting in an area where she's used to seeing one to three rattlesnakes per year, so Woods attacks them with whatever is handy, including shovels, rakes and her car.

"They propagate. Imagine a rattlesnake biting a 2-year-old in your back yard," Woods said. "That's why I kill them."

Kelly Clark, conservation and education chief for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said snakes, rodents, birds and black bears are flocking to small pockets of forest left undamaged by the Waterfall fire, including residents' yards.

Six bears have been found going through trash bins in the Clear Creek area in recent weeks, she said.

Tuesday afternoon, residents of Incline Village reported a black bear jumping fences and rambling through back yards along Lakewood Road.

A bear-denning area near Snow Valley Peak west of Carson City was burned over, Clark said, so the bears are being forced to move.

Vic Jordan said he shot his gun into the ground to scare a black bear out of the sunroom of his Washoe Valley home on Saturday night, while Lakeview resident Stella Moran found a bear, which she nicknamed "Smokey," living under her father's porch a day after the fire's was contained. After about a week, the bear moved on to inspect other homes.

In addition to displacement, several animals were severely burned in the fire and had to be euthanized, Clark said.

One fawn with burned hooves, nicknamed Knolla for the street in Kings Canyon where she was found, was rescued by Reno firefighter Ben Rupert. Knolla is healing nicely at an animal refuge outside Dayton.

"She's got a fair amount of damage, but she's doing well," said Evelyn Pickles, who cares for more than 80 injured and displaced animals at her home on Imperial Road.

While Knolla is faring well, other deer may not be so lucky. Clark said Nevada Department of Wildlife biologists are concerned that deer migrating through burned areas in future months will have severely diminished food sources.

Approximately 300 mule deer migrate from the upper mountain areas to the Virginia Range every year, and this fall they will have to travel through burned areas.

"If they don't have a place to forage, they will arrive in a weakened condition," Clark said. "You can anticipate much thinner deer this fall."

Local fish couldn't escape the heat, either. According to Nevada Department of Wildlife Biologist Pat Sollberger, the entire population of 300 brook trout hatched earlier this year in the Ash Canyon Creek fishery may not have survived when flames raised water temperatures to approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It was a very hot fire," Sollberger said, "and brook trout are cold-water fish. When they were stocked, the water temperature was only 57 degrees, and a lot of trout can't tolerate temperatures over 70."

Because of the risk of disturbing severe erosion caused by the fire along upper Ash Canyon Creek, scientists have not attempted to test Ash Canyon Creek for living fish, but Sollberger said the odds of trout survival are slim.

He said long-term effects of the lost fish population will only bother anglers looking for a good catch. But the erosion, he said, will probably require additional filtering measures by the city.

In the meantime, most residents cope with animal intrusions by calling the Nevada Department of Wildlife, animal control and police. Taking preventative measures against trespassing bears, such as securing trash in bear-proof bins, also helps. For some residents, preventative measures include basic pest control.

"My father always used to say the only good snake is a dead snake," Woods said. "He was right."

Contact Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.