Fire near East Canyon tore through a recently expanded 'critical' wildlife habitat

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Rocky Canyon Fire affected a critical wildlife habitat near East Canyon State Park.
The fire burned over 13,600 acres, including a section Utah recently acquired for nearly $20 million.
Wildlife biologists still unsure how the fire impacts deer, elk and grouse habitats in the area.

MORGAN — A large wildfire that sparked in the Wasatch Back on Friday has ripped through most of a vital big game winter range and habitat for a declining bird species, including areas the state recently acquired.

However, Utah wildlife biologists say they still don't know the full impact of the Rocky Canyon Fire on the East Canyon Wildlife Management Area.

The fire reached most of the 6,200-acre protected area between Morgan and Summit counties, but biologists have yet to conduct an analysis of the burn area, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials told KSL.

The area is known for providing "critical winter range" for mostly deer and elk, but is also an important breeding ground and habitat for the sage, dusky and ruffed grouse.

"It's too early to know the full impacts until we see the burn intensity and see how much vegetation is left, said Faith Heaton Jolley, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "The burn encompassed crucial winter range and sage grouse lek and sage grouse habitat."

The Rocky Canyon Fire has burned more than 13,600 acres since sparking from an undetermined human cause.

Several homes and East Canyon State Park area are among the sections of the fire that are now contained, Sierra Hellstrom, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service and Northern Utah Type 3 Incident Management Team, said on Tuesday.

State fire maps show that the fire burned through a section of land that the Utah Department of Natural Resources acquired for nearly $20 million in 2024. The state purchased the 2,500-acre property to drastically increase the size of the wildlife management area and expand East Canyon State Park.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources maintains over 130 management areas that total more than 620,000 acres across the state. They're meant to provide important habitat and winter ranges for all kinds of wildlife.

Division officials have yet to determine changes to East Canyon hunting permits after allocating 1,900 general buck permits this year. The division ran into a similar challenge last year, issuing emergency options to central Utah hunters when the Monroe Mountain Fire tore through another key big game area.

Utah's Henefer-Echo Wildlife Management Area has been unaffected, even as Rocky Canyon Fire has inched closer to both communities, but East Canyon also isn't the only management area that has been damaged this year.

The Widemouth 2 Fire in central, the state's biggest fire this year, has consumed at least some parts of a bigger management area in Fillmore, said Alison Whitaker, habitat conservation coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. A fire also burned over 300 acres within the Middle Fork Wildlife Management Area in June.

This year has also burned a record number of acres within woodland and forest areas, University of Utah researchers determined earlier this month.

That has near-term impacts on wildlife, but ultimately can become beneficial in the long-term, Whitaker explained. While crews are racing to battle the flames, she and other state and federal habitat officials are quickly planning how to rehabilitate the hundreds of thousands of acres that have burned this year.

This story will be updated.

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